OPINION: Recent media commentary from Southland Federated Farmers has raised concerns among our rural communities, particularly around Environment Southland’s approach to winter grazing inspections and nitrogen reporting. But let’s be clear, much of what’s been said simply doesn’t reflect reality.

OPINION: Environment Canterbury's (ECan) decision recently to declare a so-called “nitrate emergency” is laughable.

OPINION: As an on-farm judge for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards for many years, I’ve witnessed first-hand how dramatically New Zealand agriculture and horticulture has transformed over the past three decades.

OPINION: It's hard to comprehend the ignorance and stupidity of the so-called leaders in the Ministry of Education who for some incomprehensible reason seemed hell bent on perpetuating the myth that agriculture is just for ‘dummies’.

OPINION: The first question is how much nitrate is there in the Canterbury water and are we expecting multiple deaths with hospitals overwhelmed every day? Unlikely.

OPINION: As CEO of the Dairy Board in the 1980s I was fortunate to work with a team of experienced and capable executives who made most of the brand investments that created the international consumer business Fonterra inherited. Soprole in Chile was the largest, but there were more than 20 countries where consumer marketing companies were established and Anchor and other brands were successfully launched.

OPINION: Should cows in NZ be microchipped?

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the cogs of Cabinet.

OPINION: Fonterra's sale of its consumer dairy business to Lactalis is a clear sign of the co-operative’s failure to compete in the branded consumer market.

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.