increase font size
OPINION: Your canine crusader hears that not all is rosy in the world of supposed rural sector congeniality.
Rumour has that the Food and Fibre Leaders Forum - a collective of the 15 main national rural organisations who are 'working together with government' is now down to 14 members.
According to word on the street, one of the groups has left the forum because it was not too happy with what is going on behind closed doors.
However, it is a bit hard to find out exactly what's happened, as the forum is more secretive than the SIS.
Despite being funded by various farmer/grower levies, the forum refuses to release any minutes of its meetings 'on grounds of confidentiality'.
It makes one wonder why this group is so anxious about releasing this information and if it is really 'selling out' the primary sector to the Government and officials behind closed doors.
OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.
OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."
OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.
OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.
OPINION: Your old mate's ear has been chewed off recently by farmers voicing their displeasure with the National Party, particularly relating to how they're treating their farmer base.
New Zealand’s national lamb crop for the 2025–26 season is estimated at 19.66 million head, a lift of one percent (or 188,000 more lambs) on last season, according to Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) latest Lamb Crop report.
OPINION: Just what falls out of the coalition’s plan to reform local government and environment law is anyone’s guess.
Farmers appear to be cautiously welcoming the Government’s plan to reform local government, according to Ag First chief executive, James Allen.
The Fonterra divestment capital return should provide “a tailwind to GDP growth” next year, according to a new ANZ NZ report, but it’s not “manna from heaven” for the economy.
Fonterra's Eltham site in Taranaki is stepping up its global impact with an upgrade to its processed cheese production lines, boosting capacity to meet growing international demand.
Canterbury farmer Michelle Pye has been elected to Fonterra’s board for a three-year term.
OPINION: Your old mate welcomes the proposed changes to local government but notes it drew responses that ranged from the reasonable…
OPINION: A press release from the oxygen thieves running the hot air symposium on climate change, known as COP30, grabbed your…
