New Zealand: Agriculture

Greens air milk disposal worries
28 Oct 2011
As the Maui gas leak continues to limit milk processing capabilities, the Green Party is calling on Fonterra to assess which farmers have the ability to dispose of unprocessed milk safely, and to intervene to support farmers who do not.

Scientist: PM didn't tell the whole story
30 Sep 2011
A prominent environmental scientist says the Prime Minister selectively quoted him during a debate in Parliament over water quality.

Reward inhibitor farmers, says study group
30 Sep 2011
Farmers should be given carbon credits to encourage them to use nitrogen inhibitors, a government committee says.

Eggs deserve a break, says committee
30 Sep 2011
The egg industry could be left out of the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Taupo diffuses water time-bomb
23 Sep 2011
New Zealand’s Lake Taupo Water Quality Trading Scheme is being cited by the OECD as an example of how markets can be used to improve the environment.

Farmers could make money from new-deal ETS
16 Sep 2011
Recommended changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme could see farmers meet their obligations through offsetting.

Ag emissions move difficult, says minister
12 Aug 2011
Measuring agricultural greenhouse gas emissions on an intensity basis is attractive but difficult, our international climate change negotiations minister says.

ETS review looks at rewards for farmers
24 Jun 2011
The panel reviewing the Emissions Trading Scheme says that it has considered measures that reward farmers with carbon credits for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

NZ spearheads agri-emissions research
24 Jun 2011
The Government has just revealed details of a $25 million fund for international research on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from pastoral farming.

Science eyes new way to measure farm gases
17 Jun 2011
A new way of measuring agricultural greenhouse gases being proposed by an international scientist could be the answer to New Zealand farmers’ prayers.

Try incentives for farmers, says broker
17 Jun 2011
A scheme similar to the United Nations Joint Implementation programme should be used to encourage farmers to cut greenhouse gas emissions, says a New Zealand carbon consultant.

Labour might sweeten ETS deal for farmers
27 May 2011
Labour might sweeten the carbon deal for farmers by letting them become the point of obligation under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Green science centre could be a loser
27 May 2011
The Agricultural Greenhouse Research Centre could lose funding to the private sector under a change of government.

Estimates pinpoint cost of ETS to farmers
27 May 2011
Bringing biological greenhouse gas emissions from farms into the Emissions Trading Scheme will cost dairy farmers about 2.8 cents per litre of milk solids, government estimates show.

ETS reviewers eye Australian farm plan
13 May 2011
The panel reviewing the Emissions Trading Scheme is looking at Australia’s plan to give tradable credits to farmers for storing carbon in soil.

Figures show we're not so bad, say farmers
13 May 2011
Latest statistics show that New Zealand agriculture is not the intensive, greenhouse-gas emitting industry that it is portrayed as, says Federated Farmers.

New centre gets up close to nitrous oxide
8 Apr 2011
New Zealand’s ability to measure emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide just got better.

Study suggests bio-farming does the job
8 Apr 2011
The preliminary results from a project to study the impact of biological farming systems suggest it reduces nitrogen leaching.
Greens question Fonterra over water action
8 Apr 2011
The Green Party is congratulating Fonterra for investing in clean-water technology in its Australian factory - but want to know why it won’t do the same at its Wairarapa factory.

Scientists show biochar slashes animal gas
25 Mar 2011
New Zealand scientists have proved that emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide from animal urine can be cut drastically by adding biochar to the soil.

New centre will test gas samples
25 Mar 2011
The National Centre for Nitrous Oxide Measurement will be opened at Lincoln University next week.

Jilted Fonterra to plead case at ETS review
18 Mar 2011
Access to free credits for trade-exposed businesses and the entry of agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme are two of the issues Fonterra will be raising with the ETS review panel.

Fertiliser firm wins battle over inhibitor
11 Mar 2011
A Christchurch company has won a court battle to patent its nitrogen emissions-reducing fertiliser.

NZ farmers happy with omission of agriculture
25 Feb 2011
Federated Farmers will use Australia's decision not to put a price on agricultural emissions to back its argument to keep farmers out of the New Zealand scheme.

Science key to the future, says Gluckman
25 Feb 2011
New Zealand must globalise its science to strengthen its economy and protect its social and environmental development, says the Prime Minister's Chief Science Adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman.

Fewer emissions aid rural sector, says Garnaut
18 Feb 2011
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions could improve the economic prospects of rural Australia, says that country’s government adviser on climate change.

Ag emissions calculator updated
11 Feb 2011
The group giving neutral climate change advice to agriculture has updated its online emissions calculator.

Animal emissions going under microscope
28 Jan 2011
The Southern Hemisphere’s largest research centre measuring methane emissions from animals will be opened in Palmerston North next month.

Some growers qualify for free carbon credits
21 Jan 2011
Horticulturalists have joined the list of those eligible for free carbon credits under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

CANCUN: Give money to research, says FedFarm
17 Dec 2010
The Cancun climate change summit proved that a solution to global carbon emissions is still as elusive as ever, says Federated Farmers.

Top dairy farmers to talk sustainability
26 Nov 2010
Driving greater resource use efficiency on dairy farms and food security will be key themes at a sustainability forum for award-winning dairy farmers in Hamilton at the end of this month.

Farmers must come first, says Dairy group
19 Nov 2010
Farmers must be the point of obligation if agriculture does come into the Emissions Trading Scheme on schedule, the dairy industry group DairyNZ says.

What Nick Smith said to farmers
19 Nov 2010
Comments by Climate Change Issues Minister Nick Smith to Federated Farmers this week on the prospect of delaying agriculture's entry into the Emissions Trading Scheme have caused a minor media flurry.

Farming call vital for forests, says scientist
19 Nov 2010
Keeping agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme beyond 2015 will affect forestry planting levels, warns a forestry expert.

ETS leading to farm subsidies, warns Fed head
19 Nov 2010
Foresters should be growing trees for wood, not carbon storage subsidies, says Federated Farmers.

Dairying gets head around the environment
12 Nov 2010
A significant awareness of environmental issues is emerging in the international dairy industry, Fonterra says.

ETS not the way to go, says FedFarm
12 Nov 2010
Federated Farmers has launched another assault on the Emissions Trading Scheme.

Former MP heads agriculture advisory group
1 Oct 2010
Former National Party MP Katherine Rich is to head the group advising the Government on the rules governing agriculture’s entry to the Emissions Trading Scheme.
Inaugural National Winner Features In 2011 Ballance Farm Environment Awards
20 Aug 2010
The announcement of a national winner will be a feature of the 2011 Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
Now's the time to apply to farming fund
6 Aug 2010
The new funding round for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's Sustainable Farming Fund is open.
No country for farmers? ... what Federated Farmers said on carbon forestry
30 Jul 2010
Twenty per cent of New Zealand's sheep and beef farms could be replaced by oxymoronic 'carbon forestry', if the ambitions of foreign owned carbon foresters and the Government are realised.

Soil saviour Flannery to tell our farmers how
9 Jul 2010
Australian scientist and environmentalist Tim Flannery is heading to New Zealand to push the idea of sequestering carbon in our soil.

'Bogus' food miles theory still a concern, says food council
9 Jul 2010
New Zealand's food exports could be affected by concern over food miles, despite research that shoots it to pieces, says the Food and Grocery Council.

We won't dump you in it, minister tells farmers
25 Jun 2010
Agriculture Minister David Carter is promising farmers they will not come into the Emissions Trading Scheme if New Zealand’s trading partners have not moved to cut their carbon emissions.

Clover breakthrough could cut farm emissions
18 Jun 2010
A team of kiwi scientists think they can alter white clover so that animals grazing on it receive a more protein and produce less methane.

Organic farmer: We're not all the same
11 Jun 2010
An organic sheep and beef farmer who says she doesn’t mind paying for any environmental damage she causes is calling for the environmental benefits of organic farming to be recognised under the ETS.

You had enough time, MAF tells farmers
11 Jun 2010
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry says it gave as much time as it could for submissions on the rules governing agriculture under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
NIWA scientists put better nitrogen management on the farm to the test
11 Jun 2010
New Zealand science is taking a global lead in assessing techniques for the mitigation of pastoral greenhouse gas emissions.

Help us make money from carbon, pleads dairyman
4 Jun 2010
A dairy farmer planning on making money from farming carbon says Federated Farmers is failing to provide leadership on the issue.

...and what Federated Farmers says about sheep farms and the ETS
4 Jun 2010
Federated Farmers says New Zealand will have to sell an extra 4.7 million lambs to offset the cost of the Emissions Trading Scheme.