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OPINION: According to news reports, possibly the world’s biggest nerd – Microsoft founder Bill Gates – now owns the most farmland of anyone in the United States.
The tech mogul, who let’s face it, would have been mercilessly bullied at school, and the fourth richest person in the world with a net worth of US$121 billion, has built up a massive agriculture portfolio across the US.
He owns 108,853 hectares of land in Washington, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.
His largest holdings include 27,952 hectares in Louisiana. Your old mate suggests, going by this, the old saying that “the meek shall inherit the earth” should have instead been “the geeks shall inherit the earth”!
OPINION: In a memo, rich guy Bill Gates didn't become a climate change denier, but he did give the world a dose of common sense, saying we should redirect efforts away from the campaign to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and instead focus on other ways to improve human lives and reduce suffering.
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.
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."
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.
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.
OPINION: The latest reforms of local government should come as no surprise.
The avocado industry is facing an extremely challenging season with all parts of the supply chain, especially growers, being warned to prepare for any eventuality.
Rural recycling scheme Agrecovery is welcoming the Government's approval of regulations for a nationwide rural recycling scheme for agrichemicals and farm plastics.
Despite a late and unfavourable start, this year’s strawberry crop is expected to be bountiful for producer and consumer alike.
Nearly three years on from Cyclone Gabrielle, Hawke's Bay apple orchardist Paul Paynter says they are still doing remedial work around their orchards and facing financial challenges.
An unusual participant at the recent Royal A&P Show in Christchurch was a stand promoting a variety of European products, during an event that normally champions the homegrown.
OPINION: This old mutt thinks New Zealand should take a bow after winning the ‘Fossil of the Day’ award at COP30…
OPINION: The Hound reckons the argument run by the ‘agribusiness elite’ that the market will punish our exports if we don’t…
