The ups and downs of 2016 – the year in review
Another year has almost passed us by – again – and it is time for the annual review of 2016 in the primary sector as seen by the Rural News editorial team.
The Hound notes that former Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) member Mark Patterson is now trying to use the same anti-Chinese sentiment the failed group used to oppose the takeover by Yili of Westland Milk.
Patterson these days is a little-known NZ First list MP and he’s employing the same scare tactics that MIE tried and miserably failed to stop the very successful merger of Silver Fern Farms with China-based Shanghai Maling a couple of years ago.
Patterson’s claims that the sale of Westland to Yili risks NZ losing control of its biggest industry – dairy – to overseas ownership is a bit of a stretch when around 85% of the NZ industry is still controlled by the farmer owned-co-op Fonterra!
Federated Farmers has been urged to consider establishing a policy on artificial intelligence (AI).
As the Agri Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) begins the process of winding down, the organisation’s general manager Julia Jones says there’s still a place for its programmes within the industry.
Southland farmers staring down a May deadline to submit freshwater farm plans under current regional plan rules have been given an 18-month reprieve by the Government.
The Meat Industry Association (MIA) has appointed Nick Beeby as chief executive.
Rural Women New Zealand this month submitted on the Draft Mental Health and a Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2036, because a person's postcode should not determine the quality of their mental health support.
Former head of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Peter Chrisp is the new director-general of the Department of Conservation.

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