Misguided campaign
OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.
The multi-national environmental activist group Greenpeace is again targeting the New Zealand farming sector, this time calling for a ban on the use of nitrogen fertilisers.
The group has spent the last few years blaming the agricultural sector for polluting the country’s waterways and rivers, campaigning against irrigation and criticising agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Now in its sights are the two farmer-owned fertiliser co-operatives Ravensdown and Ballance, which Greenpeace claims sell 98% of all fertiliser used in NZ.
“Chemical nitrogen fertiliser is the fuel that drives industrial dairying,” claims Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop. “It is spread onto NZ’s dairy farms in ever-increasing amounts to grow more and more grass for too many cows.”
Toop says the use of nitrogen fertiliser has increased seven-fold since 1990.
“Chemical nitrogen fertiliser is a double-whammy for the climate and our rivers. It increases the number of cows, which increases greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of rivers. On top of that it directly emits nitrous oxide and leaches nitrate into waterways.”
Toop and Greenpeace accuse Ravensdown and Ballance of “profiting off environmental destruction”.
“It’s time the Government reigned them in and banned chemical nitrogen fertiliser.”
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
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