Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
MICHAEL SPAANS has been elected as the new director on the Fonterra Board of Directors.
Spaans, aged 50, lives in Hamilton and farms at Te Aroha. He was a Shareholders' Councillor from 2000 to 2008 and is currently a director of DairyNZ and several other dairy sector companies.
Shareholders voted to re-elect incumbent directors Malcolm Bailey and Ian Farrelly, says returning officer, Warwick Lampp, of electionz.com Ltd.
Shareholders Scott Montgomery and Gerard Wolvers were elected unopposed as members of the Directors' Remuneration Committee.
In the Shareholders' Council elections Rosss Wallis was elected in Ward 8 – Hamilton and Vaughn Brophy, Ward 21 – Coastal Taranaki.
Both are new Shareholders' Councillors.
In the 11 other Shareholders' Council wards where elections were due, nominees were elected unopposed. The councillors in those wards are:
Ward 3 - Northern Wairoa Penny Smart
Ward 6 - Hauraki Julie Pirie
Ward 9 - Morrinsville Malcolm Piggott
Ward 12 - Cambridge Kevin Monks
Ward 15 - South Waikato Ian Brown
Ward 18 - Otorohanga Duncan Coull
Ward 24 - Southern Taranaki David Werder
Ward 27 - Southern Manawatu Richard Syme
Ward 30 - Northern Central Canterbury Ange Ward
Ward 32 - Southern Canterbury John Gregan
Ward 33 - Otago Ad Bekkers and Ivan Lines
All successful candidates will take office at the close of the annual meeting on Wednesday, November 27, 2013.
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.
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.
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