Go woke!
OPINION: The Hound reckons the powers at Landcorp (or as they/them like to call themselves, Pāmu) are coming under the microscope with the new government in place.
Landcorp boss Steven Carden says the ‘how’ part of taking action on climate change is his challenge as the company’s chief executive
Carden was speaking at the ‘Facing Disruption’, the recent Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference in Auckland.
Carden said the 2050 deadline is too far away for him because it gives rise to a lot of reluctance to do much in the short term; the farming sector needs to move much more quickly.
“My biggest concern is that as an organisation we have a 130 year history of being very good at intensifying and driving production to high levels. It is hard to shift an entire farming system nationally to an entirely new model.
“We need to do that very, very quickly, but if we set ourselves targets for 2050 most people are just going to hope some solution will arise down the track.”
He says Landcorp’s Pamu Farms brand means the company is thinking hard about how it can dramatically change its farming footprint, but there are constraints.
“We need fewer animals and more trees and somehow we have to find a way to make more money off our farms.”
Carden says Landcorp has hundreds of millions of dollars of assets in dairy sheds designed and built for intensive animal production. These are fit-for-purpose and have one use – to produce as much milk from cows as possible.
“So we will have all these stranded assets when we start to reduce our animal numbers significantly below a certain threshold.”
Carden says another challenge is to find customers around the world prepared to pay for different products.
“These are expensive, they are hard to produce and these consumers are hard to find; it’s not easy to do that.”
He says a completely different set of skills and knowledge is required to shift to different farming systems.
New Zealand dairy processors are welcoming the Government’s commitment to continuing to push for Canada to honour its trade commitments.
An educational programme, set up by Beef + Land New Zealand, to connect farmers virtually with primary and intermediate school students has reported the successful completion of its second year.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has welcomed a resolution adopted by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly to declare 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer.
Waikato herd health veterinarian Katrina Roberts is the 2024 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says New Zealand has no intention of backing down in a trade dispute with Canada over dairy products.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Nadine Tunley will step down in August.
OPINION: The new government has clearly signalled big cuts across the public service.
OPINION: Your canine crusader is not surprised by the recent news that New Zealand plant-based ‘fake meat’ business is in…