Editorial: Agri's mojo is back
OPINION: Good times are coming back for the primary industries. From sentiment expressed at Fieldays to the latest rural confidence survey results, all indicate farmer confidence at a near-record high.
OPINION: "The treaty is our past, present and future. It has shaped the country we have become, and the obligations it imposes on both sides will always be with us. However, we must aspire to go forward not as two sides, but together as New Zealanders because there is more than unites us than divides us."
That short excerpt from Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's full speech at Waitangi last week sums up the overall theme of the speech. And it seemed in tune with the way most Kiwis chose to celebrate Waitangi Day, coming together with friends, family, fellow concert goers, to have a classic Kiwi summer day and celebrate our way to life.
Contrast this with the media coverage of the day, and of the PM's speech: 'Luxon's outrageous speech', 'The spiders are coming - Kelvin David', 'I lift my gun, I let the shots do the talking - Pene Henare'. This negativity was delivered by the media with the usual lecturing and editorialising about how the Government was somehow being 'divisive'.
The evidence for this claim is thin, but the 'divisive' accusation has become a favourite for stoking the division. It won't be lost on people that those in the media hellbent on pushing this 'divisive' line - thereby silencing efforts to debate the Treaty - are the same ones who signed up for the $55m slush fund that required them to swear fealty to a particular view of the Treaty.
Luckily, the real world rarely resembles the view projected by the mainstream media; normal New Zealanders aren't at each other's throats, we're just getting on with it, together, and working to get the country back on its feet.
The challenges we face are real and exist across all sectors, not the least in farming and hort - where, again, the media claims of 'division' don't reflect the reality - where the majority are just getting on with it. Maybe it's time to turn off the 'divisive' news and focus on that.
Newly elected Federated Farmers meat and wool group chair Richard Dawkins says he will continue the great work done his predecessor Toby Williams.
Hosted by ginger dynamo Te Radar, the Fieldays Innovation Award Winners Event put the spotlight on the agricultural industry's most promising ideas.
According to DairyNZ's latest Econ Tracker update, there has been a rise in the forecast breakeven milk price for the 2025/26 season.
Despite the rain and a liberal coating of mud, engines roared, and the 50th Fieldays Tractor Pull Competition drew crowds of spectators across the four days of the annual event.
Nationwide rural wellbeing programme, Farmstrong recently celebrated its tenth birthday at Fieldays with an event attended by ambassador Sam Whitelock, Farmers Mutual Group (FMG), Farmstrong partners, and government Ministers.
Six industry organisations, including DairyNZ and the Dairy Companies Association (DCANZ) have signed an agreement with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to prepare the country for a potential foot and mouth outbreak.
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