If the farming sector is the ‘backbone of the economy’ then why is it that we are struggling to stand upright economically at the moment? Is it because agriculture is a economic drain on the rest of NZ. It provides 85% of our export revenue. But contributes just 5% of GDP, 5% of the workforce, and 1-3% of tax revenue – which effectively measures the profit to NZ.
That RNZ tricolon has always been infuriating fluff. In the real world, analysts warn we are heading for a cliff.
Chloe Swarbrick and the Greens are changing the narrative on what tax is for.
In a climate crisis world we should be treating farming as a national strategic asset.How would a wealth transfer tax affect that?
National and their minion parties just announced another massive $400 million R&D subsidy for agricultural greenhouse gases by taxpayers for the low profit industry of pastoral farming. This joins the other large and hidden subsidies levied on tax and rate payers to support rural and state roads capable of sustained heavy agricultural and forestry trucks.
Fonterra is a complete construct of the New Zealand state, but it is pulling our entire country down.
What is really going on in the minds of
It is almost as if the environment was really cruel to senior members of the Government when they were kids. But whatever the reason this Government appears to be intent on wrecking the local environment with a degree of vengeance and stupidity not seen before.
A damning report from Russel Norman on how the agricultural industry blocked climate action for the past two decades.
Fonterra represents New Zealand’s largest internal economic threat. And promise.
“It’s clear domestic food supply chains have been increasingly challenged by natural disasters and the ongoing impact of climate change.”
It does not mean they are not worth trying; it means they will be fights against entrenched power.
Last night I watched Christopher Luxon in a interview with Jack Tame on Q&A from youtube. My takeaway from it was that I don’t want this fool anywhere near actual policy. He exhibited a blissful ignorance about downstream effects of genetic engineering, climate change, and productivity in our economy. Even where I agreed with him like on GE – I didn’t want this idiot implementing policy on it.
In election year, National’s farming regulations bonfire flies in the face of climate action and ecological restoration.
Federated Farmers leader Andrew Hoggard thinks that climate change is probably happening but we will have to wait 50 to 100 years to see the effects.
This week the Government announced plans to bring in a scheme for pricing farming emissions in 2025. National’s response suggests the prospects of political consensus are non existent.
Urs Signer is standing for the Taranaki Regional Council, and is speaking a lot of sense about working with farmers, iwi and greenies for a Just Transition.
Before her involvement in the European Union Free Trade Agreement negotiations Jacinda Ardern was accused of “scattering stardust” in a vain attempt to get an agreement over the line. If this is an example of Jacinda scattering stardust then long may she continue to do so.
New Zealand King Salmon has revealed that 42% of their salmon in warm water areas for the year ending January 2022 were just […]
New Zealand’s sanctions on Russia have not stopped the war in Ukraine. They may have made our parliamentarians feel better, and Tony Blinken was quick to congratulate us on falling into line with the US “high-impact sanctions.” The language is combative, but the evidence shows sanctions do not work. They can have significant blow-back effects, particularly if not combined with effective diplomacy.
New Zealand’s time as high end ingredients producer to the world has arrived. But it has big costs.
New Zealand is seeing a strong, business-led recovery. But what will we do with this success?
BusinessNZ and Federated Farmers have this week attacked the Government for intending to implement policy designed to improve the plight of poorly paid workers.
Fonterra is in the middle of a big restructure of its capital. It is still the case given its dominance over us that where Milk Supertanker Fonterra goes, we go.
National’s basic problem is that it has three discrete factions, christian conservatives, urban liberals and the country grouping. And no coherent vision to reconcile these totally disparate groupings.
While a core of farmers protested a few days ago against farm environmental regulation with long lines of tractors, the organised form of agribusiness, Maori and government working together have concluded that making a climate different isn’t possible.
A Guest Post by DB Brown on how and why regenerative stock grazing matters ecologically, and where best to place our anger about climate change.
The Groundswell farmers movement want the new freshwater policy scrapped, the “ute tax” removed, lots of imported labour for farm work, parts of the ETS dumped the new Significant Natural Area policy dumped, the draft policy on indigenous biodiversity scrapped and Crown Pastoral Land Reform Bill stopped. How likely is this?
Minister Parker is firing an 18 inch gun round that he’s ready to take on all with his call-in of the Otago water rights plan change.
I’m sure one needs a particular depth of political nerdiness to give a flying fig about such things, but since I am one of those, these are my highlights from the speech from the throne to Parliament this week.
A Thames couple are showing how to make a living from small scale market gardening, and leading the way in regenerative horticulture.
This is exactly the kind of approach the Green Party would like to encourage – it’s strategic, it’s intergenerational and it recognises the interconnectedness of our people, the environment and local communities.
“Wildfires are burning across the world and our rivers and lakes have been pushed to the brink. This is no time for half measures. Phasing out the use of PKE is exactly the kind of bold and transformational policy that is needed to deal with the climate and freshwater crises.”
Given the state of New Zealand land and water, changing how we do farming should be a strong political topic for the left this year. The Greens and Greenpeace are campaigning for a shift to regenerative agriculture, so it’s timely to look at what that is.
National has promised that if it gains power rules designed to improve water quality in our streams and rivers will be “gone by lunchtime.
As climate, ecological, pandemic and neoliberal pressures put our food security at risk, we can take heart from the many people who have been developing and practicing sustainable and resilient food growing.
