Opinion Editorials 2012
Water is the future
Released 22 May 2012
When the whole community has the facts on water before them, we're certain a collective wisdom will take us all forward. Read more »
Fonterra reaches the Rubicon
Released 17 May 2012
In a major NZ Herald article, Dairy Chair sparks much needed debate about the future direction of Fonterra Cooperative Group. Read more »
Mental health is a rural issue too
Released 15 May 2012
In the agricultural industries the combination of geographical isolation and long hours can quickly become overwhelming, so it is important farmers take time to safegaurd their mental health. Read more »
There’s a (fruit) fly in my milk
Released 13 May 2012
In light of what the Queensland fruit fly discovery in Auckland may mean for horticulture, last year’s milk price furore looks more than ridiculous. Read more »
Fonterra must compete as a global business
Released 08 May 2012
These days in business no one can rest on their laurels and assume their position is safe. This is why I personally believe Fonterra’s Trading Among Farmers (TAF) scheme is necessary to safeguard it in the global financial market. Read more »
So, would you rather be Spain?
Released 06 May 2012
Given all Kiwi exporters face the same international climate it’s easy to say ‘diversify’ than answer ‘to what?’ Hi-tech and tourism are pretty much in the same boat as butter. So, how are we to cure the high Kiwi dollar disease without killing the patient? A version of this was printed in the Sunday Star Times. Read more »
A New York Yankee in the Wairarapa
Released 03 May 2012
Given Albany, New York can listen to ZB just as easily as those in Albany, Auckland the tone around foreign investment has hardened for the worse. There’s also a nasty undercurrent which reflects poorly on us as Kiwis. Who this is putting off we’ll never know, but it is off-putting. Read more »
OCR affects everyone
Released 02 May 2012
The OCR is a major influence on the New Zealand dollar's value and also on the earnings of the exporting industries which our country needs to keep afloat. This means what happens with the OCR very much affects you, me and every other Kiwi. Read more »
H is for hypocrisy
Released 29 Apr 2012
Only when we get some real facts around overseas investment, will we have an honest chance of getting the rules right. Read more »
TB control
Released 24 Apr 2012
The editorial in this week’s New Zealand Listener, celebrating the late Sir Paul Callaghan’s idea of a pest free Aotearoa, should be a clarion call to all those concerned about New Zealand’s environment. Read more »
Farmers as environmental stewards
Released 22 Apr 2012
With unique terrain, climate and land use challenges, most farmers just want New Zealanders to understand what they face as environmental stewards. Read more »
Pylon zone issues gain some ground
Released 16 Apr 2012
Federated Farmers’ protests around the Transpower buffer zone issue seems to be gaining some results with the State Owned Enterprise now saying it may revise down its 64 metre requirement in the Western Bay of Plenty. Read more »
Give science a chance on carbon
Released 16 Apr 2012
As a biotechnologist and a farmer, giving science a chance, through the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research centre makes sense. Opinion published in the Dominion Post. Read more »
Australia’s economy is an open cast mine, ours is wine and cheese
Released 15 Apr 2012
Too many affected voters and too much media pressure may add up to a national priority, but what about New Zealand's rural infrastructure? Read more »
Crooks and bureaucrats
Released 10 Apr 2012
Forget milk, meat and wool, if we could figure out a way to export it, I'm sure New Zealand would do very well out of creating an agricultural bureaucracy market. Read more »
Wool must mean wool
Released 08 Apr 2012
If we’re to have any chance of building wool’s environmental credentials, credentials we need to generate billions more in exports, wool must again mean wool. Read more »
The ins and outs of business
Released 03 Apr 2012
These days I often wonder if there any true farmer cooperatives left in this country? Our country was built on the back of farmer cooperatives which took the line that by working together, we were better off. Read more »
A Kiwi Borat in Finland
Released 01 Apr 2012
The impression Finland is full of Scandinavian Borat’s, probably means Gerry Brownlee will politely decline Tuomas Enbuske’s invitation to appear on his talkshow. Yet doesn't Nokia's current misfortunes show how lucky we are to be the 'Intel of food'? Read more »
A lot of change in a couple of weeks
Released 27 Mar 2012
How the seasons have changed in the last couple of weeks. I won’t say summer has left us just yet, because we are still waiting for it to arrive, but that very long, six month spring has definitely turned into the beginnings of autumn. Read more »
Farmers ‘get’ the need for clean water
Released 25 Mar 2012
Farmers can only hope Nick Smith’s successor similarly ‘gets’ how interrelated the environment and local government is. Read more »
Getting ‘NZ Inside’
Released 18 Mar 2012
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is dead, long live the Ministry for Primary Industries. This new super Ministry is made up of fisheries, agriculture, forestry, horticulture and food. Picture a sophisticated dinner party, with guests clothed in the finest merino designs, seated at wooden tables, enjoying their wine and cheese after a main course of meat and fish. The new Ministry deals with all of that and more. Don’t forget the dessert of pavlova and its kiwifruit trimmings? Read more »
Transpower’s underhanded land grab
Released 12 Mar 2012
What would happen if a suburb of people they could not have two storey homes and their shrubs had to be kept below a metre high? Perhaps they would also not be able to stop representatives of the company from driving across their patio in order to get to the property behind them? Read more »
The plastic wrap cowboys
Released 12 Mar 2012
There are always a few cowboys out there looking to rustle up a bit of extra cash from unsuspecting farmers. Recently, I have heard of some keen businesses selling farmers some suspiciously cheap effluent pond liner. I suspect they fall into the cowboy category. Read more »
New Zealand’s ‘Farming 101’ this Sunday
Released 11 Mar 2012
Organisationally and individually, we’re an active part of improving the environment and the economy, so grab your gummies, go to www.farmday.org.nz and this Sunday (March 18), come and see what farming is really about. Read more »
The power of volunteerism in Christchurch
Released 09 Mar 2012
John Hartnell, ‘generalissimo’ of the Farmy Army says the empowerment of large numbers of volunteers must be a key learning from the 2010-11 Canterbury/Christchurch earthquakes. Read more »
Fonterra at a crossroads
Released 07 Mar 2012
As an immigrant, I’ve worked my way from being a farm worker in Taranaki to farm ownership in Canterbury. That is the opportunity New Zealand’s dairy industry has given me and I am not alone. It’s also why I remain unconvinced about plans for a Fonterra shareholders fund. Read more »
Ecoli and council cars
Released 06 Mar 2012
Farm animals are not solely responsible for ecoli in our waterways. Read more »
You owe $1,800
Released 04 Mar 2012
Our councils now owe $1,800 for every man, women and child in New Zealand and at the helm of reform is Minister Nick Smith. It’s no coincidence he’s also Minister for the Environment because the two are closely related. A version of this was printed in the Sunday Star Times. Read more »
Mad science rushing ahead of tastebuds
Released 28 Feb 2012
The world might be about to experience the first laboratory grown burger patty, but I don't think meat from a vat would suit my tastebuds. Read more »
The rise of 'Frankenburgers?'
Released 25 Feb 2012
Mary Shelley's vision of Frankenstein maybe a Frankenburger; test tube meat is grown from something that has never lived, taken out of something that did. Aside from the creepy moral/ethical dimension it takes a lot more to create delicious meat than a bath of foetal serum. A version of this was published in the Sunday Star Times. Read more »
The benefits of more debate
Released 21 Feb 2012
The High Court’s decision to make the Overseas Investment Office reconsider the Crafarms sale to Shanghai Pengxin has again fanned the foreign investment debate. Read more »
Animal welfare is real, slogans are not
Released 19 Feb 2012
Federated Farmers is closely involved with animal welfare and while we don’t trumpet it, we work closely with MAF to get things back on an even keel. Aversion of this was published in the Sunday Star Times. Read more »
Who are the fat cats?
Released 13 Feb 2012
I am glad to see the Nosh food market has dropped the price of its milk to $2 for two litres. They claim they are making a 50 cent loss at that rate, which indicates milk is worth around $1.25 per litre to the supermarkets who generally sell around the $1.70 to $2 mark. Read more »
Fonterra’s future
Released 12 Feb 2012
While cooperatives gives farmers collective power, does Lion Nathan's fate as a listed company tell us anytjing? Read more »
Boost in TV funding shows council listens
Released 07 Feb 2012
I am bewildered and have written to Waikato Regional Council’s (WRC) over plans to jeopardise the work of the Animal Health Board’s (AHB ) who has been a long standing ally in Waikato. Read more »
Saving our farms
Released 05 Feb 2012
Maybe it’s a sprinkling of Hollywood magic, but the reaction to James Cameron adding ‘farmer’ to his Director’s title seems different to the CraFarm decision. Read more »
Leading a second green revolution
Released 03 Feb 2012
Our biological economy offers boundless opportunity if we can move beyond self-imposed limits. Originally published in the Dominion Post. Read more »
Regulations and reality
Released 31 Jan 2012
The best outcome from the sale of the Crafar farms would be if LandCorp retains the use of sharemilkers on the farms. Read more »
Of milk and the former CraFarms
Released 30 Jan 2012
The ex-Crafar farms and proposed dairy industry regulation will not make one jot of difference to the supermarket price of milk. Read more »
Why shearing is a sport
Released 23 Jan 2012
Sport ignites imagination and imagination could super-charge demand for a fibre I’m passionate about. Let us dare to dream. A version of this was published in the Dominion Post. Read more »
Assumption is risky, ‘ewe’ know
Released 22 Jan 2012
By talking to media overseas about shearing, Jeanette Maxwell is helping to clear up a dangerous misconception that wool is like fur. Read more »
Getting into an excellent season
Released 20 Jan 2012
The middle of January is an ideal time to recover from the Christmas rush and get back into the swing of things for the New Year. Read more »
The best and worst of farming
Released 16 Jan 2012
In one week we’ve seen the very best and the very worst of farming. Read more »
Time to get smarter about technology
Released 12 Jan 2012
The wet start to 2012 has caused some havoc with most people’s holidays, but Waikato farmers will be relieved there is a bit too much water than too little. Read more »
Cycling new options
Released 09 Jan 2012
Like farming, we want the national cycle trail to become a world-wide success and are working with officials to make that happen. Read more »
A New Years resolution: get some farming facts
Released 01 Jan 2012
If we are going to have an informed debate about the future of farming, then factual information is needed and where better to start in 2012, than with our excellent rural media. Read more »
