Wednesday 31 October 2018

“One does have to ask: SHOULD they get support to keep farming here?” (Dec. 15, 2017)

17 December 2017 at 10:33 am
“One does have to ask: SHOULD they get support to keep farming here?”
Country Life, RNZ National, Friday 15 December 2017
In the wake of years of revelations of the environmental damage inflicted by out of control farming, New Zealanders are now inflicted with millions of dollars worth of farming industry propaganda, designed to persuade us that farmers work harder than anyone else, get up earlier than anyone else, and that they actually care for the environment, in spite of evidence to the contrary. Television commercial breaks regularly feature Richie “Offside” McCaw’s Fonterra-paid elegies to early rising, and actual programs such as Country Calendar are often nothing more than P.R. exercises for Big (read “Dirty”) Dairying.
RNZ National’s Country Life program, which is now twenty years old, is well produced and always interesting. It plays on Friday evenings, and is repeated on Saturday mornings. It’s covered all kinds of farming operations and related activities, from beekeeping, to cheese-making, to the growth of farmers’ markets. It also gives more than a fair amount of space to dairy farmers.
On Friday’s edition of Country Life, Edgecumbe dairy farmers affected by the Rangitaiki River flooding in April talk about how they are coping. They are introduced sympathetically….
SUSAN MURRAY: G’day, g’day, good to have you with us for the Country Life hour. I’m Susan Murray in Hamilton, and Duncan Smith’s in Wellington.
DUNCAN SMITH: Hi there. Coming up in a moment we’ll hear which lucky areas had rain in the North Island, and in the South Island the rain that DID fall in Canterbury’s almost been too little too late, and most places are getting very CRISP.
SUSAN MURRAY: We’re joining a traveling nun in Australia, smelling the roses near Christchurch, and meeting some farmers who are still having a VERY TOUGH TIME following the Eastern Bay of Plenty FLOODS back in April. We hear quite a bit about the Edgecumbe TOWN people, but NOT much about the poor farmers. So that soon.
DUNCAN SMITH: Without further ado, let’s z-z-z-zip around the country. In Northland, it’s been HOT….
One of the Edgecumbe farmers complains about being “pinged with fines” for effluent breaches in the past. Then he praises farmers for their “resilience”. However, this is not allowed to become a totally one-sided public relations exercise: at the end of this segment, the interviewer, Susan Murray, reminds the farmer of just why his land was flooded….
FARMER: Yeah we just GRIND ON, and it doesn’t matter WHERE you’re living or WHERE you’re farming in New Zealand, ahhhhhmm, there’s positives and negatives to wherever. …. Yeah, and I think, ahhhhmmm, oh we’ve probably commented before, you’ve just got to break your issues down, ahhhhmmm, you know, don’t try and tackle the whole thing in one hit, break it down, and yeah it may have affected your life in a great way but, um, you know, there’s still a lot to be thankful for in New Zealand, um, you know. There’s lots of options out there, but, yeah, it’s a reason to get up in the morning I suppose, that’s farming, we all enjoy it.
SUSAN MURRAY: And you’ll keep doing it on a flood plain! [chuckle]
FARMER: Yeah, yeah. Have to.
COUNTRY LIFE: Ha ha ha ha ha!
FARMER: [grimly, awkwardly] Heh, heh, heh, heh!
A little later there is a very uncomfortable moment, after Farmer No. 1 has a brain fade and accidentally speaks the truth….
COUNTRY LIFE: And do you feel a little bit abandoned, that you’ve sort of had, I think someone said, B-all help?
FARMER No. 1: Yep. I, I, I think a lot of farmers, ahhh, were disappointed at how much, ah how LITTLE help we received. But, you know, we’re a resilient lot and we just, ah, roll up our sleeves and get stuck in, but ahhhm, you know, Edgecumbe, they’ve got a LOT of help, but the water went THROUGH the town and out on to the farms, and um, you know, we’ve, the farmers have had to deal with that and it’s sort of been in the background and has had very little coverage really.
FARMER No. 2: It’s all part of the joys and challenge of farming though! It’s—ha ha!—you know—-
FARMER No. 1: Well you’re battling Mother Nature a little bit here. I mean, it was all swamp that was drained. Mother Nature wants to take it back one day probably but we’ll keep fighting!
….Stunned silence…
COUNTRY LIFE: Hearing THAT, one does have to ask: SHOULD they get support to keep farming here?
FARMER No. 1: [scrambling] Ahhhhmmm, this is, you know, very productive dairy land. We must produce a LOT for the region, not to mention, you know, the NATIONAL economy, so um, as far as cost-benefit goes, I would say the government would be making a GOOD INVESTMENT putting money into the scheme….
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife
  • Ed7.1
    17 December 2017 at 10:39 am
    McCaw.
    What a sell out.
    • Grey Area7.1.1
      17 December 2017 at 1:45 pm
      Can you sell out if you’ve never bought in, Ed?
      Humble Richie McCaw who didn’t want to be a sir but was quite happy to take our highest honour.
      It should have gone like this:
      Government figure (probably FJK): “Richie we’d like to offer you a knighthood like Meads, Whineray, Lochore etc.”
      Richie: “I’m not comfortable becoming Sir Richie.”
      Government figure: “Okay, that’s cool. Enjoy your retirement”.
    • cleangreen7.1.2
      17 December 2017 at 3:48 pm
      Agreed there. Ed,
      Mc Crawl was always buddying up to the greasy Johnny key wasn’t he.
      “A all black Leopard never changes spots.”
  • Ed7.2
    17 December 2017 at 10:45 am
    A rebuttal to McCaw.
    ‘Fonterra are passionate abut the land.’
    • Morrissey7.2.1
      17 December 2017 at 10:51 am
      To quote Leighton Smith, Larry Williams and Mike Hosking: “Who the F**K is Mike Joy?”
      JOHN KEY: Well that might be Mike Joy’s view, but I don’t share that view.
      STEPHEN SACKUR: But he is very well qualified, isn’t he? He’s looked, for example, at the number of species threatened with extinction in New Zealand, he’s looked at the fact that half your lakes, 90% of your lowland rivers, are now classed as polluted.
      KEY: Look, I’d hate to get into a flaming row with one of our academics, but he’s offering his view. I think any person that goes down to New Zealand …
      SACKUR: Yeah but he’s a scientist, it’s based on research, it’s not an opinion he’s plucked from the air.
      KEY: He’s one academic, and like lawyers, I can provide you with another one that will give you a counterview. Anybody who goes down to New Zealand and looks at our environmental credentials, and looks at New Zealand, then I think for the most part, in comparison with the rest of the world, we are 100% pure – in other words, our air quality is very high, our water quality is very high.
  • Ed7.3
    17 December 2017 at 10:46 am
    A rebuttal to McCaw
    Can I Really Get Enough Calcium Eating Just Plants?
    ‘Like iron, magnesium, and copper, calcium is a mineral. It is found in the soil, where it is absorbed into the roots of plants. Animals get their calcium by consuming these calcium-rich plants. So even though we are all conditioned to believe that calcium comes from milk and dairy products, the real source of calcium richness is the earth. No wonder that a whole-food, plant-based diet has plenty of calcium.
    A varied diet of starches, vegetables, and fruits (without dairy) has sufficient calcium to meet our needs. If you eat a relatively low-calcium diet, your body will adjust. Studies show that when fed a relatively low-calcium diet (415 mg/day), our intestines become more efficient at absorbing calcium, and our kidneys conserve it better. Equally, when overfed with calcium (1,740 mg/day) our bodies adjust as well: our intestines block the calcium absorption, while our kidneys eliminate more. This is an example of how our bodies protect us: if not eliminated, the excess calcium would get deposited in our soft tissues (heart, kidneys, muscles, and skin), making us vulnerable to illness and even death … a true testament to how smart our bodies really are!’
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