M.I.A.
OPINION: The previous government spent too much during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite warnings from officials, according to a briefing released by the Treasury.
The biggest threat to the primary sector – right now – is if COVID-19 gets into a processing plant, says Mike Petersen, former special trade envoy and Beef + Lamb chair.
“That is not just in the meat industry; that is in the horticulture sector and the dairy sector,” he told Rural News.
“There is a big risk. We are at peak picking season now with apples and kiwifruit.”
Petersen says the sector has to get it right otherwise it will lose the privilege of food production being deemed an essential service.
“Our number one priority is feeding New Zealanders first and foremost and then obviously exporting our other product to the world,” he adds.
“It is the privilege we have been given, but also a huge responsibility and we have got to make sure we have got it right.
“We shouldn’t take this lightly. We should make sure we are doing everything possible to ensure our systems and processes comply with the physical distancing rules.”
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.