Kiwiblog

The Herald has details of what is actually proposed:

However, a director of one of the companies behind the proposals says critics who call it “factory farming” have got it all wrong.

Richard Peacocke was reluctant to be interviewed while involved in environmental hearings related to the applications. However in statements, he said: “Factory farming implies that stock are unduly restricted.

“Each cow will have its own cubicle to stand, sit and sleep. The floor of the cubicle is a thick rubber pad and the cows are free to enter and leave the cubicles at will and wander around the balance of the shed and feed as they require.

“There will be clear roof panels to allow sun and light to enter. Additionally the cows will be free to wander out onto a large open air holding yard during fine weather and stand or sit in the sun.”

Mr Peacocke said the effluent would be collected and stored, with liquid waste watered down and spread on pasture at “very low rates”.

The proposal is for 18,000 cows that will live within the stables (including yard) for eight months a year.

I suspect this is an issue similar to battery hen farming. Around 80% of people will say they don’t like it and would be happy to pay more for free-range egss. But in reality free-range only has 10% of the market.

The bigger concern is if it could undermine the overall NZ dairy brand. This is why Fonterra is against.

Federated Farmers are supportive though, and say this model of farming s more environmentally friendly. I’d be interested in the details of that claim.

UPDATE: Press editorial has some details:

From an environmental point of view, the proposal has a lot to recommend it. Rather than having herds roaming free and leaving effluent to flow where it will, with the risk of pollution to waterways and aquifers, it would, while the cows were under cover at least, be collected for more orderly disposal. While the details of that disposal would have to be scrutinised closely, that is almost certain to be less damaging to the environment.

Bernard Hickey has an exclusive at interest.co.nz on the Crafers.

A video of starving calves is above.

I recommend people go read the story, which is pretty shocking. Extracts:

New Zealand’s biggest privately held dairying operation allowed dozens of calves on one of its massive farms on North Island’s central plateau to slowly dehydrate to death earlier this month, triggering a MAF investigation but no prosecution. …

Poor management and the pressures of massive debts obtained during rapid expansion meant this farm was so poorly managed that none of the staff trained the calves to drink milk, allowing them to die of dehydration in a muddy pen even though their trough was often full.

The Crafers have been prosecuted numerous times on various issues such as releasing effluent into waterways.

After interest.co.nz obtained the video, producer Bryan Spondre and I visited the farm where the calves had been kept to find out more. When we drove up next to the calf shed we were confronted by farm manager Sam Webb. He told us to: “Get the f**k off this property. You have no right to be here.”

Bryan started taking photographs of the shed and Sam Webb manhandled him back into our car before swearing abuse and grabbing at Bryan’s camera.

“I’ll take both of you bastards out,” he yelled.

Webb then punched Bryan through the open window of the car door. The punch was so hard it dislodged Bryan’s contact lens. We drove off and the picture published to the left shows Webb yelling at us as we left: “F**k off you c**ts.”

Where’s the picture of the black eye?

Go read the full story, and the questions Bernard has for MAF and Fonterra.

An excellent piece of investigative journalism.

For the first time Fonterra, through one of its Directors, has been implicated as contributing to the Sanlu poisoned milk scandal. This is explosive stuff and could be very damaging to the brand and company.

The Herald reports:

The Green party has called on the Government and Fonterra to condemn the death sentences handed down in China to two men involved in the tainted milk scandal.

The two men were sentenced to death yesterday while Tian Wenhua, the woman at the head of Fonterra joint venture Sanlu Group, was given a life sentence by a court in Shijiazhuang.

This is no surprise. In fact Phil Goff back in September said it was “almost certain” that those responsible would be executed. Mind you, I thought such a public statement from the then Trade Minister was somewhat unwise, as it could be read as agreement (unintentionally of course).

The SST reports on the PR advice to Sanlu (the company part owned by Fonterra) from its PR company in China:

Carried on Chinese weblogs, the memo, purportedly from Sanlu’s PR company, notes growing numbers of damaging references to the company, which is 43% owned by Fonterra, in connection to infant kidney failures, and lays out strategies for addressing the issue. These included silencing victims, and paying off Baidu, China’s largest internet search engine, to remove negative references from its web searches.

Paying Google not to carry negative references on your comapny – now that could be a lucrative income stream.

Except of course once it got known, Google would lose market share massively.

The memo also said a “PR protection” deal had been negotiated with Baidu, in which Sanlu agreed to buy $640,000 of advertising with the search engine, in return for having negative stories blocked from search results.

Hmmn wonder how much they’ll pay Kiwiblog to remove a negative story. Wouldn’t cost $640,000!

Winston – make an offer

There’s a fine line between predicting and being seen to advocate. I am not sure it is helpful for Phil Goff to have said:

Trade Minister Phil Goff expects severe punishment for those criminally responsible for China’s contaminated milk scandal – but he doesn’t think Fonterra’s representatives at San Lu should join the growing list of arrests made by Chinese authorities.

Fonterra has three directors who sit on the San Lu board and as arrests in the milk powder scandal multiplied yesterday, Mr Goff said it was “almost certain” the people who added the chemical melamine to milk would be executed.

I really don’t know why Goff thought it was necessary to say that, as the Chinese Government could see that as diplomatic code for condoning such executions.