Saturday, 24 October 2015 09:23

Credibility issues

Written by  The Hound

Your canine crusader suggests that while opponents of the proposed SFF/Shanghai Maling deal may have some genuine points to make, they are hampered by a number of major credibility issues.

For starters, MIE enlisted a former grain and seed merchant as its supposed 'agribusiness expert'. Now call your old mate a mutt, but what does a guy who use to sell feed know about the ins and outs of the international meat industry? Meantime, the farmer proponents of the mysterious last minute deal put up to scuttle the SFF/Shanghai merger must be kidding themselves when they expected people to buy into their proposal when they refused to name either the agribusiness people or the bankers backing it. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

More like this

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Featured

Jack Jordan takes Stihl Timbersports gold for NZ

Going one better than a frustratingly close second place finish at last year's event, the country's top axeman, Jack Jordan of Taumaranui, last weekend won the Stihl Timbersports World Championship individual event in.

Canterbury A&P Show expands with new Wool Zone

Canterbury A&P Association (CAPA) show president Brent Chamberlain says a big development for this year is the Wool Zone, first introduced two years ago as a showplace for everything produced from wool, but now greatly enlarged with its own Wool Marquee and more than 30 trade sites.

National

Machinery & Products

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

'Told you so'

OPINION: Your old mate hears some of the farmers involved in the Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group ten years ago…

BSA BS!

OPINION: The Hound reckons the recent stoush about the old Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) expanding its brief – with no…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter