by Peter Griffon, founding Director of the Science Media Centre. This article was first published in BusinessDesk. OPINION: The good news about the Climate Change Commission’s draft plan to meet our Paris Agreement commitments and avoid the worst of climate change is that it doesn’t hinge on technology yet to be developed. The commission has […]
Climate Change
Farmers see pluses and minuses in Climate Change Commission report
By Andrew Hoggard, President Federated Farmers of New Zealand OPINION: The recent Climate Change Commission report had in it some useful recommendations and themes along with other points that are questionable. Pleasingly, the report does not ignore, but also does not fixate, on agricultural emissions. The public discourse In New Zealand for decades has largely […]
Fed Farmers: Our key takeaways from the Climate Commission report
The report supports many of the issues and policy positions Federated Farmers have been advocating consistently for over the years, such as: The fundamental difference between long-lived stock emissions (carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) and short-lived flow emissions (biogenic methane). The report makes it clear that methane does not need to reach net zero in order […]
Feds survey shows farmer confidence has bounced back
Farmer confidence has bounced back to where it was pre-Covid19 but attracting and retaining staff remains a headache, the latest Federated Farmers Farm Confidence Survey shows. Of the nearly 1,100 farmers who completed the Research First survey in the second week of January, a net 5.5% considered current economic conditions to be good. That’s a […]
Climate Change report – We need to science our way out of this
It’s time for the New Zealand public to get ready for a discussion about how science can lead us out of our climate change crisis, Federated Farmers says. Yesterday’s report released by the Climate Change Commission was a massive piece of work which dives into every corner of New Zealand’s approach to achieving its climate […]
Harnessing the power of catchment groups
Policy aimed at changing practices on individual farms isn’t working, writes Jim Sinner from the Our Land and Water Collective Responsibility research team. Could collective management, through catchment groups, achieve better outcomes for our waterways? (This article was first published on the National Science Challenges website.) Over the past several years, I’ve had a growing […]
Specialty grains and pulses trialed in Canterbury
By Annabel McAleer, Senior Communications Advisor, Our Land and Water (this article is from the National Science Challenges website). Buckwheat, soybeans and quinoa trials were undertaken in Canterbury last year, comprising three of the six ‘star’ specialty grains and pulses identified by Our Land and Water research as having high potential for New Zealand farmers. […]
Putting the bite on five myths about meat
If one of your New Year resolutions was to do better for your health and the planet by eating less meat, thumbs up to you. Can’t fault the desire to be a more conscious consumer. But before you entirely swap out beef steaks and rack of lamb for eggplant and lentils, you might check out […]
Planting trees is only a carbon band-aid
By Mike Cranstone, President Whanganui Federated Farmers OPINION: With the frantic pace that this Government wants to transition our country to a Zero Carbon economy, should we step back a moment and make sure that the principles and science are robust? There has been significant research into understanding the role of different greenhouse gases in climate […]
Dairy industry big guns join forces to tackle nitrogen leaching
Fonterra and Nestlé are teaming up with DairyNZ to expand a promising plantain trial to help improve waterways and reduce on-farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Incorporating certain varieties of plantain into a cow’s diet has been shown to reduce the nitrogen concentration in their urine, which can leach through soil into groundwater. To test the […]