Misguided campaign
OPINION: Last week, Greenpeace lit up Fonterra's Auckland headquarters with 'messages from the common people' - that the sector is polluting the environment.
OPINION: For the last few weeks, we've witnessed a parade of complaints about New Zealand's school lunch program: 'It's arriving late.' 'The portions are wrong.' 'I wanted caviar.'
And some beneficiaries of the program complain the meals are comparable to 'dog food'.
Some of the noise is the usual politicking and media bias, but is it just this old mutt that thinks there's more than a hint of entitlement here from some parents?
The idea that the state would provide free meals to schoolchildren would have seemed extraordinary back in the day when parents took responsibility for having kids.
You can bet that the generous free milk in schools programme wins Fonterra and its farmers little if any gratitude, despite the fact the money for it comes straight out of farmers' pockets.
Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford says the 2025 Fieldays has been one of more positive he has attended.
A fundraiser dinner held in conjunction with Fieldays raised over $300,000 for the Rural Support Trust.
Recent results from its 2024 financial year has seen global farm machinery player John Deere record a significant slump in the profits of its agricultural division over the last year, with a 64% drop in the last quarter of the year, compared to that of 2023.
An agribusiness, helping to turn a long-standing animal welfare and waste issue into a high-value protein stream for the dairy and red meat sector, has picked up a top innovation award at Fieldays.
The Fieldays Innovation Award winners have been announced with Auckland’s Ruminant Biotech taking out the Prototype Award.
Following twelve years of litigation, a conclusion could be in sight of Waikato’s controversial Plan Change 1 (PC1).