cows Archive

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  The brand vs battery cows - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  This is how we present our butter to the world: “Only our cows are free to roam all day long. Anchor – the free range butter company”. And this is cubicle factory dairy production – the battery cow. Or this: Cognitive dissonance anyone? read more
  December 9, 2009 7:56 pm - 62 Comments
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  The ETS and Strings theory - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Hi Strings, you raised some really interesting questions in the comment section of this ETS post and I’m sorry I haven’t had time to answer them till now: We can’t “leave agriculture out of Kyoto” – it is already in, for all countries, and all countries have liabilities that include all their emissions above their [...] read more
  May 18, 2009 11:18 am - 18 Comments
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  Animal magnetism - by frog

  
  
  
  I just came across this science blog from Seed magazine on the tendency of sheep and cows to face the same way when grazing. In a new paper, Sabine Begali from the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany spied on aligned herds of cows and deer using satellite images from Google Earth. The images revealed a [...] read more
  August 27, 2008 9:39 am - 15 Comments
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  Industrial dairy could hurt the summer BBQ - by frog

  
  
  
  OK, so barbecued lamb chops are not really my major concern with large scale dairy conversions, but it seems they (dairy conversions) are partly to blame for the ratio of sheep to people falling from 22 sheep for every person in 1982 to 8 to 1 today: Economic Service executive director Rob Davison says the [...] read more
  August 9, 2008 8:57 am - 37 Comments
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  Carbon neutral cows - by frog

  
  
  
  Gareth Renowden’s Hot Topic blog traces the increasingly bizarre claim from climate science deniers (sorry, doubters) that cows are carbon neutral.  He begins noting an organisation called the “Carbon Sense Coalition” (the name says it all) is covering its own earlier pronouncement that that ‘cows are green’ because they store carbon: Methane breaks down to [...] read more
  July 2, 2008 11:14 am - 38 Comments
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  Agriculture MoU (Mooo) - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Today I questioned the Government about its 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the agriculture sector. The Government has claimed in the past that this MOU prevents it from bringing agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) prior to 2013, however, the answers to my questions revealed a different situation altogether: 1. I asked if [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 6:59 pm - 12 Comments
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  Crown cows - by frog

  
  
  
  I realised yesterday that I hadn’t yet highlighted the scandalous part of Russel’s investigations into water yet, so those of you who had not seen his speech or don’t follow rural media, such as the Farmers Weekly, may not be aware that a debate has been raging about the fact that Government’s fingerprints have been [...] read more
  June 12, 2008 9:54 am - 11 Comments
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  China looks to NZ food and farms - by frog

  
  
  
  The head of HSBC, Margaret Leung is in the Herald this morning saying that we can expect lots more Chinese financial interest in New Zealand assets. It is interesting that she particularly singles out food as an area for future investment: “At the moment we are financing quite a bit of meat exports but we [...] read more
  May 6, 2008 8:53 am - 5 Comments
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  Debate at Fed Farmers on palm cake - by frog

  
  
  
  The Herald this morning has Andrew Gillanders, Federated Farmers grains and seeds chairman, criticising the practice of importing palm oil cakes as feed for dairy cows.  Gillander notes that the practice contributes to rainforest destruction and should be stopped: “We are importing a waste product created from the destruction of tropical rainforests.” Mr Gillanders said [...] read more
  May 5, 2008 10:08 am - 6 Comments
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  All I am saying is give peas a chance - by frog

  
  
  
  Check out dothegreenthing.com and it’s six easy steps to helping the planet. This month it is highlighting going easy on the meat: Put down your pork chop, surrender your sausage, and lay off the lamb shanks. This month’s Green Thing is all about going Easy On The Meat. Now, meat may be tasty – in [...] read more
  April 1, 2008 9:30 am - 9 Comments
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  George Naylor on food sovereignty - by frog

  
  
  
  Those of you who have read the Omnivore’s Dilemma may remember George Naylor, the curmudgeonly corn farmer in Iowa who was battling to make a living at the beginning of an out of control food chain. Well, here he is writing about corn: The basic problem with corn and its companion crop, soybeans, is that [...] read more
  March 14, 2008 1:49 pm - 8 Comments
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  Turning oil into cows and back into oil again - by frog

  
  
  
  Normally TreeHugger has some interesting commentary on Green issues, so I was surprised to see a bizarre product endorsement this morning on its blog: Evidently every cow that is slaughtered generates 200 pound of tallow, which were used for frying and making food products until the transfat panic hit. Now Green Earth Technologies is turning [...] read more
  March 5, 2008 1:32 pm - 13 Comments
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  Cornering dairy - by frog

  
  
  
  The news this morning is full of stories about the 3rd major political event for the week – a State of the Environment report to be released at lunchtime today is likely to be highly critical of the impact of our dairy industry on the environment.  Radio New Zealand currently has a Morning Report debate [...] read more
  January 31, 2008 8:46 am - 31 Comments