Word of the day

Lunkhead – a dull, slow-witted or stupid person, a dolt.

Rural roundup

Freshwater farm plan systems to be improved :

The coalition Government intends to improve freshwater farm plans so that they are more cost-effective and practical for farmers, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay have announced.

“A fit-for-purpose freshwater farm plan system will enable farmers and growers to find the right solutions for their farm and catchment,” Mr Hoggard says.

“Farmers faced an avalanche of regulation under the last Government, including its national Freshwater Farm Plans system.

“Using property and catchment specific farm plans makes sense because they can be used to identify environmental risks and plan practical on-farm actions to manage those risks. . . 

Can Kiwifruit help fill the gap? – Keith Woodford:

New Zealand has an unbalanced economy and desperately needs more exports. Kiwifruit is one of the few industries with potential to help fill the gap. ***

New Zealand’s economy is in trouble. It is not just inflation and the cost of living. It is something much more fundamental.

New Zealand has for a long time imported more than it exports. MPI data show that 80 percent of the exports come from food and fibre industries. There is no easy solution to the problem of too many imports and too few exports.

We also have a problem that New Zealand is running big deficits on international services payments. This means that the income we receive from tourists, overseas students and interest payments from overseas, is considerably less than what we currently pay out for international services.  The big-ticket service expenditure items are our own international holidays, plus interest and dividend payments to overseas investors for all those previous investments they have made.

The overall foreign-exchange balance on trade in the combined categories of goods and services is called the current-account balance. If we earn more than what we spend then there is a surplus. If we earn less than what we earn there is a current-account deficit. . . 

First maize harvest ever on farm today. Very exciting stuff. 🌽🌽🌽 pic.twitter.com/lCesziAM4D

— 🚜🐄 🧢Bruce🧢 🐄🚜 (@fairleigh_ag) April 21, 2024

Big opportunities in wellness for red meat :

Overseas consumers have a strong interest in improving their wellbeing through eating red meat, newly published research shows; highlighting opportunities to achieve a premium for products with proven health benefits.

Crown research institute AgResearch partnered with Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) to survey attitudes among red meat eaters in Australia and the United States towards physical and mental wellness related to consumption of red meat.

The United States and Australia both play crucial roles in the domestic and global red meat market, serving as major producers and exporters of red meat, and having substantial red meat consumption per capita.

When asked, more than 90 per cent of survey participants across the two countries indicated interest in purchasing red meat to improve their wellness status, while about 85 per cent indicated their willingness to pay more for red meat for potential wellness benefits. . . 

Still trying to shake that dry pattern – Philip Duncan :

Rain has fallen, but more is needed for those in the driest parts of New Zealand. Some regions still have a “late summer/early autumn” look to them despite the rain that has fallen so far this month. 

El Niño has officially gone now – but autumn’s usual westerly driven weather means many may not notice an immediate change, and we’re still seeing eastern parts and northern parts of both main islands leaning drier.  

Soil moisture deficit maps show the eastern half of Northland, the eastern side of Auckland, the Hauraki Plains, Coromandel Peninsula, much of Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, East Cape, Hawke’s Bay, eastern Manawatū, southern coastal Taranaki to Whanganui, Wairarapa, southern inland parts of Marlborough, and a decent chunk of Canterbury are all “thirsty”. 

Some of these places are much drier than normal right now and need at least 100mm of rain (preferably not in one day!) to change things. . . 

NZ Post to change delivery days for newspapers and parcels to rural addresses :

NZ Post is changing its delivery days for newspapers and parcels in rural areas of New Zealand. From 29 June 2024, there will no longer be newspaper and parcel deliveries to rural addresses on Saturdays due to commercial viability, but Monday to Friday deliveries will continue as usual.  

NZ Post Chief Operating Officer Brendon Main says Saturday services to rural areas are not commercially viable.  

“Today, the items delivered by NZ Post rural delivery partners on Saturday are limited to subscription newspapers, as well as some parcels. We deliver very low volumes of items on these days, and it costs us more to deliver on Saturdays than we earn from the products we deliver.” 

“From 29 June 2024, NZ Post will no longer deliver newspapers and parcels on Saturdays in the majority of rural New Zealand, with the exception of 17 rural delivery runs that will be phased out by June 2025. These 17 delivery runs are in Canterbury and Waikato and are being kept in place to give our business customers more time to put alternative arrangements in place for their customers.”  . . 

Please don’t block roads or gateways as farmers need to access fields to keep lambs alive.

And if you ignore polite requests and good sense, they might have to take urgent action like they do up in Cumbria 😄😂

📸 Herdwick Shepherd pic.twitter.com/YnLikjRnps

— FarmingUK (@FarmingUK) April 21, 2024

Christmas on the first weekend in May – Phil Weir :

April is an exciting time of year because it means we are getting really close to Christmas. 

Putting out the mānuka tinsel and anatine baubles is very much a part of my autumn, in anticipation of the joy of Christmas come the first weekend of May. 

My children think it is mad, but one day they will realise that my April mirrors their December. 

The start of the month is about preparation, getting the tree up and dusting off the lights, or sighting the gun again after it being in the safe for the best part of 12 months.  . . 

Woman of the day

Woman of the Day Peggy Knight born OTD 1920 in London, whose perfect French and skills as a shorthand typist caught the attention of the Special Operations Executive in the run-up to D-Day. Codename: Nicole.

The SOE rushed her through the training in two weeks. Six practice… pic.twitter.com/s6zuB9iocj

— The Attagirls (@TheAttagirls) April 19, 2024

Bjorge brings calm to climate conversation

If climate change really was a crisis, we’d have fuel rationing, only essential travel would be permitted and cars wouldn’t have been racing around Taupo all weekend.

Climatising over climate change does a lot of harm and absolutely no good.

Bjorn Lomborg brings some much needed calm to the conversation:

Climate change is real and its impacts are mostly negative, but common portrayals of devastation are unfounded. Scenarios set out under the UN Climate Panel (IPCC) show human welfare will likely increase to 450% of today’s welfare over the 21st century. Climate damages will reduce this welfare increase to 434%.

Arguments for devastation typically claim that extreme weather (like droughts, floods, wildfires, and hurricanes) is already worsening because of climate change. This is mostly misleading and inconsistent with the IPCC literature. For instance, the IPCC finds no trend for global hurricane frequency and has low confidence in attribution of changes to human activity, while the US has not seen an increase in landfalling hurricanes since 1900. Global death risk from extreme weather has declined 99% over 100 years and global costs have declined 26% over the last 28 years.

Arguments for devastation typically ignore adaptation, which will reduce vulnerability dramatically. While climate research suggests that fewer but stronger future hurricanes will increase damages, this effect will be countered by richer and more resilient societies. Global cost of hurricanes will likely decline from 0.04% of GDP today to 0.02% in 2100.

Climate-economic research shows that the total cost from untreated climate change is negative but moderate, likely equivalent to a 3.6% reduction in total GDP.

Climate policies also have costs that often vastly outweigh their climate benefits. The Paris Agreement, if fully implemented, will cost $819–$1,890 billion per year in 2030, yet will reduce emissions by just 1% of what is needed to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Each dollar spent on Paris will likely produce climate benefits worth 11¢.

Long-term impacts of climate policy can cost even more. The IPCC’s two best future scenarios are the “sustainable” SSP1 and the “fossil-fuel driven” SSP5. Current climate-focused attitudes suggest we aim for the “sustainable” world, but the higher economic growth in SSP5 actually leads to much greater welfare for humanity. After adjusting for climate damages, SSP5 will on average leave grandchildren of today’s poor $48,000 better off every year. It will reduce poverty by 26 million each year until 2050, inequality will be lower, and more than 80 million premature deaths will be avoided.

Using carbon taxes, an optimal realistic climate policy can aggressively reduce emissions and reduce the global temperature increase from 4.1°C in 2100 to 3.75°C. This will cost $18 trillion, but deliver climate benefits worth twice that. The popular 2°C target, in contrast, is unrealistic and would leave the world more than $250 trillion worse off.

The most effective climate policy is increasing investment in green R&D to make future decarbonization much cheaper. This can deliver $11 of climate benefits for each dollar spent.

More effective climate policies can help the world do better. The current climate discourse leads to wasteful climate policies, diverting attention and funds from more effective ways to improve the world. . . 

And what are those more effective ways to improve the world?

We don’t have unlimited resources.

Where can the world spend a dollar and do the most good for the future?

This list by 50+ teams of world-class economists shows the best—and not so good—investments (longer lines better).

From my peer-reviewed article: https://t.co/CC0h7JKIKv pic.twitter.com/2TjtgJTU5O

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) April 18, 2024

Research, science and technology are what have solved problems in the past and that is what is needed to tackle climate change.

Investing in that instead of politics and bureaucracy would save money that’s needed to solve other problems that are far more urgent.

That would be better for the earth, and the world.