The politics of climate change
OPINION: The Financial Times, a major international newspaper, featured New Zealand on its front page at the beginning of June. It wasn't for the right reasons.
A new lobby group is calling for an immediate halt to the government’s plans to plant a billon trees, saying it will damage the environment and harm New Zealand’s rural economy.
Mike Butterick, speaking for 50 Shades of Green, told Rural News it wants the government to stop planting trees on good farmland immediately and fully assess the long term effect of the policy.
It also wants the government to halt all Overseas Investment Office (OIO) applications for forestry until an assessment is made.
“The government changed the rules to make it relatively easy for overseas investors to buy up productive farmland and plant it in trees,” he explains
“We are not beating up forestry. It is really the environment being created by the policy settings which we believe... are creating something that wasn’t intended.
“The other worrying thing is the great speed at which this is happening.”
Butterick does not know how many productive farms have already been converted to forestry. However, he says in Wairarapa alone up to 8000ha on seven farms have moved from productive farmland to forest.
Rural News has also been told of at least two farms near Gisborne recently planted in pine trees.
“It doesn’t feel good and it isn’t right,” Butterick said.
He says polices sometimes don’t deliver the intended outcome and in that case policy makers should “stop and go back to the drawing board”.
So it is when pine trees are planted on highly productive farmland, he says.
“You can’t eat wood. Taking those farms out of production will have a devastating effect economically, socially and environmentally on the local community. Instead of revitalising the provinces, tree planting will destroy them.”
Holstein Friesian excellence was front and centre at the 2025 Holstein Friesian NZ (HFNZ) Awards, held recently in Invercargill.
The work Fonterra has done with Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd, LIC and Ravensdown to save farmers time through better data connections has been recognised with a national award.
This past week has seen another round of negotiations between India and New Zealand to produce a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Cautiously optimistic is how DairyNZ's regional manager for the lower North Island, Mark Laurence describes the mood of farmers in his patch.
The Infrastructure Commission has endorsed a plan by Chorus to expand fibre broadband to 95% of New Zealand much to the delight of rural women.
Questions are being raised about just how good the state of the dairy industry is - especially given that the average farmgate payout for the coming season is set to exceed $10/kgMS.
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