“The Groundswell protest today shows just how stuck in the mud some farmers are when it comes to moving with the times. That after decades of scientific evidence and easily felt changes here on farms in Aotearoa, some people still call climate change a hoax or not man made really speaks volumes of how detached they are from the rest of the world.” says Emily Bailey of Climate Justice Taranaki.
“This country’s rural and agricultural sector has been hard hit by floods, intense storms and droughts this year alone, costing millions in damages and loads of stress and heartbreak for those losing homes, sheds, stock and fences. It’s only getting worse and farmers can either adapt and rapidly bring down their emissions or they and everyone else will suffer more.”
“The intensification and industrialisation of the dairy industry – fuelled by importing feed from overseas and the use of synthetic fertilisers like urea – in Taranaki and elsewhere has increased our emissions while having a negative impact on the local environment. The creeks and streams are struggling, there is a loss of biodiversity and rural communities are literally disappearing with the closure of schools, shops and community halls due to a population decline. While the adverse impacts on our atmosphere can be measured, the social impacts are often forgotten” says Urs Signer of Climate Justice Taranaki.
“Our group sat down with unions, councils and the oil and gas industry to work on a just transition plan for the fossil fuel sector. We now need to do the same for the dairy industry. Rather than exporting 95% of dairy as a cheap commodity to be sold on the international stock market, we need to work together to localise and diversify our food production. When a dairy farmer on 200ha struggles to pay the bills, meanwhile market gardeners can grow vegetables on half an acre creating three full-time jobs while feeding the local community, it is clear that the agricultural sector has been pushed and trapped into a system created by the banks, farm advisors and industry lobby groups that is failing our planet, rural communities and our local environment.”
“We need an immediate stop to the import of palm kernel feed made from rainforest destruction in Borneo. We need to ban the import of phosphate from war-torn Western Sahara. We need to stop using synthetic fertiliser made from fossil fuels or hydrogen. Most importantly, we need to work together in rural communities to shift away from exports towards regenerative agriculture for local markets by diversifying our production, retiring farm land for indigenous reforestation and re-building once thriving communities” concludes Signer.
why no rightard rage here at TDB about this disruption, like they vent when a student glues themselves to something
our issues by any means neccesary
their issues disrupting citizens going about their business…
The Farmers have every right to protest and I’m assuming they have the blessing of professional protester John Minto.
The article above was written by somebody who has no idea what they’re talking about.
Reads like an essay from a juvenile.
as do students armed with supaglue bob the last
@ Bob the First.
I agree with. you. Farmers have the right, as do we all, to protest.
The nuance, however, lies within the numbers. The dreaded statistics. Mark Twain, I think it was, wrote ” Lies, damned lies and statistics.”
The statistics with regard to AO/NZ farmers are loaded against them. Statistically, there are only about 50 thousand people who derive their sole income from agrarian practises. At least that’s what the Department of Statistics told me once. Personally, as a farmer, I believe that number to be extravagantly high. But let’s say, for the sake of debate, there are fifty thousand farmers, farming conventionally as a means of earning a living. That means, statistically, that 50 K people feed we 5.2 million here while also providing, by convoluted means the money we need to function as a first world economy, and to nurture our now nine multi billionaires and a diverse and creative false economy born of Kiwi-As liars, swindlers, cowards, cheats, lawyers, politicians, accountants, the dodgy IRD, banks, investment agencies, real estate firms and a myriad media outlets like Blogs and websites to keep the false narrative alive and erect and to provide our government with the necessary funds to further provide for those who need quarter million dollar cars, many mansions on both islands, private jets, apartments in Manhattan and super yachts in Barbados.
“But we have no money for the poor and down trodden. We have no money for the homeless and those living in dire hardship and distress… “ So say our heaving population of grossly over paid politicians, perhaps more accurately referred to as fat mafioso with God, the law and the IRD on their side to tell them how to fuck you on the deal.
The real reason why Three Waters, the stirring up of shit between farmers and non farmers, calling our farmers nasty, puerile little names to keep farmers in cringe mode. To make sure that our farmers are terminally on the back foot, that we’re always in a defence stance.
I just drove through the city I sometimes live in and I saw farmers driving tractors, others were in cars waving flags, others still were standing at traffic lights holding placards.
Well STOP IT! You’re playing a game, the rules of which you never wrote. SO STOP IT! Because this is what will happen. Firstly, everyone will think you’re Dicks. The second thing to happen will be nothing. Nothing, will happen.
Instead… Strike. Go on! Take a year off. And in that time seek council from trustworthy sources and they are out there. I’m one, in fact.
No produce at all. No wool. No meats. No vegetables. No fruit. No free money going into rapaciously greedy pockets. No foreign banksters making record breaking net profits. No more embarrassing fucking around in tractors, please. No more street-corner begging for mercy from your abusers.
Just say No. No more of doing the same thing while expecting a different result. Stop working for an army of lazy bastards who’ve figured out your vulnerabilities which the exploit shamelessly. Blind side the fuckers with a stay in bed and hug the missus tactic instead. I promise you, it’d work. It’d work better than driving a tractor along the street because, honestly, you guys look like a fucking circus parade.
You incredible, resourceful, hard working, hugely productive farmers deserve better than this. The only way to get your abusers around the table is to make them hungry for an extended period of time.
She uses evidence, you show your bias and claim that is evidence. Animal products create emissions, the climate is getting worse, the environment is polluted from farming practices are all proven facts and she did not even mention the overloaded health system due to the majority of the population thinking they need to consume animal products so they overeat them and suffer from the lifestyle diseases that excessive consumption causes.
Have respect for Farmers very little for glued juveniles.
so it’s not about democracy but mere personal preferrence for you bob the last.
Sorry gagarin but don’t understand your question?
Will say I’m all for democracy which doesn’t prohibit me from having an opinion.
no but in your world it praises farmers for the same action you decry hippies for namely halting traffic….
Wut? Why? Because this actually matters. This hopeless government is literally mandating to make food more expensive for all NZers (including beneficiaries and the working poor). Who is for that? You? If so, please explain your position.
So you think that farmer should be able to pollute willy nilly?
No one said that Millsy?
Taxing farmers more will only make them increase food prices to recuperate it. If you want more money for the climate apocalypse, why don’t you fire a few thousand useless wellington bureaucrats? Oh yeah, because it’s all about INCREASING bureaucracy isn’t it? One government to rule them all
Na let’s stop funding the eradication of Mbovis and compensating the guys who’ve lost their herds, after all it’s the dairy industries archaic methods that brought Mbovis in and spread it. The expectation of the industry that the taxpayer will pick up the tab is mind blowing.
Good comment, the agricultural industry has been silent over the government spending to fix up the industries mistakes.
business should pay the actual costs of their ‘inputs’ if I run a shelf factory I have to pay for wood, farmers ‘input’ is the NZ countryside they despoil, they should pay for their ‘raw materials’
if the farms go so too will the local communities, we need profitable farms if we are going to have thriving communities.
show me a poor farmer and I’ll show you a liar.
Well said Mark. The hit job article with a photo from 2 years ago is bollocks. Farmers simply wanted methane treated correctly as the short term (albiet strongly warming) gas that it is. If other sectors are allowed to net out their emmissions why aren’t farmers. By the way – here is a fact (I can reference the scientific article for those interested) emmissions per unit of product from the sheep industry has gone DOWN by 40% since 1990 – whilst transport emmissions have gone UP by 84%. Here is another fact – the governments own report shows a carbon leakage response of 133% for the sheep industry. That means any sheep removed from NZ production with result in a 33% increase in global warming as it will be substituted for a higher carbon less efficient sheep somewhere else in the world. So we want, kill off 20% of our most carbon efficient industry the sheep and beef farmers by 2030 AND knowingly make the world warmer!
Go figure.
Yes please. Would like to read that reference. Thanks in advance
The Farmers have every right to protest and I’m assuming they have the blessing of professional protester John Minto.
The article above was written by somebody who has no idea what they’re talking about.
Reads like an essay from a juvenile.
as do the sticky fingered students bob the last, I know you like it both ways
how about some praise for the ‘heroic students’ defending our time honoured freedoms and liberties. huh bob?
Again have no idea what you are talking about particularly ‘heroic students.’
Like it both ways?
I think he/she/them/it is referring to the gullible students who’d rather stand on a road screaming at the sky than get educated. Or maybe he/she/them/it thinks the ram raiders are some form social warrior heros. Its often very hard to understand someone who should do even a little research on the topic before thier jaws start flapping.
peter you and bob the last, did you notice ‘heroic students’ was in quotation marks…so what do you think that means in this context?
also peter what source of ‘research’ (see there’s those quotation marks again) do you suggest I consult EXACTLY.
if you don’t understand my post bob I can’t dumb it down anymore…but I suspect you understand only too well
Ok gagarin I’ll leave it there.
Comments are closed.