Rural Parents Blindsided By Bus Route Changes
OPINION: Rural school buses is a topic I have had a great deal of correspondence on over the last couple of months.
OPINION: The country's dairy farmers will now also have a hand in providing free lunch for schools.
The Government's new school lunch programme unveiled last week will cost $3 a lunch (down from $8) and save $130 million.
The Government had been working with local businesses, including Fonterra, to "transform" the school lunch programme, in a bid to save money.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says the Government had "embraced commercial expertise, used government buying power, and generated supply chain efficiencies to realise over $130m of annual cost savings".
Fonterra is already partnering with Sanitarium and the Ministry of Social Development means to provide breakfast as part of the KickStart Breakfast. Since 2009, the programme has served more than 70 million breakfasts and run in over 1400 schools nationwide.
A verbal stoush has broken out between Federated Farmers and a new group that claims to be fighting against cheaper imports that undermine NZ farmers.
According to the latest ANZ Agri Focus report, energy-intensive and domestically-focused sectors currently bear the brunt of rising fuel, fertiliser and freight costs.
Having gone through a troublesome “divorce” from its association and part ownership of AGCO, Indian manufacturer TAFE is said to be determined to be seen as a modern business rather than just another tractor maker from the developing world.
Two long-standing New Zealand agricultural businesses are coming together to strengthen innovation, local manufacturing capability, and access to essential farm inputs for farmers across the country.
A new farmer-led programme aimed at bringing young people into dairy farming is under way in Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
The Government has announced changes to stock exclusion regulations which it claims will cut unnecessary costs and inflexible rules while maintaining environmental protections.