Team effort to move mountain of waste plastic
Farm plastics recycler Plasback is helping an Ashburton business solve a daunting problem - cleaning up a massive stockpile of waste plastic.
A PROTEST march in Ashburton, April 21, against stubble burning failed to gain much support, with the local paper reporting attendance of “about 30”.
The march followed several weeks of letters and an editorial in the Ashburton Guardian on the practice. Organiser Vince Leonard was said to be “gutted” by the low showing. “It was an opportunity wasted but I told the people who were there that they had balls to put up with the way we were sworn at and abused,” he said, after the march and subsequent meeting turned ugly.
Federated Farmers Grain’s Mid Canterbury chairman David Clark told Rural News he didn’t attend the march or meeting, but the event highlights why cropping farmers need to use best practice when burning, and regard it as a privilege, not a right.
“I’ve spoken at length with the organisers of this protest and I am quite happy to front at any public meeting as long as there is some formality to it, with an appropriate chair.
“Everybody has a right to protest but farmers’ concerns are not going to be best served by engaging in a slanging match in the main street of Ashburton.”
The late, cool harvest concentrated the burning season into a handful of days this year, in not always ideal conditions, generating more smoke than normal.
Agronomically burning is a valuable tool and without it more agrichemical, nitrogen fertiliser and diesel would be used, he points out.
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An educational programme, set up by Beef + Land New Zealand, to connect farmers virtually with primary and intermediate school students has reported the successful completion of its second year.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed a resolution adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to declare 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Waikato herd health veterinarian Katrina Roberts is the 2024 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
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