“It turns out there will be no jobs on a dead planet.”
While New Zealand is struggling to maintain integrity around fishing and resource management, an ocean farmer in the US is leading the way in economic and ecologic sustainability. This is how we can do things differently.
Here’s some more science for the government to hate on: “Paris climate agreement cannot be met without emissions reduction target for agriculture”.
Or waterways are starting to stink as much as our murky tax havens.
Fonterra was formed to give New Zealand an economic advantage. Instead it is looking like the country’s biggest achilles heel. Time to reform?
Russel Norman was right in 2014 when he said that the Nats were daft to gamble on oil and bulk milk production, and he’s right again now to draw attention to the failures. We need a green economy!
A new edition of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” has been released. It makes it clear that we are in the grip of a global “Death Economy” and a collective embrace of ‘Thanatos’, the death instinct.
How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.
On December 17, 2015 the Government released a series reports suggesting that New Zealand is complying with Kyoto Protocol obligations. A dig into the reports confirms however that the compliance is in name only and is for spin purposes rather than a real attempt at addressing the world’s most pressing problem.
Over the past decade we have seen sophisticated attacks against academics and NGOs who challenge government or industry. These attacks often appear organic in nature, but many times are in fact concerted efforts by the powerful.
Reeling from tough produce sanctions, Russia will pursue a strategy as the world’s largest supplier of ‘ecologically clean’ food. And where is NZ?
At the same time that there is an Auditor General’s investigation into the appropriateness of the Government spend on the sheep farm in the middle of a Saudi desert the Government has announced a further spend of $2.6 million on a kit set abattoir. And the resumption of live exports by ship may be in the pipeline.
John Key has announced an increase in funding on research into the reduction of agricultural emissions of greenhouse gasses of $20 million over four years or $5 million a year. Which is the amount the Government cut from this research two months ago.
New Zealand is a beautiful country, and tourism is our second biggest earner of foreign exchange. We’d be stupid to trash the place, right?
A roundup of the best analysis of and reaction to the TPP. The gains are minor and delayed, the losses are real. In NZ we don’t have any democratic input into ratification, but the US does, and the deal may fall there.
Media moron Mike Hosking blathering on about how self-interested “experts” are always right. He calls these “Facts”. I don’t think that he would know what a fact is if he tripped over a spreadsheet. Meanwhile announcing a reduction in supply has produced the expected increase in prices in the GlobalDairyTrade auction last night.
Jack Tame on Newstalk ZB has recently brought refreshingly realistic commentary on climate change. Meanwhile in the Herald climate change is thought to be a good thing because summers become warmer.
It has emerged that the New Zealand Government has paid money to a Saudi businessman allegedly to settle a legal dispute that does not exist but more probably to persuade the Saudi Government to enter into a free trade agreement. Update – and maybe there was a threat of legal action but because of the actions of National, not Labour.
The Nats’ takeover of Environment Canterbury is the greatest attack on democratic rights ever seen in this country. They are about to extend the period of imposed rule, because a fully elected body carries “too many risks”. If you think the people of Canterbury can actually be trusted with democracy you can sign the petition.
3 News is advertising a special announcement of “national significance” at 3:45. Will update post…
It’s a 1080 threat to the dairy industry – that has been known since last November. Look – over there!
Brook Sabin pulls no punches laying the blame for the fruit fly outbreak at National’s feet. Key’s attempted denial is some of his worst work ever.
National is letting the regions wither. None more so than (Labour voting) Dunedin, with the closure of the Hillside Workshop, the underfunding of Dunedin Hospital, and the planned closure of the agricultural research center at near-by Invermay. Check out Dunedin North MP David Clark’s video update on Invermay.
Drought has been declared for a huge region of the South Island. Weather extremes are going to be the new normal – why aren’t we adapting?
Farmers are copping stick for doing what the rest of us are doing. We all need to change, not just them.
Earlier this year Farmwatch investigated pig farming in New Zealand. We filmed horrific conditions and animal cruelty on several farms in Auckland and […]
Momentum is building for action on climate change – but Key reckons it’s all just too hard for little old NZ. If only the Nats hadn’t killed of funding for research into the reduction of agricultural emissions…
In the late 1980’s I worked on the establishment of the Meat Industry Tradesmens Agreement, bringing eight awards into one. My lasting memory is how the meat companies hated each other more than they hated the unions, and they were no union-lovers. 25 years later, the companies still can’t get their act together, and it is the country as well as the farmers who are hurting. It may surprise some, but it’s the Labour party who is putting forward policy to bring in the necessary change to the $8billion industry. Good work from Damien O’Connor and the Labour leadership.
The National government’s policy for economic growth has been simple: pump up dairy production, export more low-value milk powder, and keep low-value farmers as the “backbone of the economy”. To achieve this, they have dismantled the protections for and then defiled our fresh water on an industrial scale. The Greens want to reverse that and thereby ensure a long-term future for both our farming and peoples. Updated.
It isn’t that often that we put up speeches by politicians. They’re usually aimed at the general public and don’t really get into the guts of the issues in the way that our activist commenters like to argue at – they tend to be political and in this site preaching to the converted. However this speech by Phil Goff is exceptional. It was made at a centre looking at China, and looks at the benefits and risks of our current and future relationships with that country. Worth reading
Yesterday, the Hawkes Bay Regional Coucil voted to invest $80 million in the Ruataniwha dam. Today, the board of inquiry upheld its resource consent decisions, effectively shitcanning the project. And that, hopefully, is that. Or will HBRC and the farmers demand National pass a law under urgency to allow them to pillage this river, just as they’re doing for the West Coast forests?
National has refused to continue funding research into Kauri Dieback disease. But the discovery of the disease in the Coromandel has sparked a new sense of urgency. And Nick Smith is busily trying to rewrite history.
Further questions have arisen about Amy Adams’ involvement with decisions relating to Canterbury water and in particular the decision to extend the term of the existing commissioners.
Dave Hansford contrasts the way that France handles its usage of waterways by farmers with the unsustainable degradation of NZ farmers. For that matter with the way that farming in the France is targeted at high value rather than commodity factory farming. Let’s have the really tough conversation: is a low-value, mass-market business model really the best we can do? Are cheap, anonymous, industrial commodities our finest work? And are they worth the hidden cost to farmers, taxpayers and the environment?
It wasn’t a dirty pipe. That is the claim made by veterinarian and farm performance consultant Frank Rowson, as reported by Stuff yesterday. Rowson says “This disease originates in contaminated feed and animal manure”. Let the enquiries begin – we need to be honest about the problem and fix it.
The Fonterra fiasco is turning into a genuine crisis and a huge risk to our economy. John Key needs to stop playing politics and get real. It’s urgent.
Stuff’s Pattrick Smellie makes the case that the Fonterra scandal is a product of deregulation. The lesson here is that Mike Joy and other scientists are right. To protect its environment, its brand, its exports and its economy, NZ needs to strengthen regulatory protections and clean up its act.
US universities’ budgets partly rely on endowment funds. Harvard University investment activities in poor countries exploit people and lax regulations, damaging communities, the environment & economies. They are one of the biggest foreign owners of NZ land.
