increase font size
In what your old mate reckons is par for the course for the current Government, it has blown more taxpayer money on a wasted cause.
It doled out $6 million to support NZ manuka honey producers' legal case to trademark the name 'manuka', which has again been lost.
New Zealand's trademarks commissioner has declined the Government and iwi-backed bid by NZ honey producers to trademark the term "manuka honey".
It ruled that the term was not sufficiently inherently distinct for any one group or company to own it.
This follows on from a similar failed case in the UK and China where New Zealand's Mānuka Honey Appellation Society attempt to assert ownership of the brand was also defeated.
Thus far, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor has declined to say whether the Government will support an appeal of this latest decision.
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.
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.
AgFirst, New Zealand's largest independent agribusiness consultancy, is turning 30 - celebrating three decades of "trusted advice, practical solutions, and innovative thinking".
