Owen Jennings: Driving a stake through the steak

You are in your favourite restaurant. You have narrowed down the choices to two fillet steaks. They are both grassfed from New Zealand.

One is proudly claimed to be from a farm that uses management techniques to help lower methane emissions. That has to be a plus, surely. The other steak makes no such claim. You are almost ready to order when you meekly check – “what are these ‘management techniques’ that lower methane emissions?”

Ryan Bridge: Have we lost the plot on Health and Safety rules?

Brooke van Velden's anti-health and safety crusade's taken a rather bizarre twist - it's the plot twist nobody saw coming.

She's consulting the public on safe activities kids are allowed to do on farms, like watering plants and collecting chicken eggs.

It's a bit of an odd strategy, but the strategy seems to be that there's a potential problem with the law.

Dr. David Lillis and Professor Brian Jones: Indigenous Calendars in the Twenty-first Century?

The Historic Value of Indigenous Knowledge

Dr. Robert Bartholemew published a thought-provoking piece in Newsroom last week, in which he made several worthwhile points (Bartholemew, 2025). Indeed, today we do see greater awareness of the wealth of accumulated knowledge that allowed Indigenous people to adapt and thrive - from star maps for navigation - to recognition of celestial patterns that marked the passage of time. Surely, Indigenous knowledge systems (perhaps, “belief systems” is a more appropriate term where the embodied “knowledge” has not been verified) are part of the great history of humankind and retain cultural, social, historic and religious significance even today. 

David Lillis: Science and the New Zealand Media

Information or Misinformation?

Recently Professor Jerry Coyne wrote a piece on traditional approaches to treating dieback in Kauri trees (Coyne, 2024). Of course, the main problem here is that sometimes public money is spent on the pursuit of ideas that have little or no scientific basis, or at least have not been verified scientifically. Another issue is the possible misleading of the public at large on matters that have to do with science and education. 

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive 1/8/24

Govt dishes up funds for oyster festival in the north – but what about the oyster festival down south?

Another day, another trough. Attention was drawn to this one by Matt Doocey, the same fellow who yesterday was calling for applications for the Government’s first round (good for $5 million) of the new $10 million Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund.

Barry Soper: Farmers have been feeling the pinch for too long

The Agricultural Fieldays in Hamilton was expected to be a pretty low key affair when it came to selling stuff to farmers.

Like the rest of the business sector, farmers are feeling the pinch. They are feeling punch drunk after three years of an unbridled Labour/Greens Government.

But over the past two days the music has come back into their ears, even if it's still pretty low volume. The news yesterday from the Beehive that they won't be paying the ETS tax from next year will come as a great relief, although a number of cockies admit they haven't got their heads around it yet.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Scrapping agriculture from the ETS is the right correction

Here’s some good news for farmers on the eve of Fieldays - they will not have to pay for their emissions.

The Government's announced it’s taking agriculture back out of the ETS, which is where it’s always been until the last Labour Government put it in there.

And outside is where it should always be, because the idea of putting a climate tax on farmers who provide the food we need to survive is crazy.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 31/5/24

There WAS something in the Budget for Maori – it’s the farm sector and rural communities that Willis overlooked

Agriculture – the backbone of the economy – was not mentioned in Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ first Budget speech. Nor was there any mention of “farming” or “horticulture” or “rural”.

Hmm.

Maybe there’s something for the farm sector in the deluge of press statements from Ministers eager to lay claim to having secured something for the sectors in their domains of responsibility…

Hon Chris Bishop, Hon Todd McClay, Hon Andrew Hoggard: RMA Bill

Urgent changes to system through first RMA Amendment Bill

The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month.

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment Bill which will make urgent changes to the resource management system.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 11/4/24

Farmers and landlords are given news intended to lift their confidence – but the media must muse on why Melissa is mute

People working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Todd McClay and his associates have been in recent days.

But if they check out the Beehive website for a list of Melissa Lee’s announcements, pronouncements, speeches and what-have-you as Minister of Media and Communications, they will find it is blank except for her name and picture along with the name and picture of her Associate Minister, Jenny Marcroft.

Clive Bibby: Solutions for dummies

Another update from the coalface. Farming in a hostile environment is difficult when your support is deliberately withheld or drip fed to those who can make the best use of it.

Strange tactics from those who could make a huge difference.

Why is it that politicians don’t get it.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 29/6/23

Ministers busy strengthening relationships with China – but media attention is drawn to Kiri Allan’s office relationships, too

Much of the ministerial action deemed worthy of recording on the government’s official website over the past 24 hours took place in China.

This was reflected in extensive media reportage and commentary.

But there was significant media interest, too, in whatever might have happened in the office of Kiri Allan, Minister of Justice and Regional Development and Associate Minister of Finance and Transport.

Clive Bibby: The best of the best

Last Sunday night’s Country Calendar and from what we already know about next week’s story, provide all the evidence of why this nation has become one of the most efficient producers of agriculture products in the world.

I can say that without having seen the next episode simply because l already know about the East Coast property that compliments the magnificent portrayal of our mixed race farming families that we saw in the 30 minutes joy ride into the Clarence River valley - and will no doubt repeat the exposure in a weeks time at a dramatically different North Island location.

Clive Bibby: Let's get real

 

Why is that our leaders appear incapable of understanding the contributing factors involved in running a successful family business.

At a time when speculative decisions can have tragic consequences for the shareholders, one would hope that those who have responsibility for our survival maintain a tight control over the things that have been proven over time to matter. 

Yet the opposite appears to be true. 

Steven Cranston: NZ should lead on smart agricultural emission accounting

The Zero Carbon Bill is an opportunity for New Zealand to lead the world on smart agricultural emissions policy. James Shaw has regularly touted his wish to see our country as international leaders on climate change and is trying to break new ground by bringing biological emissions into the ETS. To be leaders however, we must look forward and not backwards.

The issues with the current Global Warming Potential (GWP) accounting system for methane are now widely publicised and understood. Anyone who cares to investigate the origins of GWP accounting will find it was actually created by a group of climate scientists to demonstrate the flaws in comparing short and long-lived greenhouse gases. To their surprise, the IPCC saw things differently and adopted it as the international standard. So although GWP is now the accepted way to compare different GHG emissions, people should not be fooled into thinking it got there on scientific merit.

Matt Ridley: More food from less land

If something drops out of the news, it usually means it is going well. Mad cow disease killed nobody last year; Mozambique and Angola are growing their economies at a furious lick; the Somerset levels are not flooded this winter. There were only two localised famines last year — in South Sudan and the Central African Republic — both caused by conflict, rather than drought or population pressure. That’s because the feeding of the world is going so well it’s not news.

New figures from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation show that the world’s cereal harvest, which provides more than half of the calories that humans eat, broke a new record last year at 2.54 billion tonnes — an astonishing 20 per cent higher than ten years ago.