Fat to cut
OPINION: Your canine crusader understands that MPI were recently in front of the Parliamentary Primary Sector Select Committee for an 8-hour marathon hearing.
MPI boss Ray Smith has appealed to all those involved in food and beverage processing to be meticulous about hygiene.
He says people working in these essential industries during the COVID-19 crisis are doing an amazing job. Smith emphasises that it is so important for them, and New Zealand, to observe the new and much higher health standards.
He says in meat processing plants and packhouses people need to abide by the social distancing rules, but if for any specific reasons they can’t he says they should limit these to a minimum and document them.
“In a packhouse you might have 500 people in it to maintain level a of production. The meats works are covered by specific protocols and the dairy industry has quite sophisticated, large operations,” Smith told Rural News.
“The hygiene factors in these areas are so high that introducing additional measures is something they have taken to quite well.”
Smith reiterates the need for washing hands and keeping hands away from your face. He also points out that it is important for workers to stay in their bubble if they have a bubble at home and bubble at work – and not to introduce anyone else into those bubbles.
“That’s when you run the risk of not being able to trace the disease and risk contamination,” he says.
MPI says is getting its messages out through its website, other industry organisations and the rural media.
Smith says he doesn’t underestimate the communication challenge the rural community is facing – especially with variable quality broadband and lack of cell phone communication in some areas.
Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.
Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.
OPINION: We have good friends from way back who had lived in one of our major cities for many years.
Listed Canterbury milk processor Synlait’s shares have been placed in a trading halt.
OPINION: Even before the National-led coalition came into power, India was very much at the fore of its trade agenda.
A step-by-step guide helping farmers through the process of creating a Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP) has been launched by FarmIQ.
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OPINION: Your canine crusader understands that MPI were recently in front of the Parliamentary Primary Sector Select Committee for an…