Greenpeace should lose charitable status - Feds
Federated Farmers is arguing for controversial environmentalist group Greenpeace to be stripped of its charitable status.
Feds dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard is hearing two different outlooks for the sector in the next two years – one gloomy, one optimistic.
He takes the middle ground, believing farmers are looking at a couple more tough years and perhaps some improvement in prices.
But it won't be peaches, he told the conference. "People will have to keep an eye on their budgets to protect their cash; and the key thing is to learn lessons about debt levels and what we pay for land.
"We talked about all this in 2008. Yes, everyone is supportive in these tight times, but this will happen again so we need to remember what happened this time and take lessons from it."
The risk remains that when times get good, people revert to their old habits, Hoggard says.
Some Kiwis show they know little about the farming sector, emailing him to ask why he supports that "foreign company" Fonterra.
"I would hate to see what survey results would show if Joe Public in Wellington or Auckland were asked who owns Fonterra. I hear people saying Fonterra is stealing all the profits and ripping off farmers."
Hoggard hears of people who think Fonterra sells its milkpowder cheaply overseas, not understanding that some is high value ingredients. Though he'd like to see Fonterra doing a lot more, on balance he believes they do a great job.
Two butcheries have claimed victory at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards for 2025.
A Taupiri farming company has been convicted and fined $52,500 in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of dairy effluent into the environment.
The Climate Change Commission’s 2025 emissions reduction monitoring report reveals steady progress on the reduction of New Zealand’s climate pollution.
Another milestone has been reached in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis with the compensation assistance service being wound up after helping more than 1300 farmers.
The Government’s directive for state farmer Landcorp Farming (trading as Pamu) to lifts its performance is yielding results.
The move to bring bovine TB testing in-house at Ospri officially started this month, as a team of 37 skilled and experienced technicians begin work with the disease eradication agency.
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