farming Archive

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  Reports a reminder of need for action on freshwater - by frog

  
  
  
  Two important studies revealing the state of our freshwater came out last week, and the news is disappointing. The first comes from NIWA, and updates water quality trends at the 77 National River Water Quality Network sites, which have been monitored over the last 20 years. The study confirmed that waterways flowing through farmland have [...] read more
  June 25, 2009 3:40 pm - 5 Comments
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  Where there’s a Will there’s a Way - by frog

  
  
  
  Russel Norman recently submitted to many Councils’ LTCCPs through the country on the importance of planning to restore our waterways to health. Other MPs and Greens ably presented his submission at hearings around the country that he couldn’t make. Jeanette pushed for retention of the Clean Streams funding for riparian planting and fencing in the [...] read more
  June 18, 2009 9:37 am - 1 Comment
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  100% Pure ‘Clean Green’ GE llamas? Um, no. - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Just over a week ago, the High Court ruled that ERMA breached the law in accepting applications from AgResearch to import and experiment on a range of genetically modified animals. I described the application at the time it was lodged as: A huge application to genetically engineer a wide range of animals, plus human and [...] read more
  June 17, 2009 9:21 am - 4 Comments
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  A bouquet to the Bay - by frog

  
  
  
  Hawke’s Bay has come up with a solution to one of the main sources of pollution in the scenic and popular Tukituki River. Two months ago I highlighted some photos of Tukituki algae blooms on the Baybuzz blog, noting that: The slime is associated with low flows due to over-allocation of the water during summer drought flows, [...] read more
  June 16, 2009 7:36 pm - 7 Comments
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  The summer of ’69 is still with us - by frog

  
  
  
  1969 – the year the PLO appointed Yasser Arafat leader; Vietnam protests were raging; Yoko and John were bedding-in again; Apollo 11 lands on the moon; Woodstock opened; the Beatles released Abbey Road; two computers were first networked; and capital punishment was abolished in the UK. The same year, an article by G R Fish* [...] read more
  May 22, 2009 3:14 pm - 12 Comments
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  Crapfarms – how many times? - by frog

  
  
  
  So, dairy farming company CraFarms has been charged yet again for alleged dirty dairying on a farm near Hamilton. They were in court yesterday in Te Awamutu, prosecuted by Environment Waikato. Their defence: “the farm’s effluent system had difficulties managing the herd size.” Imagine if Air NZ said, “sorry the landing gear collapsed due to [...] read more
  May 21, 2009 8:00 pm - 6 Comments
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  What does the Act say? - by frog

  
  
  
  The Sunday expose on intensive pig farming has pushed the shadowy world of indoor pig farming firmly into the spotlight. TVNZ’s Close-up this evening pitted Mike King (and Safe‘s Hans Kreik) off against Chris Trengrove, the Chair of the Pork Board, resulting in a commitment to random visits of other pig farms to see if [...] read more
  May 18, 2009 8:57 pm - 125 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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  Greens don suits, and gumboots - by frog

  
  
  
  Today the Green Co-leaders launched our Green New Deal stimulus package to “to save the economy and the environment at the same time”. Launching it, Jeanette said: We’re engaging on economic issues on a new scale. The Greens’ package is costed with the best available published figures, and clearly specifies the benefits of each initiative [...] read more
  May 15, 2009 3:05 pm - 12 Comments
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  One more down, a few thou to go - by frog

  
  
  
  ERMA today followed the EU, US and Canada and revoked approvals for the herbicide methylarsinic acid (MSMA) in New Zealand. read more
  May 14, 2009 8:16 pm - 10 Comments
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  Greens riskily agree with the Feds - by frog

  
  
  
  Federated Farmers’ press release just now – Move over shark wranglers, farming’s far riskier – is something the Greens can agree with. Farm related fatalities  have grown over the past five years to 20 and that is too many. The Feds also acknowledge the economic loss of farm accidents, citing “ACC statistics show that a [...] read more
  May 13, 2009 2:00 pm - 1 Comment
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  Nice words, but where’s the action? - by frog

  
  
  
  The release of a Strategy for New Zealand Dairy Farming slipped quietly under the public’s radar this week, with few media picking it up. At the Strategy launch, the PM and Ag Minister David Carter mooed in the direction of the environment: the PM said, “It is important that farmers step up and take leadership [...] read more
  May 9, 2009 8:05 pm - 6 Comments
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  Farming and the ETS – the latest from the select committee - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Yesterday we heard all the farming related submissions. Federated Farmers continued to be the most extreme – agriculture should be entirely left out of the ETS because food production is important. But in NZ methane and nitrous oxide from farming are the large half (51%) of our emissions. Leaving them out means taxpayers fork out a hefty subsidy to farming, or other energy users pay twice as much as they otherwise would. read more
  May 6, 2009 7:30 am - 112 Comments
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  Powering our farms with sunshine not oil - by frog

  
  
  
  Graham Harvey, the author of The Carbon Fields, has a good opinion piece here, where he talks about our lack of food security: Our food supply is now more dependent on globally traded grains than at any time in our history. This makes it inherently unstable and vulnerable to the kind of catastrophic meltdown that [...] read more
  November 5, 2008 3:06 pm - 15 Comments
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  Peak phosphate - by frog

  
  
  
  I followed the link to Farmgeek’s blog this afternoon and came across this fascinating post on phosphate asking if we have time to mitigate before we run out. It’s a month old now but incredibly important to our food security: Graphic from The Oil Drum NZ currently uses about a million tonnes of phosphate fertiliser [...] read more
  October 30, 2008 4:42 pm - 8 Comments
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  Selwyn-Waimakariri sucked dry - by frog

  
  
  
  Astonishingly a resource consent panel has just granted 41 new consents to take ground-water for irrigation from the Selwyn-Waimakariri river zone. This decision was made against the recommendations of the Canterbury Regional Council. The Council has classified the Selwyn Waimakariri zone as a Red Zone meaning based on the rivers’ ability to refill themselves that [...] read more
  October 21, 2008 1:43 pm - 6 Comments
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  Greenpeace lays out the election issue - by frog

  
  
  
  It was guiltily good to read Bunny McDiarmid’s Greenpeace analysis of the Emissions Trading Scheme because it seems she and her colleagues have been struggling with exactly the same issues that the Green Party faced when deciding whether to vote for the legislation or not.  With the bill now law there’s a big risk that [...] read more
  September 16, 2008 12:34 pm - 8 Comments
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  Rats - by frog

  
  
  
  The international food crisis is having strange effects.  For instance: PHNOM PENH (Reuters) – The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday. Things could have been worse, as Freakonomics notes, rats have been fleeing to higher [...] read more
  September 2, 2008 11:09 am - 6 Comments
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  Emissions trading scheme – credits, biodiversity and agriculture - by frog

  
  
  
  Jeanette gave her second reading speech on the Emissions Trading Scheme last week and it’s worth pulling out a few quotes to discuss some of the technical details.  First let’s look at one of the changes the Greens made to the free credit allocations for trade exposed industries: In a further amendment, the Minister must [...] read more
  September 2, 2008 8:34 am - 11 Comments
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  A week of g.blog - by frog

  
  
  
  g.blog was busy over the weekend with Ari joining to report on an innovative new solar glass technology that concentrates different colours of light into a focused border around the edge of the glass: …part of what makes solar power so expensive is that the light that we collect for it is very unfocused, and [...] read more
  August 18, 2008 11:06 am - 10 Comments