Closeup:Fonterra Free Cows Milk Not Popular VIDEO

***UPDATE***
13/12/12
Cows milk will be promoted and given away in New Zealand schools nationwide next year :
"Research conducted by the University of Auckland has shown that children's milk consumption in the Northland community, both at school and at home, has significantly increased since the pilot began.

"We know that getting Kiwis drinking more milk is not an overnight job but we are committed to helping improve the health of our kids," said (Fonterra CEO) Mr Spierings."

UGH!


Similar to that lovable scamp "Iron Brion", a singing dancing minimum wage guy in a suit telling New Zealand school children they MUST eat New Zealand killed Cows and Sheep, our cows milk empire wants a crack at "get 'em while they're young" too!

Some great quotes in the video, from the children themselves not wanting the cows milk ("be more entertaining for the kids, put a bit of food colouring init, maybe a little more flavour?") and the principals themselves not drinking the free product!  "no, because I'm not a milk drinker!" and "it DOES taste like long life milk, because its long life milk."  And presumably long life milk doesnt taste all that great.

"Can I ask you why are you doing it, is it out of the goodness of your hearts, or is it a PR move by Fonterra to get everyone in the country drinking more milk?"

Fonterra PR "no, we want to....ITS HEALTHY FOR KIDS! Look, its WONDERFUL for kids, its nutritious...(PRACTICED PR SPIN!) Secondly, we want to see New Zealand as the dairy capital of the world.  We're the biggest exporter of milk products in the world, and at home, people arnt drinking as much milk as they used to.  And we're starting with kids, because its a long term play".

To get them hooked into adulthood! :-)

"We cant force people to drink milk" "you'd like to!" "I would like to!" "...where we've been running this pilot, already amongst the kids who've been drinking this milk, we've already seen a 20% increase in the amount of milk they're consuming out of school, so it seems to be having a really good impact."



Closeup November 21st 2012 "Fonterra Committed To Milk In Schools Despite Drop"


New Zealanders in their 50's remember when school milk was given out daily - unrefrigerated, it would be warm and by all accounts HORRIBLE, as even Fonterra Managing Director Peter McClure mentions on the above video :-) 
"they've got to put it in the fridges (provided by Fonterra....) cause you and I will both remember how milk was in our day" "UGH, yeah, the SUMMER!" (warm cows milk........gross!)



Photo and article from NZ History

The New Zealand "Dairy" industry has come under fire for the shocking state of New Zealands environment, contributing greatly to pollution in our nation.  Many New Zealanders also feel that cows milk is too expensive, so this example of suddenly giving free cows milk away to young children in schools can be seen as a PR stunt, kissing babies almost :-)






I've written before about this current schoolmilk stunt:
"After an enthusiastic take-up, some schools have seen nearly a 90 per cent decline in the number of kids receiving milk each day, with many blaming the taste of the ultra heat treated (UHT) milk.

"The kids wrote letters to Fonterra thanking them for the milk, but fewer were drinking it because of the taste it left in their mouth," said Dave Bradley, Wellsford School principal."


Fonterra's campaign website "Fonterra Milk For Schools":

"Angela Berrill, Nutritionist & Director of ABC Nutrition Ltd says:

“Milk provides a unique combination of nutrients which are essential for a child’s growth and development. The natural nutrition of milk gives children calcium for building bones and the nutrients they need for sustained energy, concentration and learning in the classroom.” "


The milk itself is "essential"?  If the milk in question is Fonterra *Cows Milk*, Rubbish!  We've challenged Fonterra before on this, and won!  They cannot claim cows milk is "essential" for New Zealanders, and I'd be pretty sure they're not allowed to run quotes claiming its "essential" either.

"The complainant said five claims on Fonterra's website about the nutritional benefits of dairy products were factually untrue - including that dairy is an "essential part of a balanced diet" and "we all need it".

The complainant referred to the Ministry of Health's nutrition guidelines, which said all essential nutrients could be obtained from a well-planned vegan diet involving no dairy products.

"Therefore dairy is not needed at any age, and is not essential or vital to a balanced, nutritious diet as claimed," they wrote.

The complainant also disputed Fonterra's claims that milk is the richest dietary source of calcium, and that no other source of calcium can be absorbed as well as dairy, pointing to green vegetables with more absorbable calcium.

Fonterra responded to the complaint, saying it would change four of its online claims - including to say dairy was "important", rather than "essential"."We can certainly get the nutrients which growing children need from a plant based diet :-)


An interesting saga! :-)

New Zealand Schoolchildren Reject Free Cows Milk!

New Zealands largest company, "dairy" monopoly Fonterra started giving out "free cows milk in schools" as a PR stunt.   Barely any negative coverage gets out about the New Zealand dairy industry, of how 89% of rivers in my region are "poor" or "very poor", and of the astonishing cruelty inherent to the dairy industry.A recent report about tonnes of cows milk spilt into the already poor Mataura River.  On the Southland's History page of the Invercargill Vegan Society website, you can look through slaughterhouse industry books about how one Alliance slaughterhouse was built and currently runs dumping its blood, "effluent" and other goodies directly into the formerly gorgeous Mataura River.

"Around 150 electricity customers were without power in Mataura, Southland early today after a milk tanker hit a power pole around 3am.

Between 12,000 and 15,000 litres of milk spilled into a drain which led directly to the Mataura River, Environment Southland said.

Fortunately, from an environmental perspective, the lower reaches of the river were in flood overnight, so the milk would have been diluted immediately and was unlikely to have any lasting environmental impact."

Thank goodness the river was so full, although adding that level of cows milk is still a disaster.

As the mega company felt mounting media pressure though, they relaunched cows milk giveaways in schools, to get future customers hooked, and to look like they cared about poor school children.

Being photographed kissing babies hasn't worked out so well for them though!

As New Zealand newspapers report:

"Free milk has left a sour taste in the mouths of some of Northland's schools and a large numbers of their students have dropped out of the pilot programme which was launched on March 19.

After an enthusiastic take-up, some schools have seen nearly a 90 per cent decline in the number of kids receiving milk each day, with many blaming the taste of the ultra heat treated (UHT) milk.

"The kids wrote letters to Fonterra thanking them for the milk, but fewer were drinking it because of the taste it left in their mouth," said Dave Bradley, Wellsford School principal.

The school said half the 240 children initially drinking the milk have opted out.

At Kaiwaka nearly 70 of the school's 86 children were drinking the milk. It is now down to 10.

"I am beginning to wonder if kids are so used to sugar that they don't want to drink milk anymore," said principal Barbara Bronlund."

Maybe its simply offputting to drink milk once you're old enough to talk? :-)


"Holly Walker, spokeswoman for children from the Green Party, said trying to use a 1930s era scheme for modern children was flawed, though she also acknowledged the scheme was not very popular when Labour started giving free milk to schoolchildren from 1937. The policy ended in 1967.

"There was a lot of nostalgia about the programme, but there were flaws - the milk would get warm in the sun and be awful by the time they drank it. Now we've come full circle."

My parents both remember "milk monitor" duty, each day a child would be let out of class to handle the wooden or metal boxes with the cardboard cartons of cows milk.  Apparently each day there was a cows milk delivery, and no refrigeration, it was all dumped somewhere?  "No refrigeration", sounds like we were really......not up to date......as a nation!  And as the calf food warmed up...the smell was horrible!

"Fonterra said the decline was expected and the numbers are now stable.

"It started with a big hiss and a roar and now the numbers are naturally settling down," said Craig Irwin, Fonterra's business manager for beverages."


"Fonterra's website says the pilot will be used to test logistics, such as installing fridges in schools, arranging for the milk to be delivered and putting recycling programmes in place for the packaging, which has also unexpectedly proved a problem.

Several schools said the 250ml cartons were difficult for young children to finish and the folding and disposal of the containers was time consuming.

"My staff are busy teachers and it's not easy managing the milk if you have half-empty boxes," said Adrian Smith, principal of One Tree Point school. "It is smelly."

Those practical difficulties led Riverview Primary School to withdraw from the programme."
Also reported on by Robert Guyton, "Another Problem for Fonterra"
I for one blame Vegan activists spreading their evil message of respect for all animals in our public libraries!!!  And targeting the young with colourful children's books too!!!

"Dairy" Dung Beetle Release Delayed

The Southland Times "Fear Of Disease Puts Off Beetle Release"

"A programme set up to release dung beetles on Southland farms so they can eat livestock dung has suffered a setback after concerns were raised about the spread of disease.

An application was approved last year for the Dung Beetle Release Strategy Group to release up to 11 species of beetle to manage livestock dung.

Strategy group spokesman Andrew Barber said the beetles were set to be released last summer but objections were raised shortly after they were given approval.

Concerns were raised about the beetles' ability to spread bovine tuberculosis (TB) and Johne's disease as well as other public health issues, he said."

"Dung beetles removed livestock dung and improved soil drainage and nutrients. They also helped reduce runoff and water quality, he said.

It would be a long time before we could expect to see dung beetles making an impact, Mr Barber said.

"It'll take a while. It'll take about 15 years plus.""

Its our own Environment Southland FOR this crazy scheme!  You'd expect our environmental guardians would be AGAINST it!

So we're going to set loose "up to 11 species of [dung] beetle"......hoping they'll bury and eat up all the cow....poop........and we're told "It'll take a while", over FIFTEEN YEARS???

Absolutely insane!  In fifteen years time, who the hell knows what our "dairy" industry will look like, presumably cows indoors, with crazy robots cleaning up after them.

 No more immigrant workers being exploited for as long as possible before they're sent back to their home countries.  We currently grab as many Filipino workers as we can get here in Southland, working their fingers to the bone, and then we boot them off again, not allowing them to stay as citizens.

As we see here, the Waituna lagoon area in particular is under threat by our uncontrolled "dairy" explosion.  According to the video, in 1992 there were 50,000 cows used as "dairy" machines here in Southland.  By 2000, there were 170,000.  And by 2010, there were over 458,000.

Now tell me, what kind of numbers are we going to be looking at in 15 years time from NOW, from whenever these freaky beetles are finally introduced to our unsuspecting land?  Millions?

Ah, but dont worry, the introduced species of crap eating beetles will have kicked in by then, they'll be "dealing" with ~2013 pollution levels......thats a start.....right?

Hasn't anyone from Dairy NZ seen "Bart vs Australia", where The Simpsons accidentally introduce Cane Toads to Australia, causing a plague?

Absolute lunacy.

Go Vegan! :-)

Dairy Industry Poop Problems Solved....by breeding TONNES of worms?!?

Wanna see a photo of a farmer holding up a bunch of cow "effluent" (?) crawling with worms eating it?  Then The Southland Times article "Spreading The Word For Worms" is just what you're looking for!

As if introducing creepy ass Australian Dung Beetles wasnt crazy enough!
"A Cromwell tiger worm farmer wants more such farms scattered around the south to add value to dairy effluent by creating a nutrient rich fertiliser.

Central Wormworkz owner Robbie Dick said a tiger worm could eat its own bodyweight in waste and turn sloppy, stinky cow effluent into a dry, odourless matter with the consistency of sand.

The fertiliser would mean dairy farmers would need to use less urea and nitrates, he said.

"Nobody can do it safer than nature does."

Ideally, worm farms would be scattered across the province, with each servicing up to 20 dairy farms, he said.

Time-poor dairy farmers often neglected worm farms so a third party to run the farm was necessary, he said.

Running a worm farm would be ideal for retired farmers and the worm stock would double every month if there was enough food made available, he said.

The worms stopped populating if food became scarce.

"They have more brains than we do."

Each worm farm would need three or four tonnes of worms which could eat their weight in effluent every 10 days, he said."


"Soil Foodweb institute owner Cherryle Prew said she examined the biology of soils and the soil structure on farms where raw effluent was spread pugged easily and required urea for grass growth.

Valuable nutrients and minerals were added by composting the effluent with worms, she said.

And the grass grown was more palatable and nutritious for stock.

Environment Minister Amy Adams wrote to Mr Dick encouraging him to submit an application for funding from the ministry's Waste Minimisation Fund and to apply for the Primary Industry Ministry's Sustainable Farming Fund.

Mr Dick said he sent tiger worms to plumbers across New Zealand to put in environmental-friendly toilets.

The toilet separated the urine from the faeces for the waiting worms below, he said.

He had also sent worms to be working crew members in a toilet on a boat in the Doubtful Sounds."


Perhaps farmers could be introducing Genetically Engineered Dung Beetles and Worms to eat up nuclear waste too?  Would sure help out containing Chernobyl !




The Southland Times article "Spreading The Word For Worms" 

"Dairy Boom Days Coming To An End" NZ Herald

I get the mental image of an American style pimp demanding "his" workers cough up more money.


1m 30s through

"New challenges facing New Zealand's dairy industry will likely force a slowdown in milk production over the next decade, according to a new report.

Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank said the industry had ridden a wave of steady growth over the past decade, with milk production increasing by almost 50 per cent.

Good returns, increased capital investment, and strong asset growth had fuelled the development of new dairy farms and processing facilities.

But farmers would need to start looking at how to better squeeze productivity gains from their existing herd, as well as finding ways to control their costs, said Rabobank senior analyst and report author Hayley Moynihan.

"Over the next decade, growth will no longer be driven by increasing the number of dairy cows in the national herd, but by productivity improvements as farmers strive to extract greater production per cow."

"New Zealand dairy operations would become increasingly intensive."

NZ Herald "Dairy boom days coming to an end - bank"

Farming Forum, "assistant herd manager shoved coes tail into "ITS" "UTERUS"

The things we share on Farming forums!

The next comment by "grannypam" mentions a "pacifer", the electric sex toys used to "pacify" female cows through an applied "stimulation"

Indeed the New Zealand "Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare" includes advice not to "prod" those sensitive areas. (PDF link).  Yet its business as usual to harm and kill Mother Cow, forcibly impregnate her just to keep her mothers milk flowing, and instantly kill any children found to be male.


Official industry position here in New Zealand and in Australia seems to be moving away from cutting off Cows tails.  Farmers hate them, because these big brave men and women might get flicked with a wet poop covered tail while they suck out her milk.


See Dairy Australia website:

"A campaign to encourage dairy farmers to adopt alternatives to tail docking has resulted in a significant decline in the practice of tail docking dairy cattle in Australia in recent years. Instead most farms use alternatives such as switch trimming (the removal of hair at the end of the tail), effective dairy design, fly control programs and practices that enhance cow and operator comfort. "

Wait, farmers who take away milk from her body are now called "operators" in industry speak?  What are they, driving a forklift???

 "Dairy" is big business in Australia, and is New Zealands largest industry.  Nothing like "old McDonald had a farmer" like we're all taught by childrens books!


"The Species Barrier -Maintenance" by Dr Roger Yates

"...For example, the picture book, Stories from Mudpuddle Farm (Morpurgo and Rayner 1994), written for children ‘who are just beginning to enjoy reading’, introduces readers to Jigger, the ‘almost-always-sensible’ sheepdog, Mossop the cat, Captain the horse, Frederick the cockerel, Farmer Rafferty, Penelope the hen, Upside and Down the ducks, and Auntie Grace and Primrose the dairy cows.  Farmer Rafferty himself is described as ‘usually a kind man with smiling eyes’ (ibid.: 11) who evidently enjoys a friendly social contract and a constructive working relationship with all the other animals.  In Mudpuddle Farm, each and everyone has a job to do and old-smiley Rafferty tells the various animals: ‘You look after me, and I’ll look after you’ (ibid).  Many of the nonhumans are shown living happily in their family groups, looking after their offspring, another common theme in such publications.

          The cosy consensus is maintained as the entirely free-range hens agree to lay eggs for the farmer, while the ever-smiling cows ‘let down their milk for him’ (ibid.: 13).[15]  However, if readers were in any doubt, a few pages on they learn that the human animal is actually a little more equal than the others when Farmer Rafferty loses his temper after finding mice on the farm.  He asks after the whereabouts of the cat in ‘a nasty raspy voice’ he kept for ‘special occasions’ (ibid.: 20).

          The simplest books about animals, such as the Ladybird ‘toddler talkabout’ series, often appear designed to encourage children to count and make approximate noises of different types of nonhuman animal.  In I Like Farm Animals (Ladybird 1998) a farm is depicted complete with the seemingly obligatory smiling animal enslaver and the happily grinning animals.  All the various animals are pictured together, often with their young; with not a single cage in sight.[16]  In fact, readers are told that the different animals have their own ‘homes’ in which they live.  Of course, few would ever expect to see a single battery hen cage, or a veal crate for calves, or a pig farrowing crate in these publications for the very young, yet to talk of such animals having ‘homes’ is nothing less than highly misleading.

          Books for slightly older children predictably have more complicated narratives.  For example, in Nubbins and the Tractor (Sinnickson 1980), the horse in the story is presented as human property, which correspondents with the actual status of most horses.  Indeed, when the animal is threatened with being replaced by a newly-purchased tractor, his salvation is based on the possible transfer of his ‘ownership’ from farmer to son.  The boy learns that his father is intent on selling the newly-redundant horse and appeals to him: ‘Don’t sell Old Nubbins!’  Although the boy declares that he and Nubbins are ‘friends’, he demands ownership of the horse: ‘Give him to me, and he and I will help you with the work’.  When the new tractor breaks down, Nubbins is shown to be quite over the moon at the prospect of being strapped back into his old harness and he blissfully sets off for a day of ‘hard work’.  Eventually the boy gets the official ownership of the horse and the book ends with both owner and owned pictured apparently deliriously happy about their master-slave relationship.[17]

          If parents want a break from book reading, they can purchase children’s videos such as ‘Fourways Farm’, made in 1997 for Channel 4 Television and narrated by popular actor and radio personality Martin Jarvis.  Here, in several stories written for children up to seven years of age, another community of co-operative animals are to be found.  All co-operative with the exception of three ‘bad rats’ who are stereotypically depicted as scheming ‘gangsters’ who ideologically declare: ‘We don’t do nice things, we’re rats’.  However, all the other residents are demonstrably ‘nice’; the cow, the horse, the duck, the dog, the cat and (another stereotype and slightly less than nice) the typically ‘greedy pig’.  All the animals, the title song tells viewers, ‘say hello to the morning sun’, and they all have ‘food to eat’.  In Fourways



I'll stick to the soymilk thanks!  No shoving of tails up *HER* "uterus" there!

"Miss Jamaica" forced Artificial Insemination Proudly Displayed by Dairy Industry

Another article in The Southland Times about "dairy", here we find out more about forced Artificial Insemination, using semen from a bull on the other side of the world.  I've shared this video from Irish television showing to a mainstream audience how "AB" (artificial breeding) works in the "dairy" industry before.  Its very offputting to a Vegan, but its apparently shown on primetime television in Ireland!

  While "showing her off" at some kind of agricultural fair, they decided "lets Command+P her again, print out another couple", and impregnated her once more.


"The one-month-old holstein friesian calf was the first calf of the season born on Nathan Chilton’s Spurhead farm, near Edendale. Miss Jamaica is the third daughter of champion cow June but the first from an embryo placed in a heifer.

Mr Chilton said he wanted June to have many daughters so had her inseminated with Canadian bull semen in September and had her embryos flushed out in October.

The four fertilised embryos were placed in four heifers but only one embryo held in a heifer called Antigua, named after the Caribbean Island.

June’s great-great-grandmother was called Jamaica, hence the name of the surrogate calf, he said.

Miss Jamaica would have cost him about $1500 but Mr Chilton said the outlay was worth it for a heifer,.

Flushing was quite common in Southland and he knew of about 20 farmers who were doing it.

A Wyndham farmer flushed hoping for a breeding bull, while another wanted heifers to boost milk production.

Higher milk production was the motivation for flushing June, who had a bumper season producing 1108kg of milksolids.

However, Miss Jamaica would be sold if an offer was too good to refuse.

Fertile June was artificially inseminated by another straw of Canada bull semen while she was on the show circuit in Christchurch in November, Mr Chilton said.

‘‘You only have to wave the straw in front of her and she’s in calf.’’

June calved last night and had another heifer that was yet to be named, he said"

I'll stick to soymilk!

Indoor "Dairy" Farming: New Zealands Future

*** UPDATE showing farmer wearing slaughterhouse logo hat published in the next days paper!  Also covered by 3 News***

"More dairy farmers are building wintering sheds in Southland. Shawn McAvinue talks to one, who says those building them need to "do it once and do it right".

The back rubs end abruptly when the music wanes. Then the stampede begins.

Car Wash, the 1970s disco hit by Rose Royce is playing to 750 cows and a party of about 20 curious farmers, who have come to see a new $4 million wintering barn in Dunearn, near Mossburn.

The $9000 wireless sound system is struggling to stay tuned to The Breeze radio station and the 24 speakers in the shed begin to crackle. Then the music stops. It's like a gunshot fired in a packed nightclub. The cows get startled then stampede. Then there's a crackle, the radio reception kicks in and Rose Royce returns: "Talkin' about the car wash, yeah".

The fickle cows are instantly content and return to chewing on feed or massaging their rumps.

About 1600 cows are milked on Philip and Denise van der Bijl's dairy farm.

The weather was the reason they invested in the 200-metre by 34-metre wintering shed for 952 cows. The first cow stepped inside the shed in May.

When it's full, the rest of the cows stay out on dry land or crop, Mr van der Bijl says."

The Southland Times : "Welcome to the Hotel van der Bijl" August 7th 2012


From "pasture" based systems (outside on green grass) to eating a diet of imported "feed", much of it Palm Kernel Extract (PKE) ( "PKE Palm Oil use by NZ Dariy near majority of cows food" ) from the environmentally unsound Palm Oil.

Future automation systems will mean far less human workers ("they took our jobs!") as a fleet of million dollar "milking" machines complete the "factory farming"-isation of New Zealands biggest industry, "dairy".

3 News report 21st October 2010  "Robot Milks Cows For All They're Worth", the small town of Winton near Invercargill where I live, some twenty minutes drive away.

***6th September 2012 Update ***

Robot "cow milker" covered in The Southland Times "Farmers Toast Milking Robot Milestone"



As covered on Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals "Episode 37 Hey Hey Hey Hey Nah Nah Nah Nah"

A real nightmare for all concerned, yet its being pitched as "environmentally friendly" and that the cows even PREFER being kept indoors all the time.

Its like watching a train wreck in slow motion - this is how "battery cages" and "sow stalls" began, "its got great welfare benefits, and is cost effective!"

"The Chicken of Tomorrow", contains scenes of killed birds being compared for "how much better" their corpses are.

Regulating Animal Welfare changes is a messy business folks!  Lets continue to promote Veganism :-)


***UPDATE***

An article in The Southland Times the very next day shows the lead farmer wearing an Alliance Slaughterhouse hat, linking his "dairy farming" with the slaughterhouses that kill these same animals.



You'd think he would have realised the stories published have been about how lovely his $4 million dollar shed is, that uhhhhh, thats kinda mucked up by wearing a slaughterhouse hat, where you send these poor animals to be killed, yeah?


17th August 2012

This indoor farm has been covered by 3 News