Bronwyn Muir replies to Rachel Stewart:
Dear Rachel,
I don’t really have the time to write this as busy running some rural businesses but here goes….
You probably don’t remember me – I held the Taranaki FFNZ Presidents position for nearly 4 years and sat in the wings biting my tongue while you ran off at the mouth / pen and tried to hold Feds and farmers to ransom time and time again.
Well I don’t hold the position anymore and have had enough of your tripe and personal attacks to put it politely – there is too much at stake for all New Zealanders right at this point! . .
QR code to prove SFF product origin:
Dunedin meat processor Silver Fern Farms is introducing new retail packaging in New Zealand and overseas, to allow consumers better access to proof of origin of the product.
Chief executive Dean Hamilton said the investment in traceability would support the growth of the company’s Silver Fern Farms branded products.
“We want to deliver transparency in the food chain for our consumers who are increasingly interested in knowing where their food has come from and that their food has been produced safely, with care and in a sustainable way.” . .
First-time environment award entrants encourage others to put their hands up
Entering the Ballance Farm Environment Awards has been a great learning and development experience for new Kaitaia farmers Gay Pembroke and Mark Corby.
“The past 12 months have been great fun. It was a wonderful experience and I think entering the awards and being involved in the process has given us a lot more confidence that what we are doing is on track,” Gay says.
The couple have owned their 102ha dairy support/beef block at Kaitaia for the past three years. Neither Gay nor Mark are from a farming background, and the change that they made in their lives from 4ha to 102ha was exciting but massive. . .
The time is ripe to transform agriculture and feed the world :
Political and agricultural leaders gathered at the University of Illinois today to see transformative work by Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) that has increased yields by 20 percent.
The research project announced that it will continue work to address the global food challenge with the support of a $45 million, five-year reinvestment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID)..
The great GMO freak-out expose – Lenore Skenazy:
It all began when a neighbor of filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s sent a text asking if she could borrow some organic milk.
Kennedy texted back, “You can borrow some milk, but I don’t have organic.”
The friend politely declined, which set Kennedy to thinking. His family drank conventional milk. Did that make him a dad who didn’t care about his kids’ safety, or the environment?
That would be odd, since he was nominated for an Oscar for his film about a community garden blooming in South-Central Los Angeles. .
Hurricane Irma wiped out half of Florida’s citrus crop –Kate Yoder:
The Sunshine State expected to harvest 75 million boxes of oranges this year. That number is looking decidedly slimmer after Irma knocked fruit off trees, flooded fields and groves, and broke irrigation pipes.
The hurricane took out an estimated 50 percent of the season’s citrus crop statewide, USA Today reports. Based on reports from the field, losses may be even higher in South Florida. . .
Homepaddock 