Until recently, New Zealand was one of two countries in the world that did not have cattle infected by the Mycoplasma Bovis disease. Fr Tom Lawn is the assistant priest in the Catholic parish of New Plymouth, the main city in the Province of Taranaki – an area in which dairy farming has been long established. Read more
Steve Thomson has been a sheep and beef farmer in the eastern Wairarapa. He is also an Anglican priest. A recent episode of TVNZ’s Country Calendar took a look at his life. Thomson is the parish priest in Tinui. The parish covers a large geographical area stretching from Riversdale Beach, Homewood Road to Whareama and Read more
Mystery surrounds the reasons behind the killing of all members of a family whose children went to a Catholic school in rural New South Wales. The bodies of Kim Hunt, 41, and her three children Fletcher, 10, Mia, 8 and Phoebe 6, were found on the family’s property near Lockhart on Tuesday. The next day Read more
It may not make his family wealthy, but Devran Mankar is still grateful for the pearl millet variety called Dhanshakti (meaning “prosperity and strength”) he has recently begun growing in his small field in the state of Maharashtra, in western India. “Since eating this pearl millet, the children are rarely ill,” raves Mankar, a slim man Read more
Water is creating lots of dairy millionaires, but at what cost to our environment? Recipe for prosperity: take flat land, skilled farmers, fertiliser and cows. Add cheap water. Fold in new technology, lashings of debt and permissive environmental rules. Voila! In a decade or two you have a thriving district with next-to-no unemployment, a rising Read more