Rural Mobile Coverage Worse After 3G Shutdown, Survey Finds
Mobile phone coverage and reliability are deteriorating in rural areas, and farming families are bearing the cost, according to a Federated Farmers survey.
Federated Farmers Waikato president Andrew McGiven believes animal numbers would have to be effectively halved to meet the 2050 target set by the Government's new Zero Carbon Amendment Bill.
He says food producers are very worried about the proposed bill.
“Even more galling is that no trees that farmers have planted in the last two decades to improve water quality and help with other environmental outcomes may be used as an ‘offset’ because the [required] methane cuts are [stated] in gross terms.
“So the only method is to halve the amount of feed to a ruminant animal, but that will in many cases create animal welfare issues.”
McGiven says the Bill showed him “what a complete farce the recent Interim Climate Change Committee (ICCC) consultation was with industry."
While farmers are unhappy about the unrealistic targets, environment group Greenpeace is also upset with the Zero Carbon Amendment Bill but for different reasons.
Greenpeace executive director Dr Russel Norman says the Bill grants no ability for enforcing its climate change targets.
“What we’ve got here is a reasonably ambitious piece of legislation that’s then had the teeth ripped out of it.”
A New Zealand initiative supporting farmers to restore the health of grazing landscapes has received international backing through the Regenerative Fund for Nature, a global collaborative fund supporting regenerative agriculture and the communities that produce natural fibres for the fashion industry.
Combine premium New Zealand products, blend in a family ritual and what do you get? A world-class functional drink.
Entries are now open across eleven regions for the 2027 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA).
Safer Farms is urging farmers to make sure everyone working on farm has safe, suitable footwear for the job.
The Government is backing work on a community-led water storage scheme that could irrigate up to 11,000 more hectares of the Poverty Bay flats, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says.
Agri-tech company Herd-i has become a new all-region sponsor of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards (NZDIA), the largest nationwide celebration of excellence in the dairy sector.
OPINION: It seems Canterbury processor Synlait is still in the doldrums.
OPINION: Get offside with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters at your own peril.