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Federated Farmers National Conference hits Auckland from Wednesday with a packed programme covering the A to Z of New Zealand pastoral agriculture.
"Federated Farmers is excited to return to New Zealand's largest city," says Federated Farmers Bruce Wills, who has himself, just returned from the World Farmers Organisation General Assembly in Rome.
"The conference will give me a chance to share my experience meeting global agricultural leaders. Our chief executive, Conor English, will no doubt share what he picked up for New Zealand farming from the Rio+20 Earth Summit.
"We have an emphasis in our conference agenda of unlocking potential from dairy, meat and wool.
"Our dairy members will hear from a global expert on cooperatives and this is timely, considering Fonterra's Trading Among Farmers vote will conclude today (Monday, 25 June).
"Naturally, animal welfare and farm environmental management are major items being covered as well.
"In a radical development for 2012, we are holding three interactive couch sessions which will energise both audience and panellists. The topics being covered in these sessions are local government, the environment and foreign ownership. These will be moderated by Country99TV's Genevieve Westcott.
"It would not be a Federated Farmers conference without politicians, so we will be getting briefings from the Minister of Finance, Bill English, and our industry's minister, David Carter, Minister for Primary Industries.
"We are also looking forward to hearing from Opposition Leader, David Shearer, who of course enjoys a pretty good surname from a farmer's point of view.
"One of our highlights takes place on Thursday, 28 June, with the Vodafone National Awards dinner. Kicking off with the Beef+Lamb NZ cocktails, we will be announcing 2012's Allflex Agribusiness Person of the Year and the Ravensdown Agri Personality for 2012.
"Central to this great evening is the Vodafone Creme of the Crop Awards, where we assemble almost all of agriculture's major award winners for the past 12-months. It is a huge undertaking but central to us celebrating agriculture's continued success," Wills says.
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.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
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.
Farmer lobby group Federated Farmers has announced it is supporting a new Member’s Bill which it says could bring clarity to New Zealand farmers and save millions in legal costs.
Federated Farmers says climate protest group Greenpeace is manufacturing outrage and attempting to scare New Zealanders with headlines that have no basis in science.
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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