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Toby Williams
In a surprise move, Federated Farmers meat and wool group has dumped its chair Toby Williams.
The Gisborne farmer lost the chairmanship to Marlborough provincial vice president Richard Dawkins during the council annual meeting in Christchurch this afternoon. Dawkins had a mounted a challenge.
Williams had chaired the group since November 2002. Normally, Feds executives serve a minimum of three years in a role.
He was leading the Feds’ ‘Save our Sheep’ campaign, calling for urgent action to halt the collapse of New Zealand’s sheep industry. The campaign claimed that each year the sector is losing tens of thousands of hectares of productive farmland - where sheep and lambs once grazed, pine trees are taking their place.
Williams also loses his seat as a board member – three of the Feds’ six group chairs are elected to serve on the board. Three board members will be chosen at Feds’ annual meeting in Christchurch tomorrow morning.
Willaim’s dumping means there will be two new board members on the national executive. Federated Farmers dairy chair and national board member Richard McIntyre stepped down after serving three years in the role.
North Canterbury provincial president Karl Dean is the new national dairy chair. He was elected unopposed after Waikato president Phil Sherwood withdraw his nomination at the last minute.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
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Federated Farmers says the final report into banking competition is a significant step forward for rural New Zealand - and a vindication of the farming sector's concern.
Alliance Group's proposal to sell a 65% shareholding to Ireland's Dawn Meats won't solve the red meat industry's structural problems, says former Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams.
The Government is being warned that some recent bad policy decisions are undermining its target of doubling exports by 2030.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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