Posts by Farmer Green
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Once again you evaded the point that in regions other than Canterbury,( if you are to be believed and I don’t believe that there are not consents for what I have described being granted ), where councils are in charge , such a development can proceed with the necessary consents. If you , as a ratepayer, object to such developments, it makes no difference who is in charge, a Commissioner or a council; the RMA allows it.
Of course there are obstacles , everywhere , but by and large , intensive dairying continues to expand; the 'obstacles" are surmountable.See what was written:-
“The point is that the degradation in the Canterbury region (geographical peculiarities aside) can be replicated all over the country under the present state of RMA legislation. Anyone can cut down all their trees, laser -level the terrain, get a water right, install the centre-pivot irrigator, put on 4-5 cows /Ha, and pour on the Nitrogen fertiliser, ship in the PKE and the maize silage etc. etc., and create a gigantic effluent storage pond . . . and Bob’s your Uncle, right?”
I’ll concede that in the Mackenzie country , you may have to house the cows as well.
If, as you allege, the ECAN, does not permit this development anywhere in Canterbury, then you are just bitching about the process aren’t you? I’m presuming you are opposed to such development, but you want a council, not a commissioner. Tough. -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Despite your claim, this situation is unique to Canterbury,
My contention is that ratepayers/voters have no say in the way the RMA is applied in their area, whether a democratically elected council or a Commissioner is in charge. The actual outcomes are determined by the RMA and any existing regulation that has passed into law.
The point is that the degradation in the Canterbury region (geographical peculiarities aside) can be replicated all over the country under the present state of RMA legislation. Anyone can cut down all their trees, laser -level the terrain, get a water right, install the centre-pivot irrigator, put on 4-5 cows /Ha, and pour on the Nitrogen fertiliser, ship in the PKE and the maize silage etc. etc., and create a gigantic effluent storage pond . . . and Bob's your Uncle, right?Yes , Canterbury is spectacularly unsuited to such a development , but the situation is not really unique. There are other places equally unsuitable, and the presence of a "democratically-elected" council will prove to be no obstacle. So I don't think that your Commissioner is actually the root of the problem.
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Perhaps your concerns about perceptions of dairying profitability should be directed to Shanghai Pengxin.
What do you mean? It seems that Shanghai Pengxin has no intentions of following the accepted NZ dairy model which is the root cause of the relative unprofitability of conventional NZ dairying. The first thing being dumped is the co-operative model.
But Shanghai Pengxin may well fall flat on their faces ; without the involvement of Landcorp in operating the farms , that might have occurred already. Time will tell if it was a good investment ; it didn’t work for Allan Crafar, and he wasn’t inexperienced, or lacking in skills or innovation. Maybe Allan should have built his own factory , and added some value to his milk. -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Chris Waugh,
I think “wu wei” is hard enough to grasp even if you have read the Taoist classics in the original.
Yes but much easier to experience the closer one lives to the natural world, where every day is a different length , and no two days are the same.
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Are you "in politics " Joe? The situation in Canterbury does not seem to differ in any meaningful way from that which prevails in the rest of the country i.e. a RMA Act which has yet to address agriculture in an effective way. The requirement of the Act is to act sustainably ; that doesn't require public input. It is a question for science. In practice it is about avoiding, reducing or mitigating undesirable effects of one's operations; what used to be called nuisance in law.
There is little case law surrounding the allocation of water in N.Z., but it will come in time. -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Sacha,
If it was you Sacha ,what aspect, if any , of the rural lifestyle would you find problematic?
Bear in mind that hours of work /roster is currently a hot topic .
We have operated a 9 on/5 off roster for some years - i.e a five day weekend - off every second week. But we have never had to advertise for staff anyway ; there is always a list of people looking for employment here.
Most dairy farms do not offer year-round employment either; the work is somewhat seasonal. -
Those who think that conventional , large-scale dairy farming is a guaranteed path to riches might like to take a look at point #12 in the following link:-
Plenty of risks here:-
http://www.dairynz.co.nz/file/fileid/29371 -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Chris Waugh,
And Chris you , quite diplomatically, did not even mention the methane output associated with the growing of paddy rice :-)
Still , the effects of the cloven hooves of rice-paddy water buffalo, on what is really just swamp-land, are probably relatively minor. You have to go to the Queensland outback if you want to see serious water-buffalo damage.It could be that it is well nigh impossible to explain the concept of "Wu wei" as it applies to the rural way of life, especially to those who have neither experience of the philosophy , nor the lifestyle.
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Farmer Green,
re: 'your old-school squealing cocky chip on the shoulder."
It looks like you may have mis -read FG’s comment.
As a highly profitable dairy farmer, Farmer Green has absolutely no cause to complain about anything, so if you were suggesting that it is he who has the chip on his shoulder then it is not clear why you would think that.
Farming seems to Farmer Green to be the best of all possible worlds ; the idea that it entails a “low standard of living” , as Richard Grevers suggested to be a widely held view, does not tally with FG’s experience.
That is not to say that everyone is suited to the rural life. -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
Of course you're right. I was being deliberately provocative on an old and stale thread in the hope that someone might engage on what seems to me to be a critical topic for the future of Godzone.
I was hoping for engagement on the substantive issues . . .