Editorial: Sense at last
OPINION: For the first time in many years, a commonsense approach is emerging to balance environmental issues with the need for the nation's primary producers to be able to operate effectively.
Industry body DairyNZ is strongly supporting the Government's move towards comprehensive environment reporting, saying that credible and consistent information is essential for the country.
"We support the Government's move to introduce an Environmental Reporting Bill that mandates the provision of comprehensive environmental information for New Zealanders," says DairyNZ's strategy and investment leader for sustainability, Dr Rick Pridmore.
"This will give us the potential for greater consistency in environmental monitoring across New Zealand. For too long, inconsistency has prevented us from getting a shared understanding on the state of our environment.
"As councils work with communities on setting limits for freshwater quality and quantity around the country to meet the requirements of the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management, we are going to need credible environmental information. It will be essential for us to understand where we are already doing well, and where we need to focus our efforts.
"Science has significant potential to improve the efficiency of decision-making processes. By starting from a clear, science-based definition of the problem we need to solve, we can all put more energy into working together to develop solutions."
DairyNZ submitted in support of the changes under the 2012 Resource Management Reform Bill that will enable the regulation of environmental reporting.
"We have supported the involvement of the Government Statistician and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in this robust reporting regime. Having this level of independent oversight will strengthen the reliability and accessibility of the data, as well as allaying any fears of political interference," he says.
Holstein Friesian excellence was front and centre at the 2025 Holstein Friesian NZ (HFNZ) Awards, held recently in Invercargill.
The work Fonterra has done with Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd, LIC and Ravensdown to save farmers time through better data connections has been recognised with a national award.
This past week has seen another round of negotiations between India and New Zealand to produce a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Cautiously optimistic is how DairyNZ's regional manager for the lower North Island, Mark Laurence describes the mood of farmers in his patch.
The Infrastructure Commission has endorsed a plan by Chorus to expand fibre broadband to 95% of New Zealand much to the delight of rural women.
Questions are being raised about just how good the state of the dairy industry is - especially given that the average farmgate payout for the coming season is set to exceed $10/kgMS.
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