Bikinis in cowshed
OPINION: An animal activist organisation is calling for an investigation into the use of dairy cows in sexuallly explicit content posted on social media and adult entertainment subscription site OnlyFans.
The Ministry for Primary Industries will introduce two new mobile biosecurity x-ray machines this summer to help keep fruit fly and other destructive pests out of New Zealand.
The purchase follows MPI's introduction of a new mobile x-ray last year to screen the bags of cruise ship passengers arriving at North Island ports.
"The additional mobile units give MPI greater flexibility to wheel out x-ray screening for fresh fruit and other biosecurity goods across the whole country," says MPI detection technology manager Brett Hickman.
"This year their use won't be restricted to cruise ship passengers. They'll go to where the action is.
'For example, they will provide backup for our fixed biosecurity x-ray units at airports and Auckland’s International Mail Centre.
"We've already used one to scan international mail items while an existing permanent x-ray machine was undergoing repairs."
He also expects to see them used for screening express freight items and if for any reason MPI needed to set up a special biosecurity clearance area.
One of the mobile units is due to head to its base in Tauranga this week. The other two units will be based in Auckland and Dunedin.
"We'll be able to deploy the machines from these bases at short notice to wherever they are required," says Hickman.
MPI currently owns and operates 28 fixed x-ray units for baggage scanning at international airports, military bases and the Auckland International Mail Centre.
Fertiliser co-operative Ballance has written down $88 million - the full value of its Kapuni urea plant in Taranaki - from its balance sheet in the face of a looming gas shortage.
The Government and horticulture sector have unveiled a new roadmap with an aim to double horticulture farmgate returns by 2035.
Canterbury farmers and the Police Association say they are frustrated by proposed cuts to rural policing in the region.
The strain and pressure of weeks of repairing their flood-damaged properties is starting to tell on farmers and orchardists in the Tasman district.
The sale price of Fonterra’s global consumer and associated businesses to the world’s largest dairy company Lactalis has risen to $4.22 billion.
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.
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