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Pamela Storey.
Dairy Women's Network trustee and Waikato dairy farmer Pamela Storey is standing for the Waikato Regional Council.
After many executive and governance roles this is her first venture into politics.
Originally from the United States, Storey accepted a blind date with a Kiwi dairy farmer and migrated here in 1996, entering the dairy industry.
On farm she has mainly been in a support and strategic management role, while pursuing her own career.
Her husband Ian is a fourth generation dairy farmer and they own and operate a 480 cow farm in Te Hoe, north Waikato, farming there since 2001 and merging three farms into one operation.
Their focus is on breeding high BW animals and developing an adaptive approach to farming systems.
Embracing the changing societal expectations of modern farming is the key issue the sector faces, Storey says.
“Maintaining our social licence to farm is imperative to our industry and individual businesses. We must adapt and respond to the demands of our communities and markets.”
We need effective dialogue and engagement on future ways of food production, she says.
She believes in community led change, and has led and participated in such initiatives for 10 years.
“With my many years working in and with organisations on water, soil, air, biodiversity and economic development, the Waikato Regional Council is an ideal place for me to apply my unique mix of skills and experience to local government and our community.”
Storey has a bachelor degree in electrical engineering from Washington State University and more recently an MBA from a UK. She has long worked in energy, renewable generation, energy efficiency and environmental organisations, with 18 years in governance roles.
She has been a board member of Access HomeHealth, Go Eco, Council for Women in Energy and Environmental Leadership, and most recently Primary ITO.
She was a finalist in the 2017 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
The Government is looking at intervening on behalf of Waikato farmers who face new regulations around agricultural land use while Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms are underway.
Federated Farmers is urging the Government to put a halt to Waikato Regional Council's controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1), warning the regulations will impose significant costs, complexity and duplication on thousands of farmers while major national reforms remain unresolved.
South Waikato farmer David Christensen was convicted and fined $56,000 for two unlawful discharges of dairy effluent following a prosecution taken by Waikato Regional Council. The fine was imposed by Judge Melinda Dickey from the Huntly District Court after Christensen plead guilty to two charges under the Resource Management Act.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.
Fonterra has reduced its forecast 2026/27 Farmgate Milk Price.
New Zealand dairy farmers are set to be the first in the world to receive access to a new digital physical milk pricing tool that enables them to fix the price for their physical milk.
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