BOUNDARIES SLIPPERY BUGGER
“Mr Parker you’re hurting me”
“Trust me on freshwater rules!"
NZ IN THE GREEN ON METHANE MAP
Half-hearted on water
T
wo aspects have been most noticeable about the Government’s essential freshwater reforms. The first is a lack of detail and the second the absence of ministers or officials visiting the regions to explain the policy. For a policy that will arguably have the greatest impact on farming in a generation, the effort to explain and convince those it will affect of its merits, can be described as half-hearted at best. Despite continued widespread condemnation more than two months after its release, there has been little effort by ministers and officials to meet and try to appease those it will most affect. This is especially true of the policy’s architect, environment minister David Parker. His failure to front farmers and most farming media can only be described as shameful. His ministry officials have been equally woeful in providing
clarity, failing to meet with farmers and shying away from media questions, instead directing journalists to hundreds of pages of policy to find answers. To be fair, in recent weeks the MFE has held webinars but these have been little more than a regurgitation of the policy, with limited questions and no interaction. Scheduled to run for one hour, surprisingly the webinar on intensive winter grazing only went for less than 45 minutes, with many questions unanswered. Officials will be able to tick the consultation box, but in reality, they are leaving farmers angry, frustrated and confused. This is totally unacceptable and leads to the conclusion that ministers and ministry officials either lack belief in the policy or have so little understanding of its implications that they cannot answer legitimate questions from those it will impact on the most.
When Russia was under communism, a man decides he JOKE wants to buy a car. He approaches a car dealer and asks
to buy the car, to which the dealer responds: ‘You know there is a 10-year waiting list?’ The man answers ‘okay’ and after some time agrees to buy the car. He pays for the car in advance, and just before he leaves he asks the dealer, ‘do I pick the car up in the morning or afternoon?’ ‘It’s 10 years away, what does it matter?’ ‘Because the plumber is coming in the morning’.
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Despite all our self-inflicted negative press about agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, and in particular methane, New Zealand shows up as green on a newly released global map of atmospheric methane emissions. The map, produced by Canada’s GHGSat, Montreal, uses measurements taken from space, updated weekly. In late October, the worst hotspots (red) were China, inland India, Pakistan, the Middle East and Sahara. Rainforests show up blue, indicating the lowest methane concentrations. The BBC reported that GHGSat hopes the map will spark a much wider discussion about methane emissions and their greenhouse effect.
Secret Lives of Stencils is an exhibition that celebrates the life and 150-year history of the New Zealand wool bale stencil. The exhibition, which opened at Totara Estate near Oamaru in mid-November, tells the story and history of wool bale stencils in a series of interpretation panels, and photos of objects from iconic NZ sheep stations. “Many Kiwis will be familiar with stencil letters used by sheep farmers to mark their wool bales when they sent their wool by ship to British sales,” says Dr Annette O’Sullivan of Massey University School of Design, who undertook the research, design, and photography for the exhibition. “Marks that were stencilled on wool bales represented the personal identity of the original owners and were used in branding sheep stations. More recently they have come to represent rural New Zealand identity.” The exhibition will tour the country once it finishes its inaugural season at Totara Estate.
MAKING THEIR MARK
Country-Wide
December 2020
