Ministry for the Environment to sponsor Ballance Farm Environment Award
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
OPINION: The old saying ‘Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die’ seems to apply to the wailing coming from public service entities facing cuts under the new Government’s belt tightening.
Having enjoyed massive growth within their little empires over the previous six years, ministerial bosses are working hard to avoid any cutbacks, arguing that, while savings are important, they’re so special that they should be exempt.
The Hound notes, for example, the PSA claims a 30% cull at the Ministry for Environment will ‘jeopardise work on combating climate change’.
Unless the MfE staffers being cut were on the cusp of convincing China and India to stop burning coal, it seems unlikely their absence will affect global change one iota.
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.

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OPINION: If farmers poured just a few litres of some pollutant into a stream, the Green Party and the wider…