dairy Archive

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  Jeanette on Close Up - by frog

  
  
  
  Close Up also featured Jeanette last night asking Fonterra to consider making a gesture to New Zealanders who are feeling the pain of rising food prices by selling its domestic milk at a reasonable margin but not a price related to the international market price.  Fonterra termed this a  subsidy and resisted the concept but [...] read more
  June 12, 2008 9:43 am - 48 Comments
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  Organic milk is healthier - by frog

  
  
  
  Well, milk is the Green topic of the moment, so it’s interesting to see that this British study showing that organic milk is healthier than conventional milk. Apparently: The study showed organic (summertime) milk had 67 percent higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants, and 60 percent more conjugated linoleic acids than regular milk. It also [...] read more
  June 4, 2008 10:24 pm - 18 Comments
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  Greens looking forward to after the election - by frog

  
  
  
  Vernon Small, uses his column in the Dominion Post today to argue that the Greens have no where to go when they get down to negotiations after the election. He notes that the political climate while volatile, looks better for the Greens than last election. So, on balance, the Greens can look forward to a [...] read more
  June 2, 2008 5:07 pm - 78 Comments
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  A challenge to Fonterra - by frog

  
  
  
  Shortly after Jeanette gave this speech on Saturday, the Herald reported: Dairy giant Fonterra last night backed away from further price hikes after Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons challenged it to make its products affordable for New Zealanders. read more
  June 2, 2008 4:39 pm - 36 Comments
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  Sue Kedgley on Peak Food - by frog

  
  
  
  Sue Kedgley spoke at the Farmers Market Biennial Conference yesterday on Peak Food: We are in danger of becoming a cash crop nation –producing dairy and to a lesser extent meat for export –while other sectors are being eroded by cheap imports. We import 2.8 million tonnes of food each year — bananas from Equador, [...] read more
  May 31, 2008 7:38 am - 39 Comments
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  Russian milk, Kiwi cows - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday New Zealand First’s Doug Woolerton took an opportunity to ask the Minister of Finance about Russian company Nutritek being allowed to create New Zealand’s first totally foreign-owned dairy producer and whether the Overseas Investment Act should have stepped in to do something about this takeover.  Foreign investment generally and the Overseas Investment Act in [...] read more
  May 29, 2008 9:58 am - 11 Comments
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  Fonterra has more money for industrial dairy - by frog

  
  
  
  Was it really only one month ago that we were falling off our chairs over the fact that Fonterra was forecast to pay dairy farmers $7.30 for a kilo of milk solids?  That gave the average farm $850,000 of income.  Well, records are made to be broken, so today Fonterra is hinting the payment could [...] read more
  May 27, 2008 3:27 pm - 12 Comments
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  A one cow economy - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  May 13, 2008 9:54 am - 24 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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  Industrial dairy’s big payout - by frog

  
  
  
  While it is good to see some of our farmers doing well I do have to wonder what Fonterra’s record payout for dairy farmers ($7.30 per kilogram of milk solids, up from $4.46/kg last year) will do to further encourage dairy conversions. New Zealand is currently rapidly converting diverse farms and forests into a monolith [...] read more
  April 11, 2008 3:04 pm - 22 Comments
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  Tahorakuri Forest: from carbon sink to industrial dairy - by frog

  
  
  
  This stunning photo that Greenpeace released today shows Tahorakuri Forest near Taupo being rapidly converted into industrial dairy farms.  The organisation doing this damage is  the government-owned company Landcorp: Greenpeace points out that up to 455,000 hectares of forestry land is at risk of being deforested and converted into industrial farms – the majority for [...] read more
  April 8, 2008 5:30 pm - 9 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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  Greenpeace, climate change and agriculture - by frog

  
  
  
  One of things that most strongly differentiates the Green Party’s holistic approach to dealing with climate change from other parties is that it does not have a blind spot on the issue of agriculture [pdf].Greenpeace, in it’s survey of political parties policies on climate change, asked all parties whether the farming sector or taxpayers should [...] read more
  March 31, 2008 12:02 pm - 13 Comments
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  Agriculture Ministry fingered for pulling controversial chapter - by frog

  
  
  
  No Right Turn has unleashed the Official Information Act on the Ministry for the Environment to find out more about the controversially omitted Chapter 13 of the Environment 2007 Report.  No Right Turn’s conclusion; it was the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that objected to the chapter. Apparently it as unhappy at the way farming [...] read more
  March 14, 2008 7:44 pm - 2 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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  Cheese prices up 59.9% - by frog

  
  
  
  Food prices continue to rise according to Statistics New Zealand, 5.2% in the year to February.  Grocery food prices led that charge, increasing 9.0%. Within that the most significant upward contributions came from higher prices for fresh milk (up 20.9%), cheese (up 59.9%) and butter (up 91.2%). Oils and fats rose 29.4%.  There were also significant rises in bread, cereals, coffee, [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 1:48 pm - 16 Comments
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  Independent science - by frog

  
  
  
  Isn’t it ironic that the primary sector, which has already received a massive tax payer subsidy due to its exclusion from the Emissions Trading Scheme, should now be getting a second batch of $700 million dollars sent the same way. Whether this is a wise investment or not is going to depend on whether we [...] read more
  March 12, 2008 9:00 am - 9 Comments
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  It’s time to start living here as if we plan to stay - by frog

  
  
  
  Taranaki streams are struggling under the burden of dairy effluent according to the Daily News, with twice as many cases of non-compliance as last year.  However Taranaki is not the worst province in the country: In October last year, Environment Canterbury released a report on its monitoring of resource consent compliance that found 17.7 per [...] read more
  March 11, 2008 1:19 pm - 22 Comments
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  It ain’t pretty, it’s shitty! - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  There are a lot of farmers doing the right thing fencing off streams and planting the margins. But there is still a long way to go. This vid was shot in the northern Wairarapa: read more
  February 29, 2008 2:29 pm - 6 Comments