frogblog

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 […]

Is there anyone out there that wants to start manufacturing some of these Magic Wheels in New Zealand?  I think you might have a few pre-sales here on the 8th floor of Bowen House. 
Imagine the traffic jams I could leave in my wake going along Jervois Quay.

Hat tip – Treehugger

Lyndon Hood’s answers to frequently asked questions about the Emissions Trading Scheme is a beaut:
If New Zealand wants to maintain its edge as a clean, green nation, we urgently need to pretend as hard as we can to take decisive action on climate change.
I suspect he was inspired by John Armstrong on Saturday:
The result is […]

Many conservationists feel there is something viscerally wrong with animal circuses.  Why do they call all their elephants ‘Jumbo’ for instance?  On the other hand people also allege that parliament is like a circus - with question time akin to a public viewing of feeding time.  There are certainly the occasional politicians a bit like […]

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 […]

Campbell Live gave a big plug tonight to this new blog/portal The Wire and its daddy, Slam X Hype. The first sign of middle age is when you notice that not a single blogger on the new site is older than you are, and you’re not that old. (really) A few random reads of posts […]

I hadn’t seen this story until an obviously scandalised No Minister drew it to my attention.  Apparently Parliament could be getting flashing green women to replace the green men on pedestrian lights that let us walk across the street at the right time.  I love the picture in the paper (below) - I reckon it […]

Charlie Pederson is advertising in this morning’s Dom Post for a new Chief Executive at Federated Farmers.  I initially thought someone was ‘havin’ a laff’ when I saw that applications were to be submitted to Helen Clark at a 470 phone number (470 are often the first three numbers in a parliamentary precinct phone number).
But […]