Federated Farmers believes the final Climate Change Commission report released today will need to be backed up with significant investment in improving access to science and technology on farm, and the people needed to operate it. Back in February Feds was relatively upbeat about the report and the challenges it posed for New Zealanders, and […]
climate change
Broken election promise on carbon farming will hurt rural communities
Federated Farmers has been checking the calendar – six months on from last year’s election and the government has broken an election promise to protect productive farmland. Labour pledged if re-elected it would take less than six months to protect productive farmland from the rampant spread of large-scale exotic tree planting across the country. “We […]
Growing Kai Under Increasing Dry
Keep your Tuesday lunchtimes free for the rest of May and save-the-date for the 31st May. ‘Growing Kai Under Increasing Dry’ is a seminar series created to encourage primary sector resilience through the impacts of climate change and, as a result of that, drought. The series has been put together by science agencies The Deep […]
B+LNZ: MfE report on sequestration an important contribution to conversation
Beef + Lamb New Zealand says the Ministry for the Environment’s report Net emissions and removals from vegetation and soils on sheep and beef farmland is valuable because it recognises there is significant sequestration happening on sheep and beef farmland in New Zealand and is part of an ongoing process to build understanding of this […]
Hotter, drier, CRISPR: editing for climate change
Gene editing technology will play a vital role in climate-proofing future crops to protect global food supplies, according to scientists at The University of Queensland. Biotechnologist Dr Karen Massel from UQ’s Centre for Crop Science has published a review of gene editing technologies such as CRISPR-Cas9 to safeguard food security in farming systems under stress from extreme and variable climate conditions. […]
Farmers help identify solutions to reduce farm footprint
New DairyNZ research shows farmers can identify ways to increase efficiency and reduce environmental footprint – but there will be challenges for some. The Greenhouse Gas Partnership Farms research project worked with farmers to identify and model how their farms might reduce both nitrogen loss and greenhouse gas emissions. “Making these gains will be the […]
NZ Dairy is ready for a decade of change, opportunities
In his address as Chairperson to the Federated Farmers Dairy Council in Wellington on Tuesday, Wayne Langford canvassed where he thinks the sector is heading and what challenges are coming over the horizon… We are entering a new era for New Zealand dairy, in a decade where the world will never see change as fast […]
New leader for Climate Change Ambassadors
Award-winning dairy farmer Fraser McGougan has been appointed chair of the DairyNZ Climate Change Ambassadors. Climate Change Ambassadors are leaders for climate change action on dairy farms. They help communicate the challenges and opportunities dairy farmers face in playing their part to address climate change, alongside the rest of New Zealand. “The 13 ambassadors are […]
NZ needs its own Project Warp Speed on climate change
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 […]
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 […]