Outrage won't pay the bills
OPINION: Across rural conversations, we're heading the same tune: crisis.
OPINION: The Hound reckons the argument run by the ‘agribusiness elite’ that the market will punish our exports if we don’t fall into line with spurious targets like the Paris Accord doesn’t pass the sniff test.
Our biggest red meat market recently did a backflip on tariffs, chiefly because America needs cheaper food, and New Zealand has it.
The tariffs, part of Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, were introduced in April at 10%, then raised to 15% in August.
Then in November, Trump announced that the tariffs on products representing around 25% of our exports to the US and worth about NZ$2.2 billion annually, would be removed, effective immediately.
Other nations are no different: the UK, for instance, can’t feed itself and imports nearly 40% of its food.
China imports 35%, Japan 60% and Saudi Arabia 80%. The world is too hungry to care about our methane targets!
The Government is set to announce two new acts to replace the contentious Resource Management Act (RMA) with the Prime Minister hinting that consents required by farmers could reduce by 46%.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change would be “a really dumb move”.
The University of Waikato has broken ground on its new medical school building.
Undoubtedly the doyen of rural culture, always with a wry smile, our favourite ginger ninja, Te Radar, in conjunction with his wife Ruth Spencer, has recently released an enchanting, yet educational read centred around rural New Zealand in one hundred objects.
Farmers are being urged to keep on top of measures to control Cysticerus ovis - or sheep measles - following a spike in infection rates.
The avocado industry is facing an extremely challenging season with all parts of the supply chain, especially growers, being warned to prepare for any eventuality.

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