Posts by Farmer Green
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Hard News: Let's do some commerce, in reply to Hebe,
"Is your website link your business?"
Yes.We were lucky to get some on-farm guidance from Peter Proctor back in the 70s. Herbert Koepf was also a visitor, as was Carl Hoffman.
A lot of it was about making a place to rear some children , and so we were guided by the thesis set out in Karl Ege's book - "An Evident Need of Our Times".
We were lucky to score an old schoolhouse , which we moved to a paddock , and it all grew from there. We barely survived the '87 crash , but we got a lucky break there when the mortgagee sale was unable to proceed.The initial impetus was a desire to save the family farm which my grandfather had started back in the 40s.
We knew that conventional agriculture was not going to make that possible, so we were open to anything. -
Hard News: Let's do some commerce, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Nice sentiment ; sort of like the busker’s hat on the footpath.
The age -old conflict between art and survival.
FG found it easier to accept no payment for art and to work at something else for the survival, thereby obtaining the sort of artistic freedom that is universally desired.@Andin;-
It’s perfectly natural to view the coming of the cold and darkness with some trepidation.
To maintain a condition of negative entropy takes energy ; energy that comes , in our little corner of the planet, from the sun, which supplies less every day until the shortest day around the 20th of June.
FG counts himself as fortunate to have a job which pays $25/hr for 80 hours every week , for 52 weeks a year. It’s constant.
But he had to create the business which pays him that wage ; nobody else would do that.
And it had to be original, productive, and competitive.
But that is what creativity is for , isn’t it? -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Farmer Green,
It’s unusual that the farming press is taking up this issue. On the other hand , the truth will always out.
What chance of either of the main political parties, . . . actually any political parties . . . addressing this issue?
How much longer can we allow economic necessity to override environmental degradation?How much longer must the mainstream dairy industry be protected from both economic and environmental reality?
The social consequences of this industry aren’t too flash either. A lot of social capital has been destroyed in the last 40 years.http://straightfurrow.realviewtechnologies.com/?xml=straight#folio=6
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Taking up Gareth Morgan's point about a level playing field in dairying . . .
Here is what Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons had to say recently :-” What we would say is (that) the market structures around dairying are . . . driving that quest for more cows – a level playing- field would sort that (out) , and while on-farm investment would become less attractive, downstream investment would take up any slack.”
What would a level playing- field look like?
The repeal of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act might be a necessary precondition to the establishment of the type of alternative dairy manufacturing which avoids the ill effects of the present model.An alternative approach would be to deal with the distortions inherent in the Fonterra Milk Pricing Manual (which is no longer followed by Fonterra anyway).
A removal of the distortions would enable new dairy manufacturers to obtain raw milk at somewhere close to its true value, and would inevitably raise the value of dairy company shares , and also dramatically increase the dividends from ownership of those shares.The whole concept of “added-value” in dairying needs to be re-examined in an open and honest way.
In truth , every thing the industry does , beginning with the refrigeration of the raw milk on the farm , is adding value to a highly perishable product which has no immediate market in this country , or even across the Tasman.The way that “added-value” is currently defined by the Fonterra Milk Pricing Manual is a very long way from reality.
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Chris Waugh,
So far as I can tell, Fonterra is doing far more to replace cropland with dairy farms than Genghis Khan (ever did)
That observation deserves prominence . . .
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11187073
It’s interesting that this article identifies the real problems in the dairy industry but stops short of proposing any commercial solutions.
" What we would say is the market structures around dairying are what's driving that quest for more cows - a level playing field would sort that and while on-farm investment would become less attractive, downstream investment would take up any slack."
Not like Gareth to not put his money where his mouth is , is it? -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Richard Grevers,
I think it’s a mixture of lack of techno-luxuries and social circle / entertainment.
That , and being associated with an industry that is seen by many as totally irresponsible and greedy in its pollution of air and water. In the minds of many , the dairy industry, in particular, seems to be engaged in some sort of environmental vandalism , while claiming to be one of the economic saviours of the NZ lifestyle.
For a young person, that is a bit restricting in terms of the breadth of their social circle. It 's alright being a minority, but few want to be a pariah. -
Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
:-)
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
I’d accord rather more credibility to someone who’s prepared to show the courage of their convictions by posting their conclusions under their own name.
That's interesting. Those in public office tend to use their own names.
In general I'm more inclined to accord some credibility to someone who "walks the talk".
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Hard News: Climate, money and risk, in reply to Joe Wylie,
your dismally defeatist claim that ratepayer representation is some kind of lost cause,
I'm saying that your ability (or inability) to influence the composition of the regional Council will be over-ridden by the provisions of the RMA , which will allow the development that I presume you object to.