Dirty streams disappoint

MAF’s snapshot of progress on dairying and the clean stream accord shows there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the perofrmance of some farmers.

Agriculture Minister David Carter is right:

“No farmer has the right to pollute.  The small numbers of dairy farmers who ignore effluent disposal requirements are testing the patience of all New Zealanders, and risk damaging the reputation of the dairy industry as a whole,” says Mr Carter.

 Accidents will happen and equipment break down on the best managed operations so 100% compliance all the time will be impossible but carelessness or simple disregard for good environmental practices is unacceptable.

The regular, deliberate offenders may be small in number but they are doing a great deal of damage not just to waterways but to the reputation of dairying and New Zealand’s image as well.

The NBR’s final piece on Fonterra’s five biggest challenges deals with “dirty dairying”.

Show time

Upper Clutha A&P Society’s two day show opens this morning.

It’s the South Island’s second biggest show (Canterbury is the biggest) and the showgrounds are just a few metres from Lake Wanaka so it must be a contender for the one in the most picturesque location.

The show has the usual stock competitions, horse events and trade displays which enable you to buy just about anything for the farm, house and garden.

Another feature is the Glammies - the Golden Lamb awards. Judges this year include rowing stars Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell and Agriculture Minister David Carter.

Wanna know a secret?

TV3′s expose on the “secret” deal  to fund a third staff member for Maori electorates and general electorates larger than 20,000 square kilomtres was really old news.

Kiwiblog points out, both he and I covered the story when the government announced it in November as part of the coalition deal with the Maori Party.

The shock-horror coverage of old news as a supposed cover-up puts the story in Macdoctor’s spam journalism category.

It also shows that the journalist doesn’t understand that a large part of electorate MPs’ responsibilities are in their electorates; nor that while each electorate has more or less the same number of people in it for a very good reasons , it is much harder to give them the service they require when they’re spread over 10s of thousands of square kilometres than if they’re contained in a city.

The extra money isn’t for the MPs personally, it’s to employ an extra staff member to help their constituents. That it doesn’t appear to be coming with any extra for office space, telephone and other costs means it’s not quite as helpful as it appeared to be at first. But it will still pay for a real human being to assist the people who require the services of an MP and in spite of technological advances like Skype, face to face meetings are what most constituents need when they’ve got problems.

However, TV3 has done us a service by showing us that Labour doesn’t understand the needs of their constituents either:

Labour believes the deal stinks and it is accusing National of secrecy.

Don’t they realise that they still hold two Maori electorates so their MPs get this extra funding too and ought to have known about it since it was announced in November?

What on earth do their MPs Parekura Horomia and Nanaia Mahuta do if they don’t know how many staff members they are entitled to employ?

The table below shows the area of each electorate, colour coded by the party which holds each one. Labour’s ignorance on this issue which shows they don’t understand the needs of people in the larger electortates  explain why there was a blue wash at the last election.

Te Tai Tonga	161,443
Clutha-Southland	38,247
West Coast-Tasman	38,042
Te Tai Hauauru	35,825
Waitaki	34,888
Ikaroa-Rawhiti	30,952
Kaikoura	23,706
Waiariki	19,212
Te Tai Tokerau	16,370
East Coast	13,649
Taranaki-King Country	12,869
Hauraki-Waikato	12,580
Northland	12,255
Rangitikei	12,189
Wairarapa	11,922
Taupo	9,101
Selwyn	7,854
Napier	6,866
Rangitata	6,826
Whanganui	5,948
Invercargill	5,617
Rotorua	5,535
Waikato	4,947
Coromandel	4,653
Tukituki	4,277
Dunedin South	2,702
Waimakariri	1,757
Otaki	1,728
Whangarei	1,628
Hunua	1,266
Bay of Plenty	1,188
Rodney	1,051
Helensville	865
Tamaki Makaurau	730
Dunedin North	642
New Plymouth	579
Nelson	565
Rimutaka	518
Auckland Central	499
Mana	321
Hutt South	311
Papakura	255
Waitakere	254
Mangere	155
Hamilton West	148
Wellington Central	146
Ohariu	130
Port Hills	115
New Lynn	97
Tauranga	89
Christchurch East	78
Palmerston North	46
Wigram	40
East Coast Bays	37
Hamilton East	37
Manurewa	37
Maungakiekie	37
Botany	36
Tamaki	36
Mt Albert	34
Manukau East	31
Pakuranga	29
Christchurch Central	28
Ilam	27
Northcote	27
Rongotai	27
Te Atatu	27
North Shore	25
Mt Roskill	24
Epsom	23

Whitestone cheese still a winner

Call me parochial if you like, but I think  Whitesone Cheese  is always a winner.

But judges without my bias have confirmed it once again at the Cuisine Champion Cheese Awards.

The company won several gold and silver medals and the NZ Food Safety Award for packaging for its cheese tin.

 

My computer needs an as-you-were command

The $250,000 Turing Award, presented in recognition of work which makes computer programmes more reliable, secure and easier to use,  has been won by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

Only the second woman to win the prize, Barbara Liskov was honoured Tuesday for pioneering new designs in computer languages that gird everyday digital applications.

“Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world,” MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif said. “Every time you exchange e-mail with a friend, check your bank statement online or run a Google search, you are riding the momentum of her research.”

 

 

I do at least some of that most days without understanding how I do it, and usually without the  appreciation due for being able to do it.

It’s not that long ago that we had to go to banks to do any transactions, faxes were regarded as technological marvels which would replace snail mail and there was nothing that even approached the ease of a Google search.

So thank you Prof Liskov for making that easier and if you’re looking for another challenge perhaps you could turn your mind to a function which would save a file when someone clicks no after being asked if she wants to save it.

I  did that with a 1000 word essay last week. Fortuantely I’d printed it so it wasn’t as inconvenient as it might have been, but the equivalent of the military as-you-were command for computers would help protect users like me from our own stupidity.

OCR down to 3%

The Reserve Bank has reduced the Official Cash  rate by 50 basis points to 3%.

The OCR has gone down 525 baisis points in six months but Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard has signalled he’s not expecting big cuts from now:

“As economic activity troughs, we expect the rapid easing of monetary policy to slow. Any future cuts will be much smaller than observed recently. We do not expect to see in New Zealand the near-zero policy rates of some countries. New Zealand needs to retain competitiveness in the international capital markets. We will assess the need for further cuts in the OCR against emerging developments in the global and domestic economies and the responses to policy changes already in place.”

9 day fortnight gains cautious support

The Councils of Trade Unions is cautiously supportive of the government’s  proposal for nine day fortnights to help employers:

The Council of Trade Unions – which helped formulate the scheme – said it provided a strong basis for unions and businesses to negotiate deals which could prevent job losses.

National secretary Helen Kelly said the Government subsidy was “essential’ to make it acceptable to workers, but she also expected employers to contribute to the costs.

The lead of the Labour Party Phil Goff is also able to see something positive:

Labour leader Phil Goff said the scheme was “helpful” but the Government needed to move quickly on help for smaller businesses.

 Labour’s president  takes a more blinkered view:

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union said the pay out was “underwhelming”.

“Unless employers are willing to meet this subsidy with a substantial top-up of their own it’s unlikely to be accepted by workers,” national secretary Andrew Little said.

“As far as the EPMU is concerned, this will be a bottom line.”

 But then as Keeping Stock and Kiwiblog both point out he’s wearing two hats and in this case his the brim of the political hat is obviously stopping him seeing anything which he might appreciate if he was only wearing the union hat.

Further to this, Roarprawn points out that unions have assets and maybe now’s the time for them to use them to help their members.

PS – I was wrong yesterday about the scheme applying only to workers in unions. It applies to businesses with 100 or more staff which will be unionised and there is a subtle but important difference between that and giving assistance only to union members.

Superfund contributions cut

The government has confirmed it will cut contributions to the superannuation fund.

They are doing the right thing. It makes absolutely no sense to borrow money to invest at a loss, especially when the dollar is low which makes overseas investments more expensive and risks reducing the return if/when the dollar rises.

John Key has emphasised this doesn’t signal a cut in pensions.

“I have made it quite clear that if superannuation was to be cut, and I make the same claim here in the house today, I will resign as Prime Minister and resign as an MP,” Mr Key said in Parliament.

No doubt the opposition will try to make political capital out of this but I’d have thought borrowing money to invest at a loss be more of a threat not just to pensions but everything else the government funds.

Ready for retirement

Retirement Commissioner Dianne Crossan has been seeking a new name  for the Commission for seven years.

Its website Sorted is useful and reasonably well known but I didn’t know much else about the organisation so I understand why  she wants a name which better reflects the Commission’s work.

A quick  check of its website revealed is not just about retirement.

Its vision is that New Zealanders are financially sorted and its goals are:

• New Zealanders are well educated in financial matters and can make informed financial decisions throughout their lives.  
• The government’s retirement income policies are effective and stable.
• The financial services sector is trusted. 
• All retirement villages meet societal expectations and current quality standards.

Financial literacy is a worthy goal but couldn’t that be addressed through the education system?

Effective and stable income government retirement income policies is also a good thing but do we need a Commission to achieve that?

We’d all like to trust the financial services sector and have reitrement villages which meet expectations and quality standards but again do we need a Commission to do that?

If it’s been looking for a new name for seven years without success you have to ask is the problem that its name doesn’t reflect what it does or that we don’t really need a Commission to do it? 

The government is asking all state agencies to make savings where they can perhaps the Retirement Commission could best do that by leaving its responsibilities to other agencies and retiring itself.

S92a in terminal decline

Telstra Clear has pulled out of the Telecommunications Carriers’ Forum and its attempts to make secion 92A of the Copyright (New Technologies) Ammendment Act workable.

Section 92A, which requires ISPs to have a policy of disconnection in place for repeat infringers of copyright online, has been the focus of protests over the last few months.

The code will not solve copyright issues, says Mirams.

“It is not our role to make bad legislation work,” he says. “The industry had no input into section 92A. [The draft code] is bad for our customers. Customers and businesses have spoken via blogs and petitions and also directly to us. We have listened and we have agreed.”

That may not have killed the controversial clause which prompted the internet blackout  but it will almost certainly lead to a terminal diagnosis because John Key said if ISPs couldn’t reach agreement the section would be suspended.

Hat Tip: goNZoFreakpower and geekzone.

In your own right

When we were first married I was often asked if I was my farmer’s wife because he’d been national president of Young Farmers and was well known in the district and further afield for various other – mostly positive – reasons.

It took a job as rural reporter on Radio Waitaki before I became better known in my own right and I knew I’d finally got there when my farmer went to buy some sheep and the first thing the vendor said to him was, “are you Ele’s husband?”

This story  about Bill Clinton brought that back because although he’s referred to as a former president he’s also called:

Clinton, the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, . . .

Pinot Noir good for children’s health

 

Don’t panic, no-one is suggesting children drink the wine – it was auctioned and the money raised donated to help pay for ear nose and throat operations at Dunedin’s Mercy Hospital for children who wouldn’t qualify for public treatment.

The $25,000 donation from Central Otago’s Pinot Noir Charitable Trust is matched dollar for dollar by the hospital’s Outreach Fund and will enable about 20 children to have surgery.

I was at my GP’s last week and the high rate of illiteracy among prisoners was raised in conversation. He said that there is also a high rate of deafness among prisoners.

Children who don’t hear properly, don’t learn properly and those who don’t learn properly are more likely to turn to crime so these operations could do more than keep the children out of the public health system, they might keep some out of jail.

Fonterra’s challenges

The NBR is doing a series on Fonterra’s five big challenges.

The first is by Hugh Stringleman on collective capital.

His second is on balance sheet blues.

Today we have part III with Allan Swann’s thoughts on Queen Street farming.

9 day fortnights just for union members?

Imagine the uproar if Labour introduced assistance which enabled union members but not other staff who didn’t belong to unions to work nine-day fortnights.

That seems to be what’s being suggested now and my first reaction isn’t positive.

We’re facing unusual times and it is impossible to spend taxpayers’ money on a scheme like this in a way which doesn’t advantage some people and disadvantage others unless assistance is universal.

But at first glance spending tens of millions of dollars on a scheme for which at best 15% of the workforce is eligable looks like giving too much to too few.

How green can we grow?

When environmental concerns hit economic realities something’s got to give and if the conflict is between addressing hunger and staying in business now versus saving the planet for the future, cost and volume will be two of the deciding factors.

That’s why I don’t think Barney Foran  is on the right track when he says that if New Zealand farmers don’t lead the world in environmentally sustainable production we’ll be forced out of business.

He predicts that within a decade, meat will be marketed on its greenhouse gas emissions as well as water quality, biodiversity assets and cultural values. “Tomorrow’s meat enterprises will focus on product quality first, backed up by measured and low environmental impacts, austere production chains, avoidance of most chemicals and heavy metals and making farmed landscapes waterwise, biodiverse and beautiful.”

Food is already being marketed on greenhouse emissions. Last week I was shown packaging from French sausages. My French isn’t up to translating all the writing but it was obvious the little green box was showing the carbon emissions generated in production.

That will be a consideration for those who can pay to be choosey but not everyone can and even at the top end of the market price matters. Looking after the environment is important but if we don’t supply affordable food we’ll be out of business in much less than 20 years.

If that happened the world would be going hungry or else producers in other countries would fill the gap left as our production dropped and their production methods may well have a much larger environmental footprint than ours.

Commenting on  Foran’s view, Farmgirl asks if environmental concerns are a higher priority than food itself.

They shouldn’t be. Sustainability is supposed to be a three legged stool which gives equal value to environmental, economic and social concerns. If we concentrate on the environment at the expense of the other two factors the stool will fall over.

The issue also comes up at Mother Jones:

When most of us imagine what a sustainable food economy might look like, chances are we picture a variation on something that already exists—such as organic farming, or a network of local farms and farmers markets, or urban pea patches—only on a much larger scale. The future of food, in other words, will be built from ideas and models that are familiar, relatively simple, and easily distilled into a buying decision: Look for the right label, and you’re done.

But that’s not the reality. Many of the familiar models don’t work well on the scale required to feed billions of people. Or they focus too narrowly on one issue (salad greens that are organic but picked by exploited workers). Or they work only in limited circumstances. (A $4 heirloom tomato is hardly going to save the world.)

Responding to this, The Visible Hand in Economics  asks if organic farming is sustainable:

The key issue is:

1. Organic farming uses a LOT more resources than normal farming;
2. To call yourself organic and get that market recognition you need to be 100% organic;
3. There is no market standard for recognising that a farmer is more sustainable or environmentally friendly than their rivals if they’re not organic.

I think that most consumers who buy organic are also the type of people who want to do the environmentally friendly thing. While organic farming may not be as polluting as farming with synthetic fertilizer it is much more resource intensive. So where’s the incentive for farmers to move towards less resource hungry AND more sustainable alternatives?

But there’s another question: when everything is taken into account is organic farming actually better for the environment?

The North Otago Sustainable Land Management Group was set up about 15 years ago and has done a lot of work, in conjunciton with the Otago Regional Council, to educate farmers in sustainable production and they’ve done a very good job. I don’t think any of the farms which follow the guidelines are organic but they use science-based practices  to maintain the health of the soil and waterways while producing meat, milk and crops which meet all the requirements for food health standards.

If they switched to organic farming the volume produced would fall, and it’s a moot point as to whether the quality would be any higher or if it would be any better for the environment.

Where to Ngai Tahu?

Small in number but economically and politically powerful, Ngai Tahu has earned wide respect in the south.

While some other tribes are still caught up in grievance mode Ngai Tahu has invested wisely and seems to be more focussed on the future. But lately they’ve been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

As the ODT editorial says:

Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu (Tront) has long been regarded as a model post-settlement success story.

It negotiated firmly early on in the settlement process, achieved in 1998 a Deed of Settlement that included a cash sum of $170 million, established a tight and efficient business organisation, and set about investing and growing its assets.

. . . For some time now, however, it has been apparent that all is not well within the tribe.

The latest symptom was the abrupt sacking of corporation chairman Wally Stone.

The move met with widespread surprise and concern, and this was followed by further revelations of bad blood last week.

As a result, long-time Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere (chairman) Mark Solomon appears to be increasingly isolated.

Nothwithstanding the apparently labyrinthine internal politics of the iwi and the inclination of its leaders, especially Mr Solomon, to shield tribal machinations from public scrutiny, the divisions in the organisation need to be urgently addressed lest the good work of the last 10 years be undone.

Roarprawn latest post on the issue  is one of many from her giving the inside story, including this one which links to a blog  giving another point of  view from Richard Parata.

Ngai Tahu has done a lot of good for its members, the wider economy and the regard in which they are held by the wider public.

I won’t pretend to understand what’s gone wrong or why, but I hope wisdom prevails and they get it sorted out and soon because as the ODT says:

Nothwithstanding the apparently labyrinthine internal politics of the iwi and the inclination of its leaders, especially Mr Solomon, to shield tribal machinations from public scrutiny, the divisions in the organisation need to be urgently addressed lest the good work of the last 10 years be undone.

What happened to summer?

Metservice forecasters were right about today – The temperature has plummeted and it’s hailing  -and it feels cold enough for them to be right about tomorrow: 

Tue 10		Showers, some heavy and possibly thundery with hail.Strong cold southwesterlies.
Wed 11		Showers. Some snow down to 500 metres at first. Cold gusty southwesterlies, gradually easing.

AgResearch and Lincoln University plan merger

Ag Research and Lincoln University are looking at a merger.

The proposal is to create a world-class, land-based University supporting research, education and extension that is focused on New Zealand’s vital primary industries.

“This would create an internationally outstanding entity, which would rank in the world’s top five of its type,” said Tom Lambie, Chancellor of Lincoln University.

“New Zealand needs to lift its rate of productivity growth and the obvious place to start is with the land-based industries. Through the creation of a world-class, internationally ranked, 21st century land-based University, the performance of New Zealand’s land-based industries will be enhanced substantially,” said Mr Lambie.

AgResearch Chairman Sam Robinson says when AgResearch was formed it brought together animal sciences from the Ministry of Agriculture and plant sciences from the DSIR which allowed, for the first time, the development of a coherent scientific view of how a farm operates.

“This merger will go that one vital step further and translate all that knowledge and technology that our scientists produce into coherent education and training for immediate industry benefit along the entire value chain. AgResearch has more scientists than any other government-owned research organisation in New Zealand and merging with Lincoln University will provide a more stable base for New Zealand’s most important research and development, and enhance teaching activity,” said Mr Robinson.

A fact sheet on the proposal is here.

The merger profile is here and lists expected benefits from the merger including critical mass and concentration of expertise, new opportunities for research, better integration of research, combine education and research in a way separate organisations can’t, increased revenue, raise the profile of the sophistication of land-based industries as a career, enhanced ability to recurit staff and students, produce more relevantly-educated graduates, greater funding stability and security of revenue and a much stronger voice for the land-based industries.

Closer investigation may unearth some fish hooks, but at first glance this sounds like a sensible merger of people and resources which will benefit agricultural research.

Anything which leads to improvements in farming practices and productivity is to be encouraged for its own sake and because it will be good for the environment and the economy too.

Stronger links between farming, science and the university should be good for all of them.

Ecologic to counter greenwash

Green is the new black and environmentalism has assumed elements of religion so that anyone who questions it risks being accused of heresy.

But every religion attracts false prophets so how do we know if we’re being led astray from the path to a cleaner, greener planet or at least fooled into thinking we’re doing the green thing when we’re not?

Kathryn Ryan sought some answers to these questions and others on the dangers of greenwashing from Brian Clegg, the author of  Ecologic: The Truth and Lies of Green Economics.

Brian’s most recent book is Ecologic to be published by Eden Project Books in January 2009. He has written seven other science titles, including The Global Warming Survival Kit (Doubleday), and Upgrade Me (St Martin’s Press). His earlier book, A Brief History of Infinity reached #1 on Amazon in Popular Science (General) and Popular Maths, staying at #1 for ten further weeks.

Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, UK, Brian read Natural Sciences (specializing in experimental physics) at Cambridge University.  After graduating, he spent a year at Lancaster University where he gained a second MA in Operational Research, a discipline developed during the Second World War to apply mathematics and probability to warfare and since widely applied to business problem solving.

From Lancaster, he joined British Airways, where he formed a new department tasked with developing hi-tech solutions for the airline. His emphasis on innovation led to working with creativity guru Dr. Edward de Bono, and in 1994 he left BA to set up his own creativity consultancy, running courses on the development of ideas and the solution of business problems. His clients include the BBC, the Met Office, Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, the Treasury, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others

He has a blog, Now Appearing.

You can listen to Ryan’s interview here.

Political disappointments

Rob Hosking writes that the government seems oddly vague  over the sacking of Ross Wilson as chair of ACC.

They might seem vague but the reason is obvious: if you’re politically appointed you can be politically disappointed.

Either the horrific financial position ACC is in or Wilson’s political views, if not his allegiance, would be grounds for a job loss under a new administration and the combination makes the decision compelling.

It is also another argument for following the USA’s example where political appointees offer their resignations when the government changes.

Incoming ministers could choose to accept the offers or not. That would enable them to keep those who are performing well and let those who aren’t, or whose services are no longer wanted for whatever reason, to leave with their dignity intact rather than facing the indignity of being sacked.