Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
Anchor Light Proof milk bottles will soon appear on farms but you won’t find them in a fridge.
Fonterra has teamed up with Kiwi-owned start-up Future Post to turn milk bottles and other soft plastics into farm fence posts — from 100% recycled material.
Fonterra Brands New Zealand’s (FBNZ) sustainability and environment manager, Larisa Thathiah, says the posts are a step forward in farm sustainability.
“This provides farmers with an environmentally friendly fencing option made from the packaging of our farmers’ milk,” says Thathiah. “It’s [cutting] waste or at least turning it into something useful.”
The posts are expected to last at least 50 years.
The managing director of Future Post, Jerome Wenzlick, welcomes the support of Fonterra and he hopes the company will develop other sustainable products for farmers.
“We’re using waste that could have gone to landfill,” says Wenzlick. “This gives us access to a steady supply of raw material from the co-op’s own recycling initiatives, and to the network of nationwide Farm Source stores that can sell the fence posts.
“Future Post is a start-up, but we have plans for new products in 2019 including for non-farming sectors.”
The posts will go on sale in the new year in some Fonterra Farm Source stores in the North Island, and in South Island stores mid-2019.
Academic Dr Mike Joy and his employer, Victoria University of Wellington have apologised for his comments suggesting that dairy industry CEOs should be hanged for contributing towards nitrate poisoning of waterways.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
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Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.