Friday, March 29, 2024

Daily Digest: July 15, 2020

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Fonterra plays pass the parcel Hmmm. I have doubts about Fonterra’s ploy of selling carbon-zero milk.
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For a start there’s nothing special about this milk.

It comes out of the general milk pool and is exactly the same stuff the supermarkets put in their own brands.

But it will cost more so Fonterra and Foodstuffs North Island can buy carbon credits from a Kaikoura native forest regeneration.

It’s already drawn negative reaction from sheep and beef farmers worried about productive pastoral land being planted with trees.

And you can’t get away from the fact buying carbon credits does nothing to reduce the carbon footprints of the two big companies or the farms the milk comes from.

We know Fonterra and its farmers are doing much to improve their environmental performance but there’s a danger consumers will see this as a shallow publicity stunt to pull the wool over their eyes. I

t is a quite legitimate business practice to buy carbon credits to offset emissions but will the wool over consumers’ eyes give them the warm fuzzies? I doubt it.

Buying carbon credits is a form of pass the parcel. It doesn’t deal with whatever’s inside the parcel. Let’s just hope it isn’t a bomb and it doesn’t go off in Fonterra’s face.

Milk comes with carbon credits

Standard milk with carbon credits earned partly in regeneration of native forest on a sheep and beef farm near Kaikoura is now on sale. Simply Milk will come in standard and light varieties and be the same as Foodstuffs home brand Value milks but with new labelling and higher prices to pay for the carbon offsets.

Trees, vines still need workers

The first graduates from the Government-funded winter pruning programme have stepped onto kiwifruit orchards as the industry continues to eye more workers amid continuing labour shortages.

Food service finds new pathway

A refreshed strategy for its food service business is being introduced by Fonterra to counter the disruption caused by covid-19 to eating out in restaurants and hotels.

Stress linked to farm injuries

More than half of farmers injured in on-farm accidents link their accidents to stress associated with farm work, a new report says.

Winter milk runs smoothly

Fonterra’s winter milk season is drawing to a close with supply and demand balanced and little disruption because of lingering drought.

Crops day back on calendar

New Zealand’s largest one-day cropping event is back on the calendar for December. Plans for the 25th anniversary of the Foundation for Arable Research’s annual Crops day began last year but in March it was put on hold while covid-19 unfolded.

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