PETA wants web cams in shearing sheds
Animal rights protest group PETA is calling for Agriculture Minister Todd McClay to introduce legislation which would make it mandatory to have live-streaming web cameras in all New Zealand shearing shed.
KILLING bobby calves with hammer blows to their heads should send shivers down the spine of every Kiwi dairy farmer.
The days of ‘she’ll be right’ are gone, as are the days when ‘what happens on the farm stays on the farm’.
And perceptions held by onlookers are as important as ever. Vast numbers of people now own a camera-cellphone, and social media can spread misinformation at light speed.
Trying to educate the public about farming practices is by-and-large a lost cause because townies, especially in Auckland and Wellington, dwell in another universe.
It may be that farmers now must try to think like an imagined Aucklander -- or a Berliner -- to try to second-guess their perceptions of how farming is and how it ought to be.
The citizens of Grey Lynn and Karori need to know that farmers see no great sport in bashing their baby charges with hammers, nor, for that matter, having their vets induce calves. We acknowledge the public, with the animal ethicists, want animals killed ‘nicely’. (Sentient beings are to be euthanased humanely, not bashed to death.)
New Zealand agribusiness is vulnerable because it pitches its products to the affluent and educated – the high end of the market. The reward is better prices, the requirement is higher standards.
Farming leaders need to get off the fence and lead from the front, personally showing their farms as examples of best practice in animal welfare. One-time airline owner Sir Reg Ansett once said “the speed of the boss is the speed of the team”. Right!
Dairy farmers need to be one step ahead of the consumer and offer new value propositions that show they are leaders not followers of best practice.
HortNZ's CEO, Kate Scott says they are starting to see the substantial cumulative effects on their members of the two disastrous flood events in the Nelson Tasman region.
In an ever-changing world, things never stay completely the same. Tropical jungles can turn into concrete ones criss-crossed by motorways, or shining cities collapse into ghost towns.
Labour's agriculture spokesperson Jo Luxton says while New Zealand needs more housing, sacrificing our best farmland to get there is not the answer.
Profitability issues facing arable farmers are the same across the world, says New Zealand's special agricultural trade envoy Hamish Marr.
Over 85% of Fonterra farmer suppliers will be eligible for customer funding up to $1,500 for solutions designed to drive on-farm efficiency gains and reduce emissions intensity.
Tighter beef and lamb production globally have worked to the advantage of NZ, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).