Wednesday, 01 May 2024 11:57

Wrongheaded

Written by  Milking It

OPINION: Food security is a sore point in the UK, as a direct result of its National Food Strategy, and there’s a lesson in this for other food producing nations like NZ: government meddling in farming is a very bad idea!

To farm in the UK you need a special barn just to store all the paperwork in.

The Strategy turned the red tape up a notch, rewiring the entire food production system, essentially to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Farmers are paid incentives to take land out of production, reduce livestock numbers and plant non-food carbon-fixing crops.

The result is a massive drop in food production in the UK, driving up food prices and reducing food security.

So it was a relief to hear NZ’s unworkable winter grazing rules have been axed.

More like this

It's all about economics

OPINION: According to media reports, the eye-watering price of butter has prompted Finance Minister Nicola Willis to ask for a 'please explain' from her former employer Fonterra.

Red line on dairy

OPINION: As India negotiates to open its borders to more global products, dairy is proving a sticky issue.

Farmland security

OPINION: Paranoia about foreigners is at an all-time high in the US and attention is now turning to foreign-owned farmland.

Cuddling cows

OPINION: Years of floods and low food prices have driven a dairy farm in England's northeast to stop milking its cows and instead charge visitors to cuddle them.

Featured

New methane targets here to stay?

A drop in methane targets announced by the Government this month has pleased farmers but there are concerns that without cross-party support, the targets would change once a Labour-led Government is voted into office.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Fonterra vote

OPINION: Voting is underway for Fonterra’s divestment proposal, with shareholders deciding whether or not sell its consumer brands business.

Follow the police beat

OPINION: Politicians and Wellington bureaucrats should take a leaf out of the book of Canterbury District Police Commander Superintendent Tony Hill.

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter