Corporate narrative?
OPINION: Forget about the fabled 'rural-urban' divide, the real fault-line in farming might actually be the divide between grass-roots farmers and the industry corporates who claim to be 'speaking on behalf of farmers'.
What were they thinking and how can they justify such cruelty to helpless animals? No excuse, no apology is good enough and the individuals and their companies need to take a long, close look at themselves.
It is terrible to mistreat animals, and equally bad that these individuals have damaged the reputation of New Zealand. Is this tantamount to treason? The industry does not need these people, be they farmers, transporters or whatever and they should be fast-tracked out.
They have sullied an industry that earns about $14 billion dollars a year and provides the lifeblood of the NZ economy. How dare they damage this? By far the greatest number of farmers – be they dairy or whatever – care for their animals and so they should. There is enough information out there to tell them why and what to do.
This dopey criminal action feeds the PR machine of the animal rights activists who leap with glee at this situation. They in turn add fuel to the fire by creating mischief within NZ and overseas. We saw on television one nutter saying farmers are "taking babies away from their mothers" and that people should boycott milk. If he had any respect for the facts, the words calves should replace babies and cows' mothers, but what might you expect.
There are plenty of people out there waiting to pillory the dairy industry. Fish and Game's 'dirty dairying' is a good example. Outrageous publicity is the lifeblood of many NGOs and this latest saga is a transfusion from heaven.
It was great to see Andrew Hoggard of Fed Farmers front up so promptly and professionally on Radio New Zealand's Morning Report on the Monday after the TV programme. He defused the situation with smart responses and it was a pity MPI wasn't so quick off the mark.
This episode highlights the fragility of our primary-industry economy and the need for everyone to stand as one and not break ranks and do dumb criminal things.
Technically farmers are at the front line but all those in the supply chain are a part of the game and no-one can afford to slip up.
