Wednesday, 24 January 2018 07:42

Impatient with cancer

Written by Rural News Group

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An English businessman who criticised New Zealand’s dirty rivers has been invited to come here for a swim.

Dairy NZ wants Sir Tim Smit, an environmentalist, to visit for a dip in a river because he said last month at a London conference that NZ is like “a beautiful person with cancer”.

Sir Tim co-founded The Eden Project, an eco-tourism and educational charity that opened in Cornwall in 2000.

He told the Country Land & Business Association’s ‘Redefining Farming’ conference the NZ brand is so pure the people of Christchurch won’t swim in the River Avon.

“It is like a beautiful person with cancer. Why? Because there was no strategy except to satisfy consumers in China with dairy product, which is ironic for a lactose intolerant people.”

DairyNZ strategy leader Bruce Thorrold says it is “extremely disappointed” at the comments.

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