Farmers' call
OPINION: Fonterra's $4.22 billion consumer business sale to Lactalis is ruffling a few feathers outside the dairy industry.
The sale of milk tanker miniatures by Fonterra Farm Source stores is generating cash to help support rural mental health projects run by Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand (RHANZ).
From September 1 each mini Fonterra tanker sold has yielded $10 for RHANZ community projects.
RHANZ chief executive Michelle Thompson says improving mental health in rural communities is a priority for its 38 RHANZ member groups.
"There is increasing concern about the pressure building on farming families and the health providers who look after them. So when Fonterra Farm Source said they would give us $10 from each mini tanker sale, we were delighted.
"The partnership was announced yesterday at the Fonterra Farm Source Cambridge store and particularly we thank Shelley Cresswell, category marketing manager Farm Source and Matt Shirtcliffe, from Shirtcliffe and Co, for making this partnership a reality."
The Mini Fonterra Tankers – available through Farm Source stores and online are limited edition diecast replicas.
"They are cool collectables and would make perfect Christmas presents," Thompson says.
RHANZ chair Dr Jo Scott-Jones commented that with soggy milk prices and difficult weather causing farmers so much pain, it is great to see Fonterra Farm Source helping out.
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.
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