frogblog

The folks at Forest and Bird have put together a lovely video of a rafting trip down the Mokihinui River. I commend them and their efforts to save the Mokihinui from destruction.

Should we damn the river and its environs by building a dam? Is building hydro power a reversible decision? I think everyone knows my […]

Here’s a few Friday links. The US Congress has just approved a US$290 billion Farm Bill that gives lucrative subsidies to farmers and cuts international aid programmes.
By diverting subsidies and benefits to powerful agricultural industries such as sugar, dairy, timber and salmon, authors of the bill ensured support from both Republicans and Democrats.
Paul Kredosky […]

It seems some combination of the price falling out of the heroin market and rapidly rising world food prices means that Afghan farmer are converting from poppy growing to wheat. Poor old United States with its multi billion dollar ‘war on drugs’ - all it had to do the whole time was raise the […]

Federated Farmers have just released an interesting report on the share of profit that farmers get from the retail price of food. 
[T]he farm price for wheat in 2008 was 16 percent of the cost of a loaf of bread. Of a 20-slice loaf of bread the farm share accounted for around three slices. In […]

What started off as merely a flawed and highly complex system is getting progressively worse. After weeks of intensive hearings the implications are crystallising and the flaws becoming more apparent. At the same time the Government is engaged in a process of pandering to vested interests and watering down the scheme, notifying the select committee […]

With 400 meat workers from Oringi sheep processing plant near Dannevirke heading off to a meeting today where they might lose their jobs, it looks again like our regions are suffering from the government’s failure to promote a diverse economy.  Dannevirke suffered job losses at the Norsewear clothing plant in which moved off shore last […]

Agaisnt the odds manufacturers are doing some great things in New Zealand.  They often get written off as part of a dying industry but the reality is that manufacturing provides jobs for about 250,000 New Zealanders, and is at the core of our ability to self sufficiently provide for ourselves, give us the type of […]

The NBR reports that the Nats are doing a deal with Labour to scrap the moratorium on new thermal generation in exchange for supporting the ETS through the House. In truth, only a grand coalition could possibly get an ETS through the House. However, I still think that the moratorium, (it’s not a ban, just […]

Here are two quick videos.  First up every Neo-Con’s favourite documentary maker, Michael Moore, suggestis to Larry King that the real danger from peak oil is not its impact on energy but its impact on food production.

Then this one on both food miles and the oil that goes into into growing food. Both videos are […]

The news this morning is reporting that deaths in Burma could be as high as 100,000 people.  Figures like that are incomprehensible. Some how it is easier to internalise the tragedy with images like this one of a Burmese child cleaning up twigs after Cyclone Nargis:

From here in New Zealand there is not much we […]