OPINION: Clearly the Minister of Agriculture believes the honey industry is in a bad state when he refers to it at the Agcarm conference (Rural News, August 21) as being the “wild west of the primary sector”. 

OPINION: Something important has been missing from the discussion of the role and responsibilities of the trustees of New Zealand’s 450,000 or so family trusts.

The Hound is shocked and dismayed at the support by certain political figures for the draconian and totally unnecessary NAIT ‘search and surveillance’ regulations rushed into law by the Coalition Government.

Your old mate was disappointed, but not surprised, recently when the chardonnay socialists at RNZ teamed up with the wacky animal activist group SAFE to try to do a hit-job on the Five Star Beef Ltd feedlot near Ashburton.

A mate of your canine crusader, who keeps bees and was around when the varroa mite invaded Kiwi beehives nearly 20 years ago, reckons the parallels with the M. bovis incursion are hard to ignore.

This old mutt reckons the old saying ‘lies, damn lies and statistics’ should be amended to ‘lies, damn lies and Greenpeace claims’ because the multinational, tax-dodging political activists been caught telling porkies again.

Farmer groups, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ are in damage control.

OPINION: Getting used to the increased costs in producing the food society needs, wants and desires is simply part of farming; absent are the increased returns to cover the costs. 

This month, Fonterra marks the one-year anniversary of TIAKI – our sustainable dairying programme that helps farmers make their operations more environmentally compliant. 

Farmers are unhappy and confused with the NAIT changes rushed through Parliament into law.