Green confusion

NBR staff | Tuesday December 8, 2009 - 02:10pm

 Building intensive dairy farming operations indoors in the Mackenzie Basin would be “like building a city for 270,000 people… and having them crap on the ground,” said the eloquent co-leader of the Greens, Dr Russel Norman.

But on the party’s own website, former Green party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is extolling the virtues of herd homes – sheds erected to house dairy cows and keep them from damaging pasture during wet winters, and reducing nitrous oxide emissions.

Norman was commenting on plans to “factory farm” dairy cows in Canterbury, while Fitzsimons was plugging the positive aspects of a Raglan organic dairy farm she visited.

While there are clear differences between the concepts, they aren’t that far apart.

Private Bin reckons the Greens need a chat to discuss their position over a glass or two of elderberry wine.

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Comments

Confused?

Me too what is an Australian doing here, and telling us how to lives and run our businesses,wonder does the clown have a NZ PASSPORT?

Posted by Anonymous at 03:38 pm on December 08, 2009

Oh that's a good point, anonymous!

'cause if he didn't have a NZ passport that obviously means we shouldn't listen to him. As if NZers came up with all the good ideas in the world. Crawl back to your cave, please.

sorry, sidetracked in my compliment of the well-noted point by the peanut gallery.

the Greens should get their story straight here and the reporters need to get us the full story - are these pens for like 20 cows to mill about in, or are these little cubicles that trap max one cow per? If it is one cow per, the entire industry and country should be concerned. If it is a winter shed to protect the critters from the elements, no worries.

NBR did well to note the discrepancy, now please fill the void with some information - the role of journalists - rather than scoring points - the role of those pushing an ideology.

Posted by Debs at 04:20 pm on December 08, 2009

Herd homes where cows can

Herd homes where cows can roam freely and have plenty of space are quite different to factory farming in tiny cubicles, 24 hours a day for 8 months of the year

Posted by Rimu at 04:47 pm on December 08, 2009

Absolutely. That was an

Absolutely. That was an extremely short article and it needs far more substance than just repeating the line that Federated Farmers is putting out there

Posted by Anonymous at 04:48 pm on December 08, 2009

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