Editorial: Having a rural voice
OPINION: The past few weeks have been tough on farms across the North Island: floods and storms have caused damage and disruption to families and businesses.
This old mutt was taken aback by a vitriolic opinion piece penned in a weakly (sic) rural publication late last year by a self-important commentator named Craig Wiggins.
In the piece, Wiggins slammed Fed Farmers for what he claimed was the organisation’s lack of activity in relation to the M.bovis outbreak and accused the national farming lobby of not supporting farmers affected by the disease – especially in the Mid Canterbury region. This attack surprised your old mate, and a little sniffing around by yours truly discovered that Wiggins was once employed by Young Farmers. But he lost his role when former YFC chief executive and current Feds boss Terry Copeland ‘let him go’. Perhaps Wiggins’ anti-Feds stance is a bit of utu on his former boss.
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