Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
Sitting Fonterra directors Donna Smit and Andy Macfarlane have been announced as two of the four independently assessed candidates for the 2019 Fonterra board elections.
The other two candidates are Philipp Haas and Cathy Quinn.
As re-standing directors, Smit and Macfarlane automatically go through to the ballot: Haas and Quinn were recommended by the Independent Selection Panel after their assessment process.
There are two different ways that shareholders can stand for the board – as Independently assessed candidates or as non-assessed candidates.
Nominations for non-assessed candidates, where farmers can stand as a candidate for the board with the support of 35 different shareholders, are now open. Nominations close at noon on Friday, 27 September.
The full list of candidates will be announced on Monday, 30 September 2019.
Voting Packs, containing candidate profiles, will be mailed to eligible shareholders on Tuesday, 15 October 2019. Shareholders can vote by internet or post, using the First Past the Post voting system. Voting closes at 10.30am on Tuesday, 5 November 2019 with the results being announced later that day.
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
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.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.