the Global Death 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.
Environment
food
The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)
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.
As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need
Reeling from tough produce sanctions, Russia will pursue a strategy as the world’s largest supplier of ‘ecologically clean’ food. And where is NZ?
Coleman to regulate high sugar industry
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said there is a voluntary regime in place for the manufacture and sale of high sugar food but where there is is self regulation it is often ignored.
Because of the danger high sugar foods potentially pose it’s important to have a regulatory body and licensing/education regime to ensure manufacturers and retailers only provide food that has healthy outcomes.
Food Bank Charity
Guest post from Kōrero Pono on the politics and ethics of food banks.
Key pinches Labour’s Kermadec Sanctuary Policy
National’s announced intention to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands looks remarkably like Labour’s policy from the last election. And why did John Key not tell his caucus beforehand?
Guest Post – Hawkes Bay is GE free
A guest post by Ad on the Hawkes Bay’s decision to prohibit under its District Plan the release or the conducting of field trials of GM crops and animals.
Red Cross flood appeal
Red Cross is collecting for those recently affected by flooding in NZ. Here’s how to donate…
Auditor General rules on Dirty Politics allegation
The Auditor General has decided that Katherine Rich, head of the Food and Grocery Council which includes Coca Cola as well as Alcohol and Tobacco interests has no conflict in being a member of the Health Promotion Agency, a quango with the role of supporting healthy lifestyles.
Wild weather
All the best to those coping with the wild weather or its aftermath. We’ll see lots of photos of floods and damage, but no discussion of the increasing risks of extreme weather.
Police announcement – 1080 threat
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!
National’s fruit flies
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.
Local Bodies: Neoliberal Economics Limits Food Choice in Southland
bsprout on the Local Bodies blog, provides a case study, specific to Southland. At the same time, it outlines a more general pattern that can be seen in many places, each with their own local circumstances.
Ministry lies about animal abuse.
Earlier this year Farmwatch investigated pig farming in New Zealand. We filmed horrific conditions and animal cruelty on several farms in Auckland and […]
Jackal: The truth will out
Cameron Slater is a complete arsehole. He gets paid to exercise these talents as was exposed in Dirty Politics. So the question is who is paying him to attack researchers in public health? Do we have a National Minister of Health yet? Or is it the junk food industry or the tobacco lobby? And does he declare his earnings to the IRD?
Positive Labour policy for meat industry
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.
Phil Goff: Contemporary China Research Centre
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
NRT: Climate change: War, disease, and famine
The biggest single threat to civilisation from human initiated CO2 forced climate change is going to be in food production and distribution. In a leaked version of the IPCC’s AR5 second volume ” the report predicts that climate change will reduce median crop yields by 2 per cent per decade for the rest of the century – at a time of rapidly growing demand for food.”
Polity: Fizzy drinks: Tax or no tax?
There has been some discussion recently about whether we should tax fizzy drinks as a threat to public health. Otago University public health people say yes. Various anti-tax groups say no. Here’s Rob Salmond’s 2c worth.
Some interesting arguments
Australian hissy fit at supermarkets
Australia again. I wish they would adopt an honourable and fair stance to New Zealand instead of using us whenever they want to gain advantage for themselves or throw a hissy fit. Now they are discriminating against our food exports in two large supermarkets, one of which has a large store ownership here.
Send gummy bears to your representatives
Last night Lyn was regaling me with an advertisement on amazon for a 5 pound bag of “Haribo Classic Sugar Free Gummy Bears” with its 643 product evaluations. In this fine example of online consumerism, all appeared to agree that these really were some of the tastiest snacks around. In fact they were so good that many were suggesting that they got sent to all members of congress. Should we do the same for MPs? Then they might get the concept behind food labelling
It wasn’t a dirty pipe
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.
Key needs to get real on Fonterra crisis
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.
Hockey stick becomes a wheelchair
When you look at the dependence of farmers in extreme climates around the world who are reliant on regular weather like the monsoons in Bangladesh or the mild winters in the gulf stream washed areas like Europe, it is clear how reliant we are for food on our relatively unchanging climate of the past 11,000 years.
How bad does it have to get?
Record breaking droughts in Australia and America, drought in NZ. Food prices rising. Worse to come. How bad does it have to get before we take action?
Sunday Reading
My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. This week: Obama the Tory, fish, Planet Key and the UK’s hit political single.
Who’s heading in the right direction?
While Labour and the Greens are laying out concrete policies to tackle poverty and its consequences that lead to life-long problems (child payment and home insulation from the Greens, food in schools and reading recovery from Labour), National MPs are acting as slum landlords, refusing to spend a few thousand dollars to bring their rentals up to standard.
GM lobby can butt out
There are perfectly good reasons that NZ as a country should remain GM free. And we should stand up and say so in the face of inept and blatant lobbying from the GM industry.
Climate change causing (another) food shock
Climate change is causing the world’s temperatures and seas levels to rise but this isn’t a steady process. Instead we see more frequent and more extreme weather events. The record-busting heatwave in the US and floods in Russia are examples. The big problem is the effects of these weather events on our production of food and other vital goods.
Rio: another chance lost
How do we move forward from here? How do we get the consensus we need? How do we get more politicians around the world making not just speeches like David Cunliffe’s, but acting on them? Setting the targets and the plan behind them to avoid the brutal logic of climate change.
Rio: any hope?
A draft agreement has been negotiated for the Rio+20 summit that starts today, but anyone who cares about the future of our planet should be disappointed. The expert panel of nobel laureates, scientists and ministers’ call to ‘seize the moment’ has largely gone unheeded, as the agreement is full of empty promises and lacking in concrete commitments.
Why are the fish dying, King Salmon?
No-one seems to know why the fish keep dying at King Salmon’s Waihinau farm in Pelorus Sound – or if they do they aren’t telling us. Maybe it had something to do with stuffing tens of thousands of these fish into an environment that is nothing like they have evolved to deal with. It is interesting that this has not been offered up as a potential cause.
Milking a Land of Plenty?
NZ milk production has apparently risen by 30% since 2005. And, according to sources used by frenz.co.nz, back in 2006 over 14 billion […]
King salmon, stealing our future
Imagine taking your children down to the park to find an overseas had set up a dairy farm in one corner. The shit builds up and flows onto the playground. You complain, but are told the farm is under no obligation to treat or retain their waste and the council has no powers to do anything about it. That’s what’s happening with aquaculture thanks to the EPA.
Treachery
Fran O’Sullivan is an enemy of the people. Her article in this morning’s Herald will forever brand her as a traitor to this […]
Nelson floods
It’s Nelson / Tasman’s turn to get hammered by nature. Commiserations to all those affected. As a country (and a world) we should brace for more extreme weather ahead.