Posts by George Darroch
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
No GST on food in Australia? That's a ridiculous idea!
Whoops, wrong thread... Back to the price of cheese.
-
I've just said that NZ has "some of the best growing conditions on the planet", so I think I should flesh that out. I'm thinking of the Waikato here, which not coincidentally is prime dairy country. Warm, temperate climate, regular high rainfall, and metres of rich volcanic soil until recently protected by forests. A friend of mine who happens to be a farmer reckons you could produce crops to feed 20 million people with intensive agriculture in the Waikato. I have no idea whether he's right or not, but it does suggest we consider other options. Is dairy the goose that lays golden eggs, or simply a golden calf?
-
Keith, you make the claim
Not only is it what New Zealand is good at, it's also a valuable insurance against world food prices. To cutting down dairy production in favour of wheat etc. is like pouring water down the drain so you have empty vessels to catch rain with.
which is to say you strongly imply that dairy is all we're good at, and all we can be good at, and all we can export profitably. I happen to strongly disagree with you, and that in many cases dairy is an highly inefficient use of some of the best growing conditions on the planet.
-
In the interests of rational debate, I'm linking Jeanette's speech here. It seems that the Fonterra quote was a throwaway jab, in the context of a speech that made a number of other concrete proposals, many of which seem quite sensible.
Secondly, I too wonder where Fitzsimons got the 60% figure from. I don't think they pulled it out of nowhere, but they clearly aren't shopping at the same place as StatsNZ...
-
they eat grass, that's probably only a few months old. At worst they should be carbon-neutral, and if that article is correct they actually sequester carbon back into the ground.
There are many people studying livestock and greenhouse gas emissions, and I've never heard the claim that livestock are greenhouse gas neutral. I know there are plenty of scientists at the CSIRO and other scientific agencies working very hard to reduce the large emissions of methane produced by livestock. I suspect de Freitas is just being contrarian, as he often is.
-
That's jolly sporting of you.
Oh no it isn't. I'm only vegan so I can be morally superior and annoy people at dinner parties. The animals are very much a secondary consideration. </irony>
Realistically though, I do find many vegans hard to deal with. They may have reasonable points, but they often express them in unreasonable ways!
-
I just don't think we really give shit how many end-users of all those lovely pounds of butter and cheese we'll export to anyone who will pay for the privilege end up in double wide graves.
My problem is the quality of cheese we send to the world. It's an embarrassment. I live with a Swiss, French, and German, and have had my eyes opened in ways that I never imagined. There's nothing wrong with Colby and Cheddar, but can't we be a little more interesting? After all, we make fine wines, including possibly the best Sauvignon Blanc in the world...
I should say that I'm vegan, but if cows have to suffer, can they at least suffer for a good reason?
-
I think I would rather sit in an air tight room of smokers than an airtight room of a single car running its engine with legislated unleaded petrol.
Car exhausts are toxic, and harm us all. They're an elephant in the room that few people talk about. I might say fair enough too - the Kiwiblog right are upset about the right to drive 300kph on a public road - interfering with the precious right to drive and cause harm to everyone is simply unacceptable.
Never mind that the alternatives are pretty attractive
-
Dub, if you can't talk here without abusing people, or expressing hyperbolic positions that alienate even those who might agree with you, then you are trolling. I don't mind swearing either, but seeing so much of it kind of grates too.
Please, tone it all down a little, cause I like how ordered and sane this place is.
-
What annoys me the most about the whole Malkin/donuts thing is that it's not even a bloody keffiyeh the woman in the ad is wearing. It's check and paisley!
If you want an interesting read on the intellectual framework behind wingnuttert, see Jesus made me puke, by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone.
"Let it out, Matthew," the coach repeated, clutching my forehead. "Just open your mouth."
I shrugged and rattled off the lyrics to the song "What is Autumn?" by the Russian rock band DDT:
What is autumn? It's the sky The crying sky below your feet. Flying about in puddles are the birds and clouds. Autumn I've not been with you for so long!
It's actually a beautiful song, but with my eyes rolled back in my head and recited in Russian it sounded demonic enough.It's familiar. Once you've established that your opponent is completely untrustworthy, then anything they say can be dismissed off-hand without having to consider it rationally. I've seen it engaged in by many groups across a spectrum of topics and belief systems. You realise that you can't take these people head on, you've got to get to the rest of the population aren't full on wingnuts, but who might listen to their claims on the right day.