The farming and Dairy corporates don’t have to answer to anyone. In the National Party they have a political power that protects them from having to be serious about water pollution, climate changing emissions, animal rights and worker safety.
They also get from National a political party prepared to redesign the entire economy to pump dairy over all and prepared to steal water from democratic bodies like ECan and prepared to privatise state assets to subsidise their unsustainable irrigation programs.
On top of all that, it seems the power of farming and dairy can also allow legalised slavery in NZ with conditions for workers so appalling they demand an investigation for exploitation...
The Government is ruling out an an inquiry into the pay and conditions of farm workers in New Zealand, saying standards are already in place.
Former Council of Trade Unions head Helen Kelly made the call, saying many farm workers were working up to 70 hours a week for low pay, and that was leading to high staff turnover.
…our terrible reputation for allowing slave ships to fish in NZ waters is bad enough, but paying NZ workers pittance in the one industry we are supposedly world leaders over suggests a lobby group that has simply gained too much power over the National Party.
Corporate Farmers and the Dairy industry under National are like Rugby Players facing assault charges in Court – they can get away with anything.
A problem so dire that even right-wing blogger, David Farrar, could not stomach; https://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/a-slave-by-any-other-name/
Yes, all of that plus Abrupt Climate Change and economic unsustainability.
The good news is, the globalised economic system is collapsing.
The bad news is, the government and most citizens are firmly locked into denial and totally unprepared for what is coming soon.
With markets shaking themselves to pieces (oil around $30 and share markets tumbling), it’s hard to know whether we have several months or several weeks before the big crash. It won’t be several years.
And you could add that New Zealander’s pay much more than they should for milk. Fonterra would rather pour excess milk into rivers or create vast stinking buttermilk lakes (like in Taranaki) than drop the price.
Comparing cowsploitation to Farming is like comparing butchery to surgery.
And if you think this level of corruption, exploitation and inhumanity is something new to ‘ farming’ then look closer and you will be in horrible awe as to how deeply corrupt our country’s primary industry was/ is and at how deeply entrenched that corruption has become.
Once the power elite comes into possession of cheaply produced farmer-product ( which also happens to be the best quality in the world ) once it leaves the farm gate? It’s open slather to make as much money as possible from it, leaving the farmer with crumbs, our country in ruins and the way our export partners view us in tatters hence we must now trade with murderers and abusers in the Middle East or the greedy, manipulative Asian markets. Farmer ignorance is as much a construct manufactured as propaganda by the media as it is for the rest of us. It’s a common ‘divide and conquer’ thing. Just like they do with the divide between Maori and non Maori. It’s exactly the same methodology for exactly the same purpose. To keep us on the hop while they take what they can get. Remember? pig muldoon used to drag race, gender and abortion around when the heat came on that particular crook?
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen the NZ Farmer represented as an ignorant bore with a growling, gravely voice as they ‘ she’ll be right’ their way through their manipulated lives while they’ll tell you about them Maoris, the dole bludgers, ‘them fuckin’ hippies tryin’ to save the world, should do a days work instead’ while adoring their abusers and putting up their hoardings in their paddocks for their re election.
NZ Farmers, and by farmers I mean actual farmers, not the dairy industry, are as mired in bullshit as the rest of us. Pardon the pun.
If you want a thriving economy, fair employment conditions and less animals per hectare therefore less cruelty then study those fine, fat fellows between the farm gate and your hungry bellies.
Those who control agriculture control the world. Anyone living in Leningrad 72 years ago could tell you that.
Once they’re outed ? Those fine fat fellows, you watch as they scramble to their Gulf Streams to flee to their mansions in the USA, Europe and the UK.
You might want to ask jonky, douglas, meyers, fay, richwhite etc about where they hanger theirs.
I watched a pathetic ‘ documentary ‘ on the fate of our rail system on Prime a couple of nights ago. It was all misty eye shit as a few all-bought-and-payed-for types lamented about how poor old NZ Rail just couldn’t compete with the beastly truck and car. They never mentioned the Dutchman who made $ 48 million over night, I repeat, over night, on the sale of our rolling stock and sundry other ‘ assets’ and lets not forget those who brokered the deal and the missing billions. ( There’s a great documantry on NZ Rail that highlighted that particular era but I can’t find it ? Help ? )
I write the above to highlight the levels of bullshittery that’s rife within our country and it all stems from agriculture because our agriculture is our primary industry.
Blind Mans Bluff. Ever play that as a kid? Try being drunk and naked as an adult. Brilliant fun.
The TDB ? You’re getting warm. Very warm and let me warn you here and now. If you go down this track ( Another pun sorry. ) be very, very careful.
For you Ma. xxxxx
Always enjoy your comments on NZ Dairy and rural society, CB.
Probably it would be informative if you write a series of guest posts about the topic for TDB.
Much better than lots of hints and allusions.
Serious suggestion.
@ Richard Christie . I agree. But for the moment I’m happy to hint and suggest. You read Ian Wishart’s The Paradise Conspiracy ?
To quote Wikipedia .
” In 1992, New Zealand politician Winston Peters began raising a series of allegations in Parliament about prominent business leaders trying to bribe politicians. Wishart was assigned by the TV3 network to report on the case, and came into possession of some confidential business transaction papers that became popularly known as “The Winebox documents” because they had first turned up in an old wine carton.
The documents detailed extensive tax avoidance and tax evasion schemes run through Cook Islands offshore companies associated with an entity part owned by the New Zealand Government state bank, the Bank of New Zealand, and merchant bank Fay Richwhite & Co, whose principals Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite were closely connected to both the Labour and National political parties.”
To go on;
” The documentary was originally scheduled to air in December 1993, but was prevented from going to air by TVNZ management after the intervention of the TVNZ board of directors. ”
One might ask; ” what’s this got to do with agriculture ? ” To answer that: Who’s money do you suppose the crooks were swindling?
Call me Jumpy Jimmy if you must.
You can see where I’m going by erring on the side of caution. Read what happened to Paul White.
@ Cemetery Jones. Thanks man : )
Does it worry anyone else that TDB isn’t a secure website ?
Hi, wondered if you had seen this?
An interesting piece of research to come out of the work of Mike Joy, Kyleisha Foote and Russell Death, “New Zealand Dairy Farming: Milking Our Environment for All Its Worth”. I see though it costs $39.99 to download it but! Might well be worth it though!
The abstract begins with this :-
“Over the past two decades there have been major increases in dairy production in New Zealand. This increase in intensity has required increased use of external inputs, in particular fertilizer, feed, and water. Intensified dairy farming thus incurs considerable environmental externalities: impacts that are not paid for directly by the dairy farmer. These externalities are left for the wider New Zealand populace to deal with, both economically and environmentally. This is counter-intuitive given the dairy industry itself relies on a ‘clean green’ image to maximize returns.”
This quote from the Massey University website:
“The authors of the paper put this down to the radical change that New Zealand dairying has undergone in the past few decades – from a low input, low cost and low impact system to high intensity, high cost, high impact system, increasingly reliant on imported feed and fertiliser. Milk production has increased four-fold and the number of dairy cows has doubled – changes which have, according to the authors, been mirrored by a massive increase in pollution. “
And this quote taken from the NBR:
“In other words, the industry is a zero-sum gain for New Zealand if the costs are included,” said Dr Joy. “A strong message from the study is that avoiding pollution is far cheaper for everyone than trying to clean it up afterward and there is now ample evidence that farmers can make more profit and pollute less when not myopically chasing increased production.”
These people have done us proud over the years, we would be in deep shit with out their voice … and thanks for yours too!
Links:
To buy the paper: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00267-015-0517-x
Massey University article: http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/about-massey/news/article.cfm?mnarticle_uuid=EA732E3E-B2D5-60A5-FD42-D703A78F3678
NBR article: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/dairy-industry-could-have-zero-sum-gain-study-jb-171985
The crucial question here is why intensify? One possible answer: the real estate market. The capital value of a dairy farm rises and falls on the number of litres of milk it can produce per hectare, per year. Increase cow numbers per acre and buy in more feed and you increase production per acre, and thus capital value. That production doesn’t need to be sustainable in the long term by either ecological or economic measures, because by the time those chickens come home to roost a whole series of speculators have made untaxed capital gains buying and selling it.
This is part of a global dynamic described in detail by Guardian writer Fred Peace in his book ‘The Landgrabbers’:
http://conservationmagazine.org/2012/03/hungry-for-land/
Good on Helen Kelly but interesting that she is still leading the charge on these matters even when she is very ill and no longer president of the CTU. The unions need a need natural born leader to take her place
I remember when I was a painter on contract turning up to a farm in the Waikato in the middle of winter… there were several young guys in overalls covered in cowshit.
And I mean covered in it.
And it was still wet.
And the dogs were covered in it as well…
And the farmer was dressed in pretty much spotless clothes as he spoke to us… now, … we all know farming can be a messy , down to earth affair , in with yer boots on type of thing…
But I also recall at that time the farming community was honestly scratching its head over why young people were not drawn to the farming industry anymore…
Can anyone seriously blame them?
And on inquiry as you do when you live in the Waikato , I learnt the miserable pay these tough young guys get for all those long anti social hours , and the often filthy work they have to do.
Miserable wages.
And we are paying the price for 31 years of neo liberal theft and rort to the point where its finally caught up with itself and no one can blame the young for giving two fingers to such a miserly attitude and wage. Not all farmers are like it , of course, … but far too many are.
I wont go into the other points of Martyns article but hats off to the young farm workers and I hope this govt gets its arse kicked out of office and you get a better deal for the future.
So who’s exporting what where? Nothing moving on the sea.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-11/nothing-moving-baltic-dry-crashes-insiders-warn-commerce-has-come-halt
So no facts then?
@ ANDREW . Are you referring to me?
I’m referring to this whole thread.
It’s just a lot politicised whining and moaning.
Short on facts and DEFINITELY short on solutions!
Read what real people are doing in the real world:
https://garethsworld.com/blog/environment/dairy-farmers-voluntarily-making-huge-progress-fencing-planting-waterways/
http://www.trc.govt.nz/riparian-case-studies
http://www.dairyatwork.co.nz/land-water/dairy-farmers-have-spent-one-billion-dollars-protecting-and-improving-the-environment-over-the-past-five-years/
@ Andrew, credit where credit is due. It is good that many agribusinesses are taking some measures to mitigate the massive environmental damage their operations routinely cause. Fencing their waterways is a good start, but it does nothing to prevent material from seeping down through the soil into the underlying water table and entering waterways from beneath the root zones of those plantings. Material from cow pats, cow piss, agricultural poisons (eg herbicides like glyphosate), and artifical fertilizers (see Mike Joy’s revelation of cadmium build-up from years of super-phosphate application).
What we really need farmers to do to sustain long-term productivity is reduce their herd numbers, and take measures to build the health of their soil and the diversity of plants in their pasture. In other words, exactly what organic farmers have been doing for decades in all areas including dairy.
It has been estimated that about half of our river pollution comes not from farming but from council sewerage systems which have not had money spent on them in decades.
The larger centres have upgraded but small towns have, in many cases not done much at all. So aging infrastructure, poorly managed, is a key contributor to river and coastal pollution.
The dairy farm workers are third world from the Philippines who will work for peanuts, the farmers will not employ locals as they know their rights and want fair pay and conditions.Heard it direct from a southern Hawkes Bay conversion farmer directly.
Industrial (farming) civilization ,culture is a violent disturbing mess. The plug has to be pulled fast or nothing will be left. Everything we take for granted is fucked up! Everything is stolen from nature everything is manipulated to the point that only total collapse of this ‘system’ of blood, guts, slavery, and war which is all just to funnel money to the rich needs to crash!
Meat, milk, farmed animals along with the rest of nature shouldn’t be named a ‘unit’ or a ‘resource’ for our horrible, bloated, stupid species to stuff our faces with. Watching Masterchef is enough to make me vomit! People are starving to death while we watch fat fucks nibble on food and judge the cooking, OMG! Only a truly screwed up culture of psychopaths can carry on in the face of a mass extinction event like business as usual.
We need to grow up and change this culture or we will face some almighty disturbing consequences, and from my point of view it’s long over due and deserved. Denial of the truth about our revolting ‘civilization’ and stupidity got us here, we need to unplug our brains from this culture of death. What is wrong with everyone can’t anyone see civilization is a death cult! We are causing nothing but massive suffering for millions of meat farmed animals, and wildlife that doesn’t ‘belong’, to us as a ‘resource’ who the fuck do we think we are?! I feel like I can’t eat anything anymore without the boot of empire having kicked the guts out of everthing in the wake of it’s ‘harvest’ now mass extinction and massive animal suffering is our new normal. How fucken civilized! Fuck you empire! ( I feel quite strongly about this living planet).
@ Kate. I hear you. I really do. When I see some mutt chuck their shit out the window of their car I get just a little bit fucked up I must admit. When I see how Councils pay people my money to spray poisons into our streams and rivers in the belief that dead grass is better than living grass is an indication of the madness that grips some people.
Agriculture is an art form. It requires finesse earned from generations of people tuning into their lands . Harmonising with nature. I know, I know. Some of you will think that sounds like hippy shit. Well, you’d be fucking wrong. So fuck off! Learn a thing, then tuck in to your store bought, high sugar, high fats, high salts pre-packaged, value added food stuffs to build the fat around your brainless arses and while you’re at it ? Order your coffin. I agree , arses don’t have brains. I’ll give you that. But that’s all I’ll give you.
The real problem is the Banks. They, are the ones who subvert and buckle farming to fit with an economic model. They, are the ones who’re going to drag us and our Earth into a fucking oblivion.
The solution ? All foreign banks out . OUT of New Zealand / Aotearoa. Fuck off! Fuck off you worthless , greedy scum.
God, I’m angry now. I’m off to slap a kitten.
That could be a metaphor for us lot. We’re quick to hurt each other while the real creeps get away with the shit they make us eat.
Your essay was succinct and I agree. That conundrum of the old conflict of Capitalism versus Conservation. I predict an Opposition after the next GE. which will hobble the current New Zealand Government. Would anyone be prepared to place a ” wager ” on this one?
Who is it that will win when the dairy farms tip up?
Think banks……..
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