Why our future depends on taking biosecurity seriously
OPINION: When it comes to biosecurity, we often hear about the end of a response, but it’s the beginning that helps determine our success.
Your old mate reckons the border security team at MPI will have a new take on the old saying “Is that a lump in your pants or are you just pleased to see me?” after detecting a Polish gardener trying to smuggle plants in his underpants through Auckland airport recently.
MPI staff intercepted plant cuttings, a bulb, a tuber and seeds in the air passenger’s underwear, found during a search. MPI strip-searched the passenger after a biosecurity detector dog sniffed out the plants near the man’s groin. A Customs drug dog had also indicated the man was carrying something in his pants. According to MPI, the man – a New Zealand resident – was wearing two pairs of underpants and the itchy concealment included ivy from a castle in Poland.
Environment Southland's catchment improvement funding is once again available for innovative landowners in need of a boost to get their project going.
The team meeting at the Culverden Hotel was relaxed and open, despite being in the middle of calving when stress levels are at peak levels, especially in bitterly cold and wet conditions like today.
A comment by outspoken academic Dr Mike Joy suggesting that dairy industry leaders should be hanged for nitrate contamination of drinking/groundwater has enraged farmers.
OPINION: The phasing out of copper network from communications is understandable.
Driven by a lifelong passion for animals, Amy Toughey's journey from juggling three jobs with full-time study to working on cutting-edge dairy research trials shows what happens when hard work meets opportunity - and she's only just getting started.
The New Zealand Fish & Game Council has announced a leadership change in an effort to provide strategic direction for the sector and support the implementation of proposed legislative changes.