NZ's handbrake
OPINION: Your old mate gets the sinking feeling that no matter who we vote into power in the hope they will reverse the terminal slide the country is in, there will always be a cohort of naysayers determined to hold us back.
OPINION: The Hound would be a rich canine if he got a dollar for every time he's heard multi-national, fundraising organisation Greenpeace claim the answer to NZ's climate change challenge is to ban synthetic fertiliser.
However, according to the latest figures of NZ's greenhouse gas inventory, published in April this year, banning synthetic fertiliser won't make much difference.
It shows that while ag emissions make up 50% of the country's GHGs, nitrous oxide from synthetic fertilisers only makes up 4% of these ag emissions and therefore just 2% of NZ's total GHG emissions.
So, banning synthetic fertilisers in NZ would make a negligible reduction in our country's GHG output.
Perhaps Greenpeace should spend more time doing the maths on what actually might have made a real difference to our emissions profile than making up silly claims that just don't add up.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.