Comments on: Fonterra have lost their social licence in NZ

By: Xenophon

Xenophon — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 02:13:20 +0000

True, but that tells us that the whole “back-to-nature” movement that started in the 1960’s has also flamed out, which has huge implications for the environmental movement.

Bottom line: if the natural product costs more then people will dump it, no matter what they say.

The real question is what New Zealand will replace our primary-producer industries with, because I see nothing on the horizon.

Oh well, population at 1.5 million by 2100, consisting of Thiel-like billionaires supported by a servant class whose kids flee to Australia as soon as possible.

By: joseph

joseph — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:51:22 +0000

In the advent of synthetic milk products 100 year old consumer brands made from authentic milk will likely command premium prices. That opportunity is gone now.

Twenty years ago a mate did IT at Fonterra and was getting paid 50% more than elsewhere in the industry he reckoned the farmers had no understanding of the weight of SF. Staff fat.

By: Chris Harris

Chris Harris — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 23:38:29 +0000

Back in 1981, Kenneth Cumberland was assuring New Zealanders by way of his TVNZ Landmarks series that our position on the sheep’s back — wool was our biggest export in the mid-1960s — was secure. Come March 1982, we hit ‘peak sheep’ at over 70 million. It’s about 25 million now, thanks to the increasing market penetration of artificial substitutes for industrial grade wool such as nylon and polyester, despite ads of the time that claimed wool was a fibre “man can never re-create.” Dairy farming will be the next piano out the window, for precisely the same reason, plus methane and other environmental and ethical issues. And sheep farming, and all those who said it was secure in the face of synthetic fibres, and rumours of its coming collapse exaggerated, is the precedent.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 20:14:56 +0000

Meanwhile, American owned Watties closes down its frozen vegetable processing in Nz and hundreds of arable farmers wonder what to do with their flat fertile Canterbury farmland. More dairy farms are on the way.