farming Archive

  • Julie Anne Genter

    Cycling to Southland — Epilogue - by Julie Anne Genter



    This is how the story ends. Yesterday I took apart my bike and crammed it into the small rental car of a friend attending the festival. We drove back to Dunedin airport, where incredibly helpful people gave us materials to pack up the bike. Upon arrival in Wellington, I unpacked it, put it back together [...] read more
    January 24, 2012 3:37 pm - 22 Comments
  • David Clendon

    Restoring the Kaipara Harbour - by David Clendon



    I was really inspired when taking part in a hui at Puatahi Marae on Sunday, an open day for the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group.  The group’s title is a mouthful, but there is nothing complicated about the vision they share, which is to restore the Kaipara, its mauri, its quality and its ecosystems back to what [...] read more
    April 18, 2011 5:58 pm - 1 Comment
  • Kevin Hague

    Greens promote good farm stories this Farm Day - by Kevin Hague



    Don’t forget to visit our Good Farm Stories website for Farm Day this Sunday. There are great things going on in rural New Zealand with some farmers proving that we can have both a healthy farming sector and a healthy environment. One of the last things Jeanette Fitzsimons did before leaving Parliament was to put [...] read more
    March 26, 2010 3:32 pm - 16 Comments
  • frog

    Farm Weka in order to save them? - by frog



    An enterprising farmer, Roger Beattie, is proposing that he should be allowed to farm Weka (and presumably Kiwi, etc), for sale to be eaten. Apparently “weka [were] delicious, and made chicken look bland and greasy in comparison.” That’s all well and good. Maybe they do taste good and maybe there would be a market for [...] read more
    February 5, 2010 1:00 pm - 51 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    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
  • Jeanette Fitzsimons

    Herd homes vs cubicles like home vs prison - by Jeanette Fitzsimons



    Have you ever felt that after a long day inside a building you just have to get out and feel the sun and breathe some air? I guess not being able to do that is one  of the punishments the prison system imposes on offenders. But even they get an hour or so out in [...] read more
    December 9, 2009 3:35 pm - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Good Farm Stories and the polluted Manawatu - by frog



    As Jeanette previewed yesterday, the Greens’ Good Farm Stories website has been launched today. You can find it here: www.goodfarmstories.org.nz. There’s a wealth of material, so grab a cup of tea and enjoy! read more
    November 26, 2009 12:43 pm - 7 Comments
  • frog

    Think our native forests were safe? Think again. - by frog



    “Agricultural intensification over the past 10 years has led to the highest rate of native vegetation loss since European colonisation.” Landcare Research Annual Report read more
    November 2, 2009 11:29 am - 18 Comments
  • frog

    Love Wild Rivers? Give them your support - by frog



    Cool. Today a new campaign has been launched for one of New Zealand’s most iconic features – our Wild Rivers. It’s great to see diverse groups – tree-huggers, deer-stalkers, bird-watchers, knobbly-kneed trampers, sharp-edged climbers, risky rafters, kool-kat kayakers, and angelic anglers – representing “over 100,000 New Zealanders” and united in seeking to protect wild rivers [...] read more
    October 28, 2009 12:37 pm - 3 Comments
  • Jeanette Fitzsimons

    ETS is sure to spur growth – but what kind? - by Jeanette Fitzsimons



    Now here’s a great idea for economic development. Extract lignite, the lowest quality coal, very wet and of low calorific value. Add copious water pollution, coal seam methane and land disturbance from open cast mining. read more
    October 1, 2009 6:45 am - 20 Comments
  • frog

    Mohaka needs you! - by frog



    The Dompost on Saturday reported that a debate about landuse and water quality is deepening in the Hawkes Bay. The Mohaka River has a Water Conservation Order on it. However its quality is declining. One tributary comes from the volcanic plateau where land has been converted from forests to industrial-sized dairy farms. read more
    September 21, 2009 3:30 pm - 11 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    World Bank Goes Green? - by Catherine Delahunty



    Sometimes something really good happens. The World Bank has withdrawn funding for the palm oil sector including the Wilmar company that supplies [PDF] palm kernel to Fonterra. The World Bank is not satisfied that the palm plantations they loaned to in parts of the developing world met acceptable standards for sustainability. Congratulations to the Forest [...] read more
    September 14, 2009 12:22 pm - 77 Comments
  • frog

    Sober Sunday reading - by frog



    Kim Knight at the Sunday Star Times provides welcome investigative journalism today in a story and major feature on the origin of the massive amount of palm kernel expeller (PKE) that New Zealand imports for supplementary feed on dairy farms. She writes: It looks like Armageddon. It’s just a palm plantation. Palm oil is a [...] read more
    August 23, 2009 10:32 am - 57 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    River-As-Drain No Longer Acceptable, or Exceptional - by Catherine Delahunty



    The Kawerau pulp and paper mill should not be granted consents to pollute the Tarawera River — known locally as “The Black Drain” — for another thirty-five years. I spoke yesterday at the hearings in Whakatane for consents to discharge to air and water from the pulp mill. The pulp mill, owned by companies Carter [...] read more
    August 12, 2009 10:11 am - 14 Comments
  • frog

    Dairy pollution in a protected Wild River - by frog



    The Fishing News reported last year that: The Mohaka River has to be the jewel in the crown of Hawkes Bay trout fisheries, yet the upper reaches of this magnificent river are in decline due mainly to intense dairy farming and the subsequent effluent run-off. One of its tributaries is the Taharua River, into which [...] read more
    August 4, 2009 7:30 am - 14 Comments
  • frog

    Recommended Sunday listening - by frog



    Some great listening and viewing this morning on NZ environmental issues. Podcasts and on-demand TV means those who slept in haven’t missed out – so enjoy. RadioNZ’s Insight doco at 8am was on carbon offsetting. Reporter Ian Telfer narrated a well-rounded look at the benefits and risks inherent in the largely-unregulated voluntary carbon market. Includes [...] read more
    July 26, 2009 12:15 pm - 23 Comments
  • frog

    Feds’ selective hearing deafening - by frog



    Federated Farmers seemed a tad defensive yesterday. Their press release “Environmentalists ‘silence deafening’ on dirty cities” said: Federated Farmers believes the hypocrisy of environmental lobbyists has been revealed by their silence on urban pollution. “Yesterday, farmers learned that raw sewerage and heavy metals are being pumped into Wellington Harbour. But environmentalists like ‘hook and bullet’ [...] read more
    July 24, 2009 12:35 pm - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Wild irony in fish advert - by frog



    This advert is on prominent display at Wellington airport. It’s similar to one I noted last year. The Talley boys’ colourful political views are quite well known, and they are hardly the poster-boys for sustainable wild fishing. For example, this insightful analogy for bottom-trawling – a practice that has caused UK supermarket Waitrose to destock [...] read more
    July 22, 2009 7:00 am - 20 Comments
  • frog

    Feds’ selective with the science on water quality - by frog



    Here’s one that left me speechless with incredulity… Fed Farmers Dairy chairman Lachlan McKenzie addressed the organisation’s AGM  yesterday and made some quite ridiculous and irresponsible comments on the progress that farmers have made in cleaning up waterways. This time last year, Fish and Game New Zealand was calling on the government to regulate production [...] read more
    July 2, 2009 1:35 pm - 9 Comments
  • frog

    NIWA study backs Green New Deal planting & fencing - by frog



    Yesterday, Kevin Hague MP blogged on the voluntary efforts to improve water quality and water-way ecology in the Aorere catchment. And, the Greens continue to promote a Green New Deal stimulus measure to spread fencing and planting across the country, to create jobs and restore waterways at the same time. Today, the National Institute of [...] read more
    June 30, 2009 12:41 pm - No Comments
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