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OPINION: Rural communities should take their advice from health professionals, not Greenpeace, says Federated Farmers.
The farmer lobby’s comments came as Greenpeace offers free drop-in water testing in Taranaki and Waikato. Greenpeace claims that there’s “a very real chance that nitrate contamination of drinking water in many rural areas impacted by intensive dairy is linked to cancer at lower levels than previously thought”.
Feds acknowledge that high levels of nitrates in water can cause harm, but they pull up Greenpeace on their scaremongering. The Ministry of Health has set a maximum acceptable value of 11.3mg/L for nitrate-N or 50mg/L for total nitrate in drinking water – miles above levels found in rural areas. As usual, Greenpeace don’t let facts get in the way of a good story!
Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair, Bevan Lill, said Beef + Lamb NZ data indicated that for the last six years, the average arable return on investment was about 0.8% while inflation ran about 4% - so the average arable farm was going backwards at about 3% a year.
For the first time in a quarter of a century, Federated Farmers has something positive to say about the Labour Party’s climate change policy leading into a general election.
Rural leader Mark Hooper has been appointed as an independent director to the NZPork board, bringing extensive farming, governance and advocacy experience to the role.
OPINION: Being a stock manager of a Government MP's farm can come in handy.
OPINION: Groundswell's opinion of the incumbent farm industry representatives isn't high.
New Zealand's citrus growers were challenged to build their future on the value embedded in their fruit rather than the volume they produce, at Citrus New Zealand's annual gathering in Gisborne on 17 September.
Leading John Deere technicians and apprentices from New Zealand and Australians were recognised at the recent sixth annual JD Technician of the Year Awards, held in Brisbane.
In Dacre, near Invercargill in New Zealand’s South Island, Bruce Dinnington is running a dairy operation unlike any other.
A free online platform aggregating governance vacancies across rural and regional New Zealand has been launched.
Environment Minister Nicola Grigg has announced details of a new rural plastics recycling scheme.
Agricultural drone operators say that a government decision to allow lower-risk drone work without certification won’t lower standards but drive innovation and efficiency.
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.
