Editorial: Time for a reset
OPINION: The Government's recent announcement that methane targets will be reviewed is bringing relief to farmers.
A new lobby group is calling for an immediate halt to the government’s plans to plant a billon trees, saying it will damage the environment and harm New Zealand’s rural economy.
Mike Butterick, speaking for 50 Shades of Green, told Rural News it wants the government to stop planting trees on good farmland immediately and fully assess the long term effect of the policy.
It also wants the government to halt all Overseas Investment Office (OIO) applications for forestry until an assessment is made.
“The government changed the rules to make it relatively easy for overseas investors to buy up productive farmland and plant it in trees,” he explains
“We are not beating up forestry. It is really the environment being created by the policy settings which we believe... are creating something that wasn’t intended.
“The other worrying thing is the great speed at which this is happening.”
Butterick does not know how many productive farms have already been converted to forestry. However, he says in Wairarapa alone up to 8000ha on seven farms have moved from productive farmland to forest.
Rural News has also been told of at least two farms near Gisborne recently planted in pine trees.
“It doesn’t feel good and it isn’t right,” Butterick said.
He says polices sometimes don’t deliver the intended outcome and in that case policy makers should “stop and go back to the drawing board”.
So it is when pine trees are planted on highly productive farmland, he says.
“You can’t eat wood. Taking those farms out of production will have a devastating effect economically, socially and environmentally on the local community. Instead of revitalising the provinces, tree planting will destroy them.”
The country’s 4200 commercial fruit and vegetable growers will vote from May 14 on a new HortNZ levy.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.