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Recent Posts
- Fonterra’s new capital structure gets closer
- Are pine trees the problem or the solution?
- He Waka Eke Noa is now the main game in rural politics
- HWEN submission
- Forestry rules about to be upturned
- He Waka Eke Noa caught in crosswinds
- Carbon farming is back in the melting pot
- Agriculture’s greenhouse gas proposals need a reset
- The carbon price marches on
- 2022 will be tumultuous for New Zealand’s primary industries
- Economic storm clouds lie ahead
- Managing inflation will be painful
- Crunch times ahead for agricultural methane and nitrous oxide
- New twists to carbon farming
- Dairy is a key to New Zealand’s future
- Wrestling with forestry decisions
- The COVID trajectory has taken off
- New Zealand needs a COVID reset
- Post-1989 forest owners face complex decisions
- Fonterra moves on strategy and stucture
- The ETS is both a goldmine and a minefield
- Carbon farming will determine the future of sheep, beef and production forestry
- Institutional investors outgun Government at carbon auction
- Food-derived opioids are a medical frontier
- Carbon farmers need to understand the ETS
- Carbon-farming economics are also attractive on easier country
- Carbon farming steps forward on the North Island hard-hill country
- The big picture with sheep
- Sheep remain dominant on South Island hill and high country
- Intensive sheep and beef provide cash but wealth depends on capital gain
- Searching for the future on the North Island hills
- Fonterra’s restructure proposal risks the co-operative
- Fonterra heads towards a new capital structure with scope for unintended consequences
- Sheep and beef farms are getting squeezed
- A2 moves from a brand to a category
- Pastoral Lands Bill hits rocky ground
- The NZ system for GHG reporting will be crucial
- Forestry issues still need much debate
- Zespri faces a China conundrum
- New Zealand’s internal inflation is not benign
- Dairy markets have hit a sweet spot but big challenges remain
- The winding path of COVID-19
- Rolleston Rescue 1968
- Farewell to Sir Bob Elliott
- Pivoting from production to permanent forests
- House-price inflation and interest rates are bound at the hip
- Regenerative agriculture is not redundant but can be misguided
- It’s time for Fonterra to define the new path ahead
- Agriculture will change but pastoral agriculture will survive and prosper
- Reserve Bank drives economic policy
Category Archives: Meat Industry
Carbon neutrality requires permanent forests not production forests
In recent months I have been writing about land-use transformation that will be driven increasingly by carbon trading. If New Zealand is to approach net-zero carbon, then it can only be achieved by a combination of modified lifestyles plus new … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, greenhouse gases, Meat Industry
18 Comments
Government is losing the forestry debate with rural New Zealand
The response of Government Ministers to rural concerns about forestry policy is polarising the debate. Describing rural perspectives as ‘fiction’, and upset rural protesters as ‘rednecks’, is counter-productive. The combination of the Zero Carbon Act and forthcoming Emission Trading Scheme … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, greenhouse gases, Meat Industry
38 Comments
Conversion of farms to forestry is now ramping up
Earlier this year I wrote two articles, archived here and here, about the likely impact and consequences of policies that encourage conversion of pastoral land to forestry. I was particularly concerned about the actions and power of foreign investors, and … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, carbon farming, forestry, Meat Industry
10 Comments
Agricultural GDP leaves out more than it includes
Agricultural GDP catches well under one quarter of the agribusiness system. As such it fails to capture the importance of agribusiness to the economy. One of the problems facing New Zealand’s agriculture is a widespread urban perspective that agriculture is … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, Dairy, Meat Industry
4 Comments
Forestry decisions need to be made now
New Zealand’s forestry policy is in a mess. We have drifted into a situation where the big decisions are made outside of New Zealand. Governmental forestry policy is like steering a dog by the tail. And this particular dog has … Continue reading
Posted in carbon farming, forestry, Meat Industry
4 Comments
Zero Carbon Bill is just the start for agriculture’s greenhouse gas adaptation
The Zero Carbon Bill introduced to Parliament this week answers some questions but raises many others. There are big challenges ahead for everyone, but particularly for farmers and their leaders. As always, the devil will be in the details. These … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, Dairy, Meat Industry
5 Comments
Where to for Chiwi agrifood
The current plan for Chinese Yili to buy Westland Co-operative Dairy has brought renewed discussion about the role of China within New Zealand agrifood industries. Of course, the Westland issue is just one part of a much greater issue about … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, China, Dairy, Meat Industry, Uncategorized
9 Comments
China is the key market for New Zealand sheepmeats
[This post first appeared online at Stuff and some of their hardcopy newspapers on 4 September 2018, but alas with the first paragraph edited out and with the title “China demand for New Zealand sheepmeat booming”. In the process, key … Continue reading
Posted in China, Meat Industry
5 Comments
Methane narrative changes with less need for drastic reduction
[This article was published today (10 Sept 2018) at http://www.interest.co.nz and is forthcoming in Farmers Weekly] The recent note on methane emissions put out by Parliamentary Commissioner Simon Upton in late August, and underpinned by a contracted research report written by … Continue reading
Posted in Dairy, Meat Industry, Science ethics and communication
4 Comments
Exchange rate reset will breathe new life to agriculture
[This post was published online at Stuff and also in most Fairfax Media New Zealand newspapers on 21 August 2018 as part of my fortnightly Stuff column] The recent decline in the value of the New Zealand dollar is about … Continue reading
Posted in Agribusiness, Dairy, Meat Industry
1 Comment