Summer reissue: Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Scottie Chapman from Spring Sheep Milk Co. First published July 16, 2020. Independent journalism depends on … Read more
Both pigs and humans alike should rejoice over the High Court’s ruling on farrowing crates, writes University of Otago law lecturer Marcelo Rodriguez Ferrere. If you know anything about pigs, it’ll likely be that despite their slovenly and biblically-dubious reputation, actually, they’re quite clever creatures. As smart as dogs! As smart as chimpanzees! At the … Read more
Several parties are promoting policies that aim to develop New Zealand’s regenerative agriculture and organics sectors. Michael Andrew asks the experts what it could mean for the environment, the economy and New Zealand’s participation in a burgeoning global market. Under the tangled canopy of green schools, fiscal holes, party leaks and other pre-election controversies, it … Read more
Farmers across the country are turning their attention to an environmentally friendly crop with myriad uses, reports the NZ Herald’s Jamie Gray in this Herald Premium article. More and more New Zealand farmers are planting a crop that they were banned from growing for eight decades or so. They are setting aside land to raise … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Day of drama and disunity for National, hero of Ōhau fire revealed, and what could be done about the digital divide. For the National party, yesterday was one of those campaign days which aren’t at all pleasant. Issues of disunity once again came to the fore. … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: One referendum looks set for easy win while the other flounders, Labour still enjoys huge polling lead, and farming exporters warned on animal welfare and environment. A new poll has set the scene for the likely outcomes of upcoming referendums on social issues. The One News Colmar … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Focus on the various farming plans put out this week, concerns raised about contacts of new positive Covid cases, and huge bill coming for Wellington region water. For a lead story today, a look at the various farming policies that will be taken into the … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Scottie Chapman from Spring Sheep Milk Co. New Zealand is famous all around the world for sheep and … Read more
Could a taiao values approach to our economy be the key to bridging the gap between protecting our environment and prospering as people? Dr Amanda Black from the Bio-Protection Research Centre explains how. Aotearoa has been economically dependent on our primary sector for generations. But in this new Covid-19-framed world, that dependence will be magnified. … Read more
The debate about methane emissions from farming is both ongoing and polarising, and many are pinning their hopes on scientific advances to avoid both de-stocking and climate breakdown. But how effective can these measures actually be? Alex Braae visited a research lab on the front lines of this fight. At a sprawling campus on the … Read more
In today’s edition: plant-based diets add a new item to the rural-urban tension menu, Genesis plans NZ’s biggest solar farm and a major regulatory push on vaping. The Sunday Star-Times devoted its whole cover to a dramatic image under the headline ‘Is meat for the chop?’, while inside a Colmar Brunton report put the proportion … Read more
After the collapse of the Soviet bloc, Cuba embarked on a rapid reorientation of its agricultural system to a self-sustaining, biointensive and essentially organic model. Nearly 30 years on, a Canterbury vegetable grower ponders whether Aotearoa could follow its lead. It’s November 2016, less than a week after the election of Donald Trump, and I’m … Read more
Summer has begun and the forecast is: it’s hot and breezy and wet and dry. We explain what’s going on, and what you can expect over the coming months. A cloudless sky rains down on dry soil, and children play in the hot puddles. Every night you put the laundry in the oven, grab a … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Data breach blunder hits gun buyback, new poll gives National the numbers to govern, and South Island farm sale blocked by ministers. Another problem has hit the gun buyback programme, denting confidence in both the government and the police carrying out the operation. This time it … Read more
Farmers on social media and National MP Amy Adams have responded with fury to an NCEA English exam question that included discussion of water quality. But what was the question actually asking? In 2017, NZ Geographic published a long feature about the impact of agriculture on the Taieri River in Otago. ‘Troubled Waters’, by vastly … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Pressure mounts over NZ First Foundation, range of changes made to overseas investment office, and accusations of bottom trawling destroying coral. The allegations swirling around the NZ First Foundation are serious enough to warrant going back to again today. Party leader Winston Peters has angrily denied … Read more
Were Fonterra’s Open Gates events a shallow PR stunt, or was there something deeper going on? Alex Braae went to Mangatawhiri to find out. This feature is made possible thanks to the Spinoff Members Fund. We need your help to make journalism that matters. For more information, click here. Walking into the Fonterra Open Gates event … Read more
The prime minister has hailed a ‘historic’ agreement between the government and farming groups. What does it amount to, and is it a substantial step forward in the climate fight, or a ‘sellout’? What’s all this then? For as long as the Emissions Trading Scheme has existed, it has been dogged by the fact that … Read more
Covering Climate Now: Currently, more than a third of all of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions come from sheep and cattle. There’s no easy solution, but a variety of anti-methane methods are being developed to curb this gaseous issue. The Spinoff’s participation in Covering Climate Now is made possible thanks to Spinoff Members. Join us … Read more
National’s new agriculture spokesperson finds himself in one of the party’s most important portfolios, at a time of dramatically increasing tensions in the sector. Will Todd Muller, a man regularly mentioned as a future leader contender, find common ground? Todd Muller’s obsession with politics began with an American encyclopaedia, which his parents bought from a … Read more
The government has just published its plan to halt the degradation of waterways and restore the health of freshwater over a generation. But one group says it ‘throws farming under the tractor’. What’s this then? David Parker, the environment minister, has just announced government plans for waterways. “Our rivers, lakes and wetlands are under serious … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Winter grazing in the spotlight, teens smoking much less weed than they used to, and stats show big acceleration in Auckland house building. To lead us off today, a look at a relatively long running farming issue which has burst into the spotlight in recent … Read more
While the debate around methane continues to stink up the place, we are ignoring countless different ways to protect our food security in the future, writes climate activist Melanie Vautier. Agriculture is a huge and important topic in climate mitigation, in adaptation, in our very survival in terms of food supply. I went along to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Major new IPCC report released, Queenstown’s mayor puts a halt on airport expansion plans, and abortion bill passes first reading. The latest major, global climate change report has given a more complete picture of the damage being done to land itself. The IPCC report details how … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Many claim leadership positions around farming emissions, concerns rise about deported gang members in small towns, and superyacht predictions panned. Now apologies if you feel like this is repetition – we did have a Bulletin last week about the plan to phase agriculture into the emissions … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Options for getting agriculture into ETS unveiled, leading academic savages billion trees programme, and OIO approves Westland Milk sale. A historic day for climate change policy in New Zealand, with agriculture set to become part of the emissions trading scheme. However, the mechanism by which that … Read more
Will we ever really adopt electric vehicles? Should we believe oil companies that say they want to help? Clean energy expert Michael Liebreich gives his two cents. Not that long ago, the concept of “clean energy” seemed like a wildly radical idea. Few people cared or even knew about the dangers of climate change and … Read more
Scientists have been pleading the world to take action on climate change, yet a sizable chunk of the population still denies or downplays its reality. Gareth Shute runs down the most popular arguments for ignoring climate change and finds them wanting. There’s been consensus in the scientific community about climate change for at least a … Read more
About as far as you can get from Aotearoa’s rural heartland, a new breed of farmers are rethinking the way we grow. At the heart of that shitshow of an Auckland city confluence where Symonds St, New North Rd, Khyber Pass and Newton Rd come together, observant passers-by will notice an unlikely thing. Amid the … Read more