Word of the day

Tattogey – someone who cheats by using loaded dice.

Rural round-up

Reducing waste to feed the world:

A 2013 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreement to reduce food waste by 10 percent across the region is picking up pace as researchers and technical team members work towards their 2017 goal of developing effective strategies and actions to address urgent global food waste issues.

A third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted. That translates into about 1.3 billion ton per year. Lincoln University Associate Professor James Morton says reducing food waste is the logical first step in meeting the needs of a growing world population, which is predicted to reach nine billion by 2050. He recently attended the second of three APEC ‘Multi-Year Project’ meetings focused on addressing global food waste, where he spoke around the need to measure and reduce wastage in the livestock chain. . . 

Democracy, apathy or revolution – Allan Barber:

MIE has to be given credit for its persistence with its campaign to persuade Silver Fern Farms and Alliance to look seriously at the benefits of merging as opposed to continuing to beat their respective heads against the brick wall of competition. But the outcome depends on several planets aligning at the same time.

The present state of flux exists because of the uncertainty surrounding the results of SFF’s capital raising exercise, still to be announced at the time of writing, the outcome of two special general meetings called by a minimum of 5% of the shareholders in the cooperatives, and last but not least, the attitude of the majority of those shareholders.

The latest step in this process is the concept of Newco – the Visionary Meat Cooperative which expands on the Big Red proposal contained originally in MIE’s Pathways to Long-term Sustainability report launched in April. There is more detailed financial analysis in the latest concept plan which implies a net profit of $92.4 million in the fourth year after merger compared with a combined profit of $6.7 million if the companies remain separate. . . 

Revolutionary new trawling method improves quality of catch:

A revolutionary new sustainable trawling method is showing great potential for increasing the value of New Zealand’s fisheries by more than $43 million per year by 2025, industry leaders heard in Wellington today.

The Precision Seafood Harvesting (PSH) technology known as a Modular Harvest System (MHS) is a potential replacement for traditional fishing methods. Using a large flexible PVC liner with specifically sized holes along its length, it allows undersized fish to escape before being brought on board a fishing vessel. In addition, the fish that are brought on board stay in good condition because they are still swimming in the liner when they’re on the deck, resulting in less stress and reduced likelihood of injury. . . 

Seizing the global opportunities for New Zealand seafood:

The growing global demand for environmentally sustainable, natural, healthy food offers great opportunities for the New Zealand seafood industry, Seafood New Zealand Chairman George Clement says.

Speaking at the New Zealand Seafood Industry Conference in Wellington today, Mr Clement referred to the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) prediction that global food production will need to increase by 40 per cent by 2030 and seventy per cent by 2050.

Growth in global seafood production (3.2 per cent annually) continues to outpace population growth (1.6 per cent annually), he said. . . 

New Zealand fish stocks performing well:

New Zealand’s fisheries are performing well overall, Dr Pamela Mace, the Principal Advisor Fisheries Science, with the Ministry for Primary Industries said today.

She was providing an update on the status of New Zealand’s marine fisheries at the New Zealand Seafood Industry conference.

“New Zealand’s fisheries are performing extremely well overall, at least as good as or beyond the standard of the best in the world,” she said. . . 

New Role Encourages Home Grown Talent:

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) Genetics has appointed Dr Phillip Wilcox as its inaugural senior lecturer in quantitative genetics* at the University of Otago.

Dr Wilcox has a background in molecular and quantitative genetics and comes from the forestry-focused Crown Research Institute, Scion, where he was a senior scientist. He was also a part-time senior research fellow with the University of Otago’s Department of Biochemistry, working in the field of human genetics. . . 

Seeka Kiwifruit Industries Six Months to 30 June 2015 [Unaudited]:

Directors and management are pleased to present Seeka’s financial results for the six months to 30 June 2015. It was a challenging six months for the Company with a fire significantly damaging Seeka’s Oakside post-harvest facility just prior to harvest, then having to focus on managing a record 27.7m trays of kiwifruit; the first major lift in production since 2011’s previous high of 27.1m trays.

Profits are up. Profit before tax this half year is ahead of the previous corresponding period (pcp) by $2.87m [+115%] at $5.36m, reflecting record kiwifruit volumes handled by post-harvest along with good earnings achieved by the orchard division. The half year results include an allowance for the full second year cost of the three-year grower share scheme totalling $2.55m. . . .

Ballance Farm Environment Awards good for farmers and good for the industry, say Horizons entrants:

Halcombe dairy farmers George and Ellen Bartlett entered the 2015 Horizons Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA) because they wanted to support their industry and learn more about sustainability.

Winning three category awards in their first time in the competition was a bonus for the Bartletts, who run a 950-cow operation on 526ha north of Feilding.

“We certainly didn’t expect to win anything,” says Ellen, “we entered because we wanted to find out what we were doing right and what things we could improve on in future. We also felt it was important to support the awards because they do such a great job of showcasing the good work being done by farmers.” . . 

Share Farmer Contest Heralds New Era:

The 2016 Share Farmer of the Year competition has big boots to fill – taking over from the highly regarded sharemilker competition.

New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Executive Chair Gavin Roden says the Share Farmer of the Year is a hybrid of the sharemilker competition, with changes that better position it within the dairy industry’s evolving farm ownership and employment structures.

“We think the changes will make the contest better and enable more people to enter and gain the benefits from entering. . . 

Wanaka lake weed reduced by two thirds:

Lake Wanaka is healthier than it has been in decades, thanks to weed control work led by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), Minister for Land Information Louise Upston said today.

“In 2005, LINZ and a number of other agencies developed a 10-year strategy to deal with lagarosiphon. A decade on, two-thirds of the lake is clear of the aquatic weed, and LINZ is ready to begin the next phase of control work.

“These results show how LINZ’s collaboration with others is helping protect New Zealand’s iconic landscapes and waterways,” Ms Upston said. . . 

Friday’s answers

Andrei and Teletext posed the questions for which they get my thanks.

You can collect a virtual chocolate cake by leaving the answers below if you’ve stumped us all.

Quote of the day

It’s always been a mystery to me how people can respect themselves when they humiliate others – Gandhi.

August 21 in history

1192  Minamoto Yoritomo became Seii Tai Shōgun and the de facto ruler of Japan.

1680  Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt.

1689  The Battle of Dunkeld in Scotland.

1770  James Cook formally claimed eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.

1772 King Gustav III completed his coup d’état by adopting a new Constitution, ending half a century of parliamentary rule in Sweden and installing himself as an enlightened despot.

1808 Battle of Vimeiro: British and Portuguese forces led by General Arthur Wellesley defeated French force under Major-General Jean-Andoche Junot.

1810  Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshal of France, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates.

1821  Jarvis Island was discovered by the crew of the ship, Eliza Frances.

1831  Nat Turner led black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion.

1863  Lawrence, Kansas was destroyed by Confederate guerrillas Quantrill’s Raiders in the Lawrence Massacre.

1878  The American Bar Association was founded.

1888  The first successful adding machine in the United States was patented by William Seward Burroughs.

1904  William “Count” Basie, American bandleader, was born  (d. 1984).

1911 Mona Lisa was stolen by a Louvre employee.

1918   The Second Battle of the Somme began.

1920 Christopher Robin Milne, inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, was born (d. 1996).

1930 Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, was born  (d. 2002).

1942  Allied forces defeated an attack by Japanese Army soldiers in theBattle of the Tenaru.

1944  Dumbarton Oaks Conference, prelude to the United Nations, began.

1945  Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. was fatally irradiated during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

1952 Glenn Hughes, British bassist and vocalist (Finders Keepers/Trapeze/Deep Purple), was born.

1952  Joe Strummer, British musician and singer (The Clash), was born  (d. 2002).

1958  Auckland became the first city in New Zealand to introduce the ‘Barnes Dance’ street-crossing system, which stopped all traffic and allowed pedestrians to cross intersections in every direction at the same time.

1959  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order proclaiming Hawaii the 50th state of the union – now commemorated byHawaii Admission Day.

1963  Xa Loi Pagoda raids: the Army of the Republic of Vietnam Special Forces vandalised Buddhist pagodas across the country, arresting thousands and leaving an estimated hundreds dead.

1968  Warsaw Pact troops invade Czechoslovakia, crushing the Prague Spring and Nicolae Ceauşescu, leader of Communist Romania, publicly condemned the Soviet maneuver, encouraging the Romanian population to arm itself against possible Soviet reprisals.

1968  James Anderson, Jr. posthumously received the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine.

1969 Michael Dennis Rohan, an Australian, set the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire.

1971  A bomb exploded in the Liberal Party campaign rally in Plaza Miranda, Manila, with several anti-Marcos political candidates injured.

1976  Operation Paul Bunyan at Panmunjeom, Korea.

1983  Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated at the Manila International Airport.

1986 Carbon dioxide gas erupted from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range.

1991  Latvia declared renewal of its full independence after the occupation of Soviet Union.

1991  Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapsed.

1993  NASA lost contact with the Mars Observer spacecraft.

2001 – NATO decided to send a peace-keeping force to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

2001 – The Red Cross announced that a famine was striking Tajikistan, and called for international financial aid for Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

2007   Hurricane Dean made its first landfall in Costa Maya, Mexico with winds at 165 mph (266 km/h).

2013 – – Hundreds of people were reported killed by chemical attacks in the Ghouta region of Syria.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia