Cure worse than the Cause?
“We are going down a dangerous and totally unnecessary road using bromoform”. MSA questions the promotion of methane-reducing products containing tribromomethane (bromoform) set to be unleashed on pastoral farming. Bromoform is ozone-depleting, classified as a volatile organic compound (VOC), and banned in USA from use in livestock destined for human consumption. In NZ, these products are restricted from use in breeding or dairy cattle. MSA has fears around food safety, animal welfare, and doubts that such intensive, expensive interference in the natural biogenic rumination process is either necessary or justified.
Methane Campaign is 100% Politics
We are endlessly told that livestock are responsible for half of New Zealand’s total emissions. Despite research showing the warming impact of livestock methane is so small it cannot be measured, the widespread perception remains that our livestock are dangerously warming the planet.
So where does this belief come from?
Emissions versus Warming
.. This is why the ‘climate industrial complex’ likes to focus on ‘emissions’ instead of ‘warming’. During the past decade, millions of dollars has been spent researching and funding biotechnologies that can be sold to farmers to reduce their GHG emissions number, even though technically there will be no reduction in global warming temperatures whatsoever.
Why the Indecent Haste Prime Minister?
.. this is the most important decision made in agricultural circles in decades, maybe ever. Such a momentous decision involving such complex and fraught science where there are vested interests that need exposure and where there are significant reservations stated by industry, by consumer groups, by scientists who have an in-depth understanding of the issue is ringing loud alarm bells.
No Reason to Demonise Farming
… So, the theory, on which their models are based, is wrong. This matters because this theory is the basis of government policies that are requiring a reduction in methane emissions.
So, what was their theory? They tell us on page 134. They say, “Because at the time the scenarios were developed… it was thought that past trends would continue.”
Potential Threats to OUR Reputation
the potential risks to human and animal health and the risk to our industry reputation of altering the rumen of our ruminants through methane vaccines, methane boluses, feed additives and GM grasses is of such huge consequence that all NZ farmers should get a say in this decision … Beef + Lamb and Federated Farmers were very quick to embrace GMO grasses, methane vaccines, feed additives, methane boluses and any other 'biotech tool' that alters the rumen of the gut without seeking clearance from farmers.
Paris Agreement - STAY or LEAVE?
There has been a bit of discussion in the media lately about the Paris climate agreement and whether New Zealand should withdraw from it.
It seems to me that they are asking the wrong question. I have put a lot of time into trying to understand the climate change story and the question I think we should really be asking is, ‘should we pull out of the Paris agreement immediately, or in a few years once it collapses when people work out what is the true cost of net zero?’
Our Leaders are Betraying Farmers
Worse still, the Government has locked NZ into emissions reductions that will gut our agricultural sector— without even conducting a cost-benefit analysis. An OIA request confirmed no government agency has calculated the economic impact of staying or withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. They made a decision that will fundamentally alter our economy, restrict our farming sector and impact every single New Zealander without even checking if it makes economic sense.
Just Answer the Damn Question!
Our industry advocates and politicians have a blind obsession with emissions but will not stop to consider what effect those emissions have on atmospheric temperature, even though their own scientific advisors have told them the answer is at best 4 millionths of a degree per year (effectively zero!)
Low Watt Age
What was Climate Minister Watts thinking about ratcheting up New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas reduction targets? … Who put their hand up at the Cabinet table for the taxpayers facing the impossible $24 billion plus bill for Watt’s amped up targets? Was there any pushback from Minister Willis who should be having nightmares wondering how to switch off this frenzied obsession with reducing GHG’s? … Has the Coalition got the arrogance to believe they can hold the rural vote ...
Oppose the Emissions Agenda
It’s disheartening and enraging to see Silver Fern Farms betray the very farmers it claims to represent and surrender to global greenwashing under the false banner of “sustainability”. Their latest email (18/12/24) outlining Scope 3 Emissions Targets is not just misguided, it’s a blueprint for the destruction of New Zealand farming independence, livelihoods and the integrity of our world-class farming systems, orchestrated by those meant to defend us. Let me strip away the platitudes and examine the true implications of this harmful overreach ..
New Zealand Government Naive and Confused
We are the only sector in the world that utilises a GHG as part of our food production through photosynthesis process. Pasture-raised livestock are net sequesters of greenhouse gases but is ignored by our own sector.
These targets are not only unnecessary and misguided, they now fast-track the destruction of the integrity of our world-class red meat protein production .. and waste of taxpayer money and science resources that will be diverted even further towards chasing methane fairies instead of genuine R & D.
Back Farmers, NOT Big Corporates
On one hand, they tout New Zealand’s clean, green farming image – a unique and market-leading story built on the backs of farmers who have spent decades pioneering sustainable practices.
On the other hand, they seem intent on pushing us toward unproven biotech solutions to satisfy corporate buyers’ fixation on Scope 3 emissions. The two approaches are fundamentally incompatible, and it’s time for SFF to decide where their priorities lie.
Faulty Models used to Measure Emissions
If you have kept your finger on the emissions pulse, none of the below information will be a surprise to you. However, if you are a farmer that has not been following New Zealand’s ruminant methane issue then you may be in for a nasty shock. .. New Zealand agriculture has been falsely accused of contributing to 50% of the country’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. I use the word ‘falsely’ because … an outdated metric has been used to model New Zealand’s GHG emissions contributions. Even the IPCC themselves have stated that the metric is unfit for purpose …
The Honest Truth: An Apology to Taxpayers
At what point did these ‘customers’ decide that lowering natural biogenic ruminant emissions was more important than exceptional animal welfare, free-range pastoral systems and allowing natural grazing behaviour of stock in low-input farming that doesn’t require high-intensity fossil-fuel burning interferences?
NZ needs to decide – are we intensifying into feedlots to play in the same game as those intensive, heavily subsidised high-input factory farms or will we continue on our naturally pasture-raised continuum which has proven to become more efficient each year ... Either leave us to it or get ready to ask taxpayers to underwrite expensive, intensive factory farming that will produce food that no New Zealander will ever afford to buy…
A New Zealand Environmental Success Story
Our methane emissions are among the lowest in the world per kilogram of food—and falling year by year. They’re even smaller when accounting for our vast tracts of native vegetation and trees. We’ve made incredible genetic progress with our livestock. This has led to many improvements, including animals that release less methane per unit of product due to our efficient pastoral systems that we have finely tuned to fit the land in a sustainable manner: low-input, GE-free and free-range.
Trial by Science, NOT a Sentencing by Politics Needed
The collective spend by agricultural organisations and taxpayers over the past two decades on the great methane gravy train to design the emperor’s new clothes, has now surpassed $930 Million.
While both of those previous pathways were indeed unpalatable, our supposed saviour is now vast swathes of mitigation expenditure until we create a livestock sector that we no longer recognise. One that forces farmers off the hills and into intensive feedlot production … productive traits. The irony is that they are chasing a “solution” to a “problem” that has never been tangibly identified, let alone accurately quantified or qualified.
The Farcical and Bizarre
Imagine arguing over the difference between 4 millionths of one degree of warmth and 5 millionths. Something that can’t be measured even with sophisticated technical equipment. Pretty stupid?
But now imagine if the outcome of that argument adversely affected 25% of all our dairy production and a big chunk of our meat and wool sector. Get the argument wrong and it cripples farming and devastates the economy …
Radio Spectra and Methane
Too many scientists and commentators want us to focus on the relative strength of each individual molecule and what harm an extra molecule can do. They don’t want to go on in their calculations and face the reality of what happens in the atmosphere on the spectrum every minute of the day. If they did the arguments about each molecule’s potency and what happens when extra molecules of gas are added to the atmosphere become redundant and have no credibility in science ..
Our Research Down on the Farm
Our motto is ‘optimising not maximising production’ and despite some pretty tough challenges and hard work, we are really happy with the decision we took and the outcomes. It is a matter of doing the homework, studying the options and figuring what is best for us and our farm.
Now we are researching a different problem. We face being taxed for our ruminant methane emissions. Hamish and I have studied the issue very thoroughly and the more we dug into it, the more deeply disturbed we became.