GRAHAM ADAMS: “Co-governance for your deck!”

An effective campaign against the RMA reforms will be a nightmare for Hipkins.

• Graham Adams writes – 

After a Budget that failed to excite voters and a lacklustre party conference where his senior colleagues faintly praised him for his proletarian taste in food, the very last thing Chris Hipkins needs is a light shone on the vexed topic of co-governance.

An aficionado apparently not only of sausage rolls but also of spaghetti on toast (according to Kelvin Davis and Grant Robertson respectively), the Prime Minister is no doubt still hoping he can steer the election debate almost entirely towards “bread-and-butter” issues. Unfortunately for him, raising awareness of the co-governance provisions in the new RMA replacement legislation going through Parliament is central to the Taxpayers’ Union’s latest national campaign. With the title “Hands Off Our Homes!”, the roadshow will take in 30 towns and cities over three weeks, after beginning with a meeting last Monday in Christchurch.

Federated Farmers, which also strongly opposes the legislation, will co-host nine of the scheduled events. The tour ends in Whangarei on June 22 — less than a week before the Environment Select Committee is due to deliver its report on the Natural and Built Environment Bill, which repeals and replaces the Resource Management Act 1991, working in tandem with the Spatial Planning Bill.

Pricing farm emissions: it’s great to enable NZ to boast a world first – but how much culling must be done to achieve it?

The Ardern government is claiming a world first in its policy to cut agricultural emissions.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asserts  that its proposal “delivers a competitive advantage, enhancing our export brand”, and…

“No other country in the world has yet developed a system for pricing and reducing agricultural emissions, so our farmers are set to benefit from being first movers.”

Farmers  themselves  may be bemused, if  not bewildered, by  the Government’s spin because critics claim the  scheme  aims to reduce sheep and beef farming in New Zealand by 20% and dairy farming by 5%, to achieve  what   Federated  Farmers  labels “the unscientific pulled-out-of-a-hat national GHG targets”.

Agriculture Minister Damien  O’Connor  seeks to put  the  best  face  he  can on the government’s  policy, saying  that

“… by rewarding farmers who take action to cut their emissions we can support more farmers to improve their productivity and profitability while achieving climate goals.

Pugging and pragmatism – Feds welcome winter grazing proposals but SAFE blasts continuance of “mud farming”

One of two ministerial announcements posted on The Beehive website over the past two days was denounced by the SAFE animal rights group in a statement headed Mud farming continues in the South Island.

Federated farmers headed their press statement Pragmatism finally prevails on winter grazing.

The tone struck in the headline on the Government’s press statement was much more in harmony with the feds’ statement than the SAFE one.  It read Proposed intensive winter grazing regulations updates are more practical for farmers.

It was posted on The Beehive website along with news about the end of NZ Defence Force evacuation flights from Kabul.

Latest from the Beehive

 Final Kabul evacuation flight completed

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Defence Minister Peeni Henare said the last flight by a New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) C-130 Hercules evacuating people from Afghanistan’s capital Kabul landed back in the United Arab Emirates last night, prior to reports of explosions at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Proposed intensive winter grazing regulations updates are more practical for farmers

Proposed changes to intensive winter grazing regulations are being consulted on that will make them practical for farmers to comply with while ensuring improved environmental outcomes, Environment Minister David Parker and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced today.

Dairy industry emissions depend on who does the measuring but Greenpeace presses for a culling of the herd regardless

Greenhouse  gas  emissions  from dairy farming  have  reached  an all-time  high – but emissions from the dairy cows themselves have dropped year-on-year.

Confused?

Well  you  might be.  And  to  many  it  might not matter  much, but  for  NZ’s  most important  export  industry, it looms  as  a  vital issue.

The  calculation depends – apparently – on who collects the  statistics. The first  is from Statistics NZ, the  second  from the Ministry  for the Environment.

Inevitably, the industry says the  second is the better measure because statistics which show dairy farming emissions have increased capture too many irrelevant categories.

Radio  NZ  reports  Stats NZ figures show dairy cattle farming emissions rose 3.18% (up 546.2 kt CO2-e to 17,719.4 kt CO2-e) between 2018 and 2019, the most recently reported year. This is the highest figure on record, dating back to at least 2007.

The Stats NZ figures count all emissions produced on dairy farms, regardless of what the emissions stem from.

Agriculture Minister is missing in (in)action while climate change warriors harry NZ’s dairy industry

The  world stands  on  the  brink of a  food crisis worse  than  any seen  in the last  50 years, the  UN has  warned  as  it  urged  governments to  act swiftly to avoid  disaster.

So what  is the  Ardern  government  doing about  it?   Shouldn’t   it  be working  to  ramp  up  food production?  After  all,  NZ   prides  itself  on being  among  the world’s  leaders  in producing  high-quality  food.

Instead,  Climate  Change  Minister  James  Shaw is celebrating  being  “ ambitious” in tackling  what he calls the climate crisis with,  he   says,

“ … necessary rule changes that will incentivise NZ’s biggest polluters to invest in the transition to a clean, climate-friendly economy”.

This  includes putting a price  on  farming  emissions.   Shaw  reckons it’s great that this puts NZ further ahead on climate action than many other parts of the world.

Whatever it is called, Gypsy Day will go ahead this year and cows will be mooved – but under strict COVID-19 controls

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor eschewed the words “Gypsy Day”, in a press statement yesterday that addressed dairy farmers’ concerns about what would happen on June 1.  He preferred “Moving Day” and said Moving Day will go ahead as planned this year, but with strict controls to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Reporting this news, Farmers Weekly explained that Moving Day is also known as Gypsy Day and occurs on June 1 each year when many dairy farming families, sharemilkers, contract milkers and employees move to new farms to start new jobs and milking contracts.

Yet another expression was incorporated in a Federated Farmers press statement headline on April 9:  GYPSY / MOOVING DAY.

In the statement, the feds said they were aware of the level of concern among dairy farmers over how the annual 31 May/1 June “Gypsy Day” or “Moving day” shift would work under the COVID-19 controls.

Fonterra’s financial wellbeing and global auction prices are among the dairy sector’s challenges

It’s shaping   up as a  tough  season  for  New Zealand’s  dairy farmers,  who  once  proudly  wore  the  label  of  the  “backbone of the  NZ  economy” , earning  by far the  largest  share of the country’s  export income.

So  what  are  the  problems  confronting  the industry?

Uncertainty in markets, for starters.   Prices  at the latest  Global Dairy  Trade  auction this  week slid  downward for  the fifth  time in  six  auctions.

The  Chinese  economy is under pressure   as  Trump steps up  his tariff  war.  Brexit  is a  threat which  could disrupt  NZ’s  dairy trade to  both the UK and EU markets.

At  home the big  question is whether  Fonterra,  after  racking up  a  $196m  loss last season,  can claw its  way back to profit.

NZ First is not alone in worrying at the implications of a Westland Milk sale to Yili

Is   Westland  Milk   one of  NZ’s  “key  strategic assets”?

NZ  First  is adamant  it is and believes the government  should be a  applying a  “national interest test”   to the proposed  sale of the company  to the Chinese  dairy giant Yili.

Those  who  see  heavily indebted  companies  like Westland Milk struggling to  make a profit and  not  even  matching  Fonterra’s payout  to its suppliers might take a  cooler view  to  the proposed  sale.

Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis said he had received “mixed” feedback from West Coast farmers on the deal, which will require 75% approval.

Fonterra and farm leaders gripe at O’Connor’s DIRA decision – Greenpeace is even more grouchy

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor didn’t win too many new friends  (and may have lost some) with his  decision  on the review of  the  Dairy Industry Restructuring  Act, the  2001  legislation  which set up  Fonterra  supposedly to   become  a  “ national  champion”.   

We  all know  how  that  has turned out.

So   what were the reactions to  O’Connor’s  latest  move to improve the  legislation  which initially had the  objective of  “promoting  the efficiency  of  NZ  dairy markets”?.

Fonterra  chairman  John Monaghan  said  the company was disappointed it still has to supply milk to large, export-focused businesses.

Politicians could stop beefing and take definitive action to support “real meat”

Federated Farmers today says it is puzzled why our national carrier is making a song and dance about an overseas-produced plant protein burger but not the Kiwi company that supplies them with world-leading transportation fabrics – wool.

Exactly who has been making a song and dance of the vegetarian addition to the airline’s inflight cuisine, however, is arguable.

On July 3 Air NZ announced it is giving customers “a taste of the future” through an inflight collaboration with Silicon Valley food tech start-up Impossible Foods.