All Hail Bronwyn Pullar, Mexican Pork & Trade Agreements

In late June this year we were often shrouded in thick fog, driving was perilous early in the morning and even Auckland airport was closed more than once. It was kind of like the ‘fog’ surrounding the Emissions Trading Scheme and with the firing of Nick Smith it may be lifting a little.

Greenpeace might be members of the Nick Smith fan club, reports Robin Grieve of the NZ Pastoral Farming Climate Research, but there are not many others. There were probably quite a few really glad to see him out of the Climate Change portfolio. According to the NBR “many in business sighed with relief when one of the ETS greatest advocates was removed from both Environment and Climate Change portfolios”. I guess we get to thank Bronwyn Pullar for that!

Tim Groser is now in the driving seat. Apparently he has acknowledged that the current way of dealing with livestock emissions is inappropriate. It is also encouraging that he said “no other country in the world had put a carbon price on agricultural emissions. “We are not going to be the first to do this.” John Key also changed his previous stance that “farmers must do their fair share” to “the Government would not put New Zealand farmers at a “complete disadvantage” to others around the world”.

And speaking of complete disadvantage, I would be interested in his interpretation of the focus on our pork industry. Certainly some of our practices can be improved, but of course the expectations add cost. That would be okay but how come Mexico is allowed to export raw pork into New Zealand?

Can anyone tell me with any authority that mexican commercial pig farming is of a much higher standard than ours and they are completely free of industry crippling diseases? The answer is you can’t because it simply isn’t so. But their pork is cheap. So how can this be? Well we apparently have a trade agreement, a condition of which is free access for Mexico’s pork to NZ.

We have established our border protection isn’t that good with the most recent example being the PSA blight on our Kiwifruit industry which we now know came from China, you know, the place where you get kids toys with lead based paint courtesy of another free trade agreement.

Perhaps there is some subtext that I’m missing? Let’s review - We introduce rules and regulations for our food producers which increase the cost to the consumer. The standards also protect us from being poisoned. But we sign agreements which allow other countries that don’t have the same high standards for rearing and production, to export into New Zealand at a significantly cheaper price to the consumer. In the process the NZ industry goes broke and if that doesn’t happen, the industry will be wiped out by the introduction of disease.

Oh well we can console ourselves with a product we produce pretty well, Beer. And there is a bonus. I found out from Hannah Samuel through her Reputationz e-newsletter that beer contains the 'miracle molecule' nicotinamide ribosidey (NR) which allegedly helps fight fat, prevent diabetes and improve muscle performance. Whew, that is good news. I must investigate further and see if it wards off Mexican swine fever. It’s a wonder we are living so long really.

I turned 63 recently and momentarily considered my mortality. When I was much younger, I just couldn’t envisage being that age. In fact people, who had worked for the same employer all their life, retired at 60 and died not long after. We were amazed when we came across someone older than 70, a rare occurrence indeed. And you could tell because they looked really old.

Well, here I am some 40 years later talking to a gentleman who had spent all day standing at our A & P Show judging ponies. He was also involved in working parties considering how we might protect the equine industry here from biosecurity risks such as the equine flu which got into NZ a few years ago through lax standards in Australia.

He told me he was thinking of slowing down a bit, after all, he said, he was over 80 now! You could have pushed me over with a feather. I stared at him stupidly because I just couldn’t believe he was 70 let alone 80.

But I bet he appreciated the irony in the news that New Zealand got to be involved in a huge maritime navy exercise run by the americans. It was based at Pearl Harbour. Because we have a nuclear free policy we had to park our ship in the domestic port. The Japanese were participating in the exercise as well. Remember them, the ones who bombed the shit out of americans in that very port - they got to park their warships alongside the amercians in the naval port.

It seems there should be some connection between that and Mexican pork don’t you think.

The Dangers of Ice and a Farce

My last BLOG brought a veritable flurry of email comment. The references to Ireland, County Wicklow and Blessington in particular had great significance for one reader whose mother spent her early years roaming County Wicklow and the Dublin Mountains where there is a stately home, Russborough House which was owned by their family.

As you might imagine, given our interest, I looked it up to learn that Russborough House was built between 1741 and 1755 is reputed to be the longest house in Ireland, with a frontage measuring 210m and fine example of Palladian architecture. The House has been home to a fine art collection and is an Arts and Culture centre today. It is simply magnificent, but imagine it being a part of your heritage! It certainly will be a must see the next time we go to Ireland. It’s worth a look on the inter-webby thing (http://russboroughhouse.ie/).

Another friend who I had worked with in a past employment life very generously wrote, “I know absolutely nothing of bloodlines or equestrian do’s and don’ts, but I do love horses, and thought that your story was really beautiful. So I just wanted to assure you that when the time comes, I’ll carry out your wish and smother you with a pillow! "

Another friend had experienced the loss of her loved pet and emailed “I am typing this while still balling my eyes out, let’s hope indeed that when our time has come we can go peacefully like bliss and alby.”

And another sent me a health warning:

When you drink vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.

When you drink rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.

When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems.

When you drink gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.

Apparently, ice is really bad for you!

I passed the information on to others quickly, as you would expect with health warnings. One wag came back with, “The passengers on the Titanic would no doubt agree.”

I always remember a loved teacher, mentor and boss, the late Brian Bensley. In the second of three companies I worked with him we were in manufacturing. He had succeeded in rescuing a struggling company for Pat and Peter Goodman. He was determined to build a successful company and took great delight in growing it so we could provide more jobs in Porirua where the factory was located.

At that time the share market was the thing and people were becoming rich seemingly overnight. They were making their money buying and selling in effect bits of paper. I brought my first home and was paying around 20% interest on the mortgage. I was tempted by this apparently easy road to good fortune and remember to this day Brian’s words, “Their fortunes are written on paper which they trade. The only real business is that when someone makes something and someone else is prepared to pay money for it. Although it is tempting, what is happening does not have a sound sustainable basis.”

I think my interest rate went up to 21% and then we had the share market crash of the late 8o's and a lot of good people lost just about everything they ever owned which they had entrusted to those who promised wealth. And many of the new wealthy disappeared overnight.

I simply don’t get this emission trading which I think is a system designed by people looking for yet another way of making money with nothing. But more so I can’t help feeling we are being hoodwinked over the biological emissions intentions.

I was attending a shed meeting on a farm in our area. I think these meetings are organised by our Member of Parliament. This particular meeting was in the milking shed of a local dairy farming family and was attended by the Minister of Agriculture.

One of those attending introduced me to the work of Pastural Farming Climate Research Incorporated. This organisation was founded by a farmer, Robin Grieve who was looking for support to help challenge the prevailing thinking about the role livestock play in global warming.

It seemed to me that farming was being swamped by a wave of group think and a Government who either was operating under some sort of environmental politically correct imperative or worse still, believed all the bullshit without subjecting it to any rigorous scrutiny or challenge. The purpose of the Pastural Farming Climate Research organisation is to represent farmers’ interests by highlighting the many discrepancies and misinformation surrounding any role livestock plays in global warming.

The lack of any true scientific evidence, the use of assumptions and theoretical models instead of facts and the reliance on uncertain and questionable information is, in the organisation’s opinion, totally unacceptable and dishonest. The Pastural Farming Climate Research Incorporated intends funding research to provide the facts that are missing from the current debate. So I joined up.

The Government has to bring legislation to alter the ETS before parliament before the end of the year. There is no logic in what they propose.Robin is concerned this legislation change will go unnoticed by the general population because it is too complex for most journalists and will receive no media coverage. “People are also generally not interested which I find bizarre”, says Robin. “It is illogical to me that people are so interested in the issues of the Chinese buying farms and the number of pokie machines in Sky City, neither of which will have any impact on them at all, but the ETS is costing each and every one money each week, and is not on their radar.”

The following is from Robin’s website (http://www.farmcarbon.co.nz/) which I would recommend you visit. Better still, join up.

No cow, sheep, pig, or goat has ever managed to create carbon from nothing. This means greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere cannot increase due to the presence of ruminants; they can only decrease if anything. The agricultural emissions that are claimed to make up 48.5% of NZ's greenhouse gas emissions do not exist. These figures are conjured up in theoretical models and concepts. These theoretical emissions are then confused with real carbon emissions such as those from oil and gas; lumped all together and the result is a complete farce.

The Significance of Wickcliffe Blessington

In keeping with the usual practice of including reader comment, here is a humorous little story resulting from the January BLOG…

“Great blog this month. Here is a scenario. At the school gala, grandma is quietly and very secretly handing people little slip of paper with an address on it. In the dead of night a trail of unlit push bikes (with baskets on the front no less) are observed heading to and from this suburban address, avoiding the roads, stopping behind trees when a car comes, etc. Some suspicious person calls the police. They come and stop one of the bike riding ‘suspects’. “Please madam, would you show me what is under the tea towel in your basket?” And there, for all to see and smell, is some freshly baked biscuits AND a couple of jars of homemade jam!!!!!!

Mmmmmmmm----- haven’t we turned the clock back to the prohibition days!!!!!!!!  Just replaced the grog with fresh, wholesome, healthy food!”

And subsequently we saw an article in the NZ Herald  by Kate Wilkinson the Food Safety Minister where she reiterated, “that the Food Bill does not affect people growing or making food for their own consumption, or giving it away or swapping it with friends or neighbours.” Apparently the legislation was designed to be “…flexible, to promote innovation and minimize red tape and bureaucracy for producers…” That just has the feel of a Tui Yeah Right billboard doesn’t it?

Changing the subject to a more sombre note, on Waitangi weekend we had to euthanize one of our mares,  Wickcliffe Blessington (Bliss). It certainly was not an easy decision and of course the hardest part was watching her foal come to grips with the fact that her mother was not going to get up again.

Bliss was an Irish Hunter mare. Her full brother, Wickcliffe Brannigan is a top Grand Prix show jumper. We bred both and they carried important thoroughbred and Irish Draught bloodlines. Their dam carried the old fashioned thoroughbred Battle Wagon / Head Hunter lines. Their sire was the grand Irish Draught, Kingsway Diamond.

To many of you reading this, those names won’t mean much however in many ways they represent our philosophy in breeding a New Zealand sport horse type. They are old fashioned names but in the case of Kingsway Diamond, still a strong and current influence in sport horses, especially 3 day eventing and showjumping. The thoroughbred lines will only resonate with those who know something of thoroughbreds in New Zealand and who have been around for a while. It is the ‘type’ of thoroughbred that was a significant influence in the helcian days of NZ’s success in eventing on the international stage. They were tough both physically and mentally. They were courageous and they usually had something of an attitude.

Head Hunter was by name and nature. I recall in chat with a union adversary a few years back discovering a common interest in horses. I had mentioned the breeding of a mare we had and he was excited to know anyone knew the name of Head Hunter. His father had stood the Stallion when he was but a boy and he dreaded going into the stable to feed this horse…Head Hunter would quite literally have your head if he could.

The dam represents another part of our life. She was given to us by dear friends. And both Bliss and Brannigan were bred from a service to Kingsway Diamond, given to us by a great horseman, the late Dr John Hernon. John was an Irish vet who married a New Zealand Nurse and came back to NZ to live and practice. The services were a trade for the use of another of our mares to breed.

John was something akin to sport horse royalty in NZ. He was a big man. A well respected horseman, vet and gentleman. His major claim to fame was that for the two John Wayne western films shot in Ireland, he and his brother were the stunt doubles for John Wayne. He was from County Wicklow, not far from the Blessington Lakes.

For some reason John took a shine to us…perhaps we shared the same passion and belief in the Irish horse. Whatever the reason, we felt privileged with the friendship. John unfortunately got cancer a few years back and after a while his wife was unable to manage their horses, so they all came our way until we were able to find homes for them. His beloved Mooncoin stayed with us with John competing her. We visited the village of Mooncoin in Ireland a couple of years ago.

Brannigan was sold as a colt at 2 years of age to a young fella. He had a dream and had been looking for several years for the right colt to compete as a sport horse and eventually establish a breeding operation. We were hesitant because we had never heard of him in equestrian circles. I don’t know what it was exactly, but he won us over and a great partnership between the two began.

Unfortunately Brannigan could not be kept as a stallion because as such he could not be kept with other horses. But in this was a significant sign. As a youngster he was put in a paddock with a couple of wise older mares to learn his place and some manners. However Brannigan would not back down. He had to be rescued from the paddock because even when ‘beaten’ he would not submit and would have been killed standing his ground. He was gelded and the chance of continuing his blood line lost.

Blessington was a heavier horse than her brother with an excellent nature and we were keen to keep her for breeding. Although we held on to Blessington for a while longer, we had too many horses and eventually she went to a new owner who had her broken in and was going to ride her. We are not sure of the circumstances or what happened exactly but discovered some time later that Bliss was languishing on a farm in the King Country. We had her collected and being too old to develop as a competitive sport horse, she came home as a broodmare. We tried for several seasons to get her in foal, firstly to the magnificent Holsteiner Lansing and when that failed, to Jody Heartstone’s Whisper. It seemed AI wasn’t going to work. So we looked for a local stallion for a natural service which resulted in the birth this season of Wickcliffe Berrigan. Bliss was a superb mother and we were making plans for sending her to either a thoroughbred or Holstiener stallion next season.

Berrigan was two months old when I went out to the paddock in the morning to feed the two mares and their foals and realised something was seriously wrong with her mother. The vet came quickly but not even surgery would save her and so we put her to sleep.

We left Berrigan with her for a while and when she seemed to come to terms with the death of her mother we moved her back into the paddock she had been sharing with the other mare and her foal. That other foal had stood by the fence watching her all the time they were separated. Berrigan then stood at the gate staring at her inert mother until a friend came with the digger to bury Blessington.

The mare and foal stood with Berrigan as did I, watching as Bliss was buried after which they all left for elsewhere in the paddock with Berrigan calling periodically. With her now rests the responsibility of carrying significant and important bloodlines and an even greater responsibility with us to nurture and grow her and give her every opportunity to be everything her noble ancestors would expect.

Of note is that we had the choice to put Blessington quietly to sleep to end her pain. The Vet didn’t tell us what to do. He gave us all the clinical observations and choices. I guess our experience and understanding had a lot to do with it, but we made the choice. You may understand why it was very tempting for us to spend great deal of money, prolong her agony, and subject to her to all sorts of pointless interventions hoping there was a very slim chance she would survive.

I sincerely hope that when that time comes in my life our society has matured to the extent that such a decision can be made for me.

Both my parents died of cancer. Mum nursed Dad at home for just over six months. There was a point in time when Dad could no longer get up or look after himself at all. He simply wasted away. Mum fought cancer for seven and a half years. When she got the diagnosis, she was remarkably understanding and organised. She got the news in October, was told to have a family gathering at Christmas and say good bye. She was organised and prepared.

The chemical cocktail certainly gave her a couple of years of good life and she was a model of determination and hope to all those around her. Unfortunately that cocktail had other effects. When she felt her independence and dignity slipping away she starved herself however we got her into care and long story short and sometime later, without any of the things so dear to her, she died calling angrily to be let go.

Dear God, if that time comes for me, don’t let what happened to my Mother and Father happen to me…think of me as a horse.

Criminal Bakers & Mysterious Magic to Lower the Price of Milk

My last BLOG in December prompted a few responses, one noting “…love to read your blog and this also has arrived at a time when I too have reason to pause, reflect and be extremely grateful.  Thanks for the nudge.”

Another had their faith in the upbringing of their family endorsed when they got this note from their son: “We are not going to be up for this Xmas, after a dismal winter we just  aren't in any position to attempt it, trust me, this is not what we'd hoped. On a brighter note, (we) are continuing the ever-so family tradition of over-doing it on Xmas visitors for dinner, we've invited the Ni-Van (Vanuatu) boys I work with to spend Christmas Day at our house! There is only Ten of them, after all. It just didn't sit right that the only Kiwi they get to know, and work with every day, leaves them to their own devices for Christmas when they are all far from home and loved ones, especially when we are feeling far from our loved ones this year too. So I didn't. They are coming round, we'll whack a few chooks in the oven, our own new potatoes, then into the trifle, Ice cream, Pumpkin Pie, a few drinks (soft- they are on 'dry' contracts) and Bob's your proverbial. ”

A long-time friend tells me, “The lodges in NZ are failing, I will not go into the background of all that in this letter but a lot of it is due to present government actions in loading small community groups with punitive compliance costs, a group of elderly folk cannot afford $25,000 registration and audit fees and survive for more than a few years.  YET, I find it ironic that the same regulatory officials cannot hold control over the big financiers who strip people of life savings and spend Christmas, on bail, in their mansions in OZ!!  ‘Nuff said??”

‘Golly, it’s a political fish in jackboots’ was the headline for Alan Emerson’s column in the NZ Farmers Weekly early in January. Alan was handing out his ‘Emies’. The Fairy Godmother Award went to the judge who agreed with former Hanover boss Mark Hotchin that. “…having to live on $1,000 a week was clearly too low. This was after Hanover collapsed owing investors $465m.’ Alan suggested “…most Kiwis with the obvious exception of the judiciary and Hotchin would happily live on $1,000 a week.”

His Irrelevance Award is for the Government’s cabinet rankings where Agriculture drops and becomes primary industries at No11 behind tourism, transport, ethnic affairs, arts, culture and heritage and youth affairs. Tourism and Agriculture see-saw as being our top revenue generators, but without exception Agriculture is most consistently the major exporter and significant contributor to our economy helping pay for those other portfolios. Go figure.

Apart from the fact that we have far more significant things to worry about, the government has had law drafters beavering away making up legislation to make illegal one of the foundation activities in our communities. Schools and churches are examples of the community groups who use events like gala days and garden parties to raise money to simply exist.

The quality of our education is enhanced with various fundraising activities where the community come along and show their support and buy things. What they buy is a lot of produce grown, jams, pickles and the like. Lovely homemade stuff that many of us don’t seem to have either the time or skill to make for ourselves.Well that is all about to end because it will be illegal for you to whip up a batch of scones with Grandma’s famous recipe, then sell them at the school calf club gala day.

I could understand it if the school car parks were littered with the bodies of those sick and dying from having consumed one of those scones.  If that were the case I imagine we would have read quite a bit about that in local papers at least. What we have been reading about is over 11,000 cases of some kind of dog attack on people, most often children, which has resulted in over $12million dollars of tax payers money being paid out to victims in the last 12 months. I thought that might be a bit more of an issue to deal with than making law to prosecute me for making & selling my Grand Marnier Marmalade or John’s Zucchini Relish for the benefit of our village school.

I also thought this proliferation of attacks might warrant more of a response than the proposed solution… ‘Let’s spend less time in school teaching children how to read, write and count and teach them dog sense instead’…..Pleeease!

The other matter which I thought might warrant a bit more applied thinking is that which makes NZ an unsafe place for children. It seems I have to go through a more rigorous vetting for suitability to rehome a rescued dog than a human breeder does who decides to have a child then, if they don’t kill them,  completely abdicate their responsibility for that child’s safety and wellbeing. When that responsibility is abdicated, a government department has to pick up the pieces. And woe betides them if they should fail in any way.

Rather than deal with the root cause, we satisfy ourselves by lashing the agency publically, and if we can find an individual in that agency to pin the blame on, we can relax knowing that justice has been done and all children are now safe. Who should be thinking seriously about that? Oh, that’s right, they are all busy thinking up laws to prosecute old Mrs B. who makes beautiful sponges to be sold for all manner of community fund raising activities.

And for the third leg of my bureaucratic nonsense trifecta, let’s look at the latest attempt to reduce the price of milk. The government has decided to make Fonterra sell more of its milk to its competitors.

You may recall when Fonterra was formed the government required them to sell some of their milk supply to their production competitors to ensure a competitive domestic milk supply. What happened? Well, the competitors, now assured of a supply of milk without having to invest in a supply infrastructure, turned it into milk powder for export because that was much easier to do and far more lucrative than bottling milk and selling it domestically.

So what exactly do you think they are going to do with their increased allocation? Apparently the government knows – this new intervention is going to magically lower the retail price of domestic milk….Yeah Right!

In a related vein, permission has been granted for a foreign consortium to buy the Crafar farms on the condition the government owned enterprise Landcorp manage them. And are they going to turn all this milk production into local lower priced milk? Hell no. They are going to work with other foreign partners to produce value added milk products and export them.

The logic of all this fails me, but never mind, oops there goes another kid to the emergency department with a dog hanging off its face and oops, there is a child and family social worker picking up another abused kid to try and organise a  safe life for them. Oh my goodness what’s that flashing by? It’s a food inspector off to the school gala day, complete with blue flashing light and warbling siren, to arrest Granny B for selling her famous scones and sponges to help raise funds to refurbish the swimming pool, so they can teach kids how not to drown.