How Saving the Cookies for Santa Could Save Our Children

Environmental factors and high sugar lunches represent a few proposed causes of the childhood obesity epidemic. Consequences of this epidemic are not limited to physical illnesses in children, but also psychological ones. The solution to this issue is more complex than a low carbohydrate diet or increased physical activity. Children need to be raised in an environment which fosters healthy lifestyle habits year-round

Recent changes to conservation of New Zealand’s native biodiversity

This paper presents some observations about recent changes to conservation in New Zealand. It is influenced by practical experience over the past 15 years, first as conservation planner employed by the Department of Conservation, then as an environmentalist involved in community conservation projects. It looks at the development of public-private partnerships in conservation action over the past fifteen years. These changes point to the configuration of new landscapes although the diverse and uncoordinated nature of many contemporary initiatives suggest that future biological communities will comprise a diversity of hybrid mixes from predominantly native to fully non-native species

Planners and the conservation of biological heritage: Implications for New Zealand and Australia

The aim of this paper is to encourage greater attention by planners to conservation of native or indigenous biodiversity, and to the skills and knowledge required for this endeavour. This paper argues that, in order to be effective, planners need to develop methods and principles of planning that support the long-term survival of native species and ecosystems. To do so, they will need to work with ecologists, biologists, and land managers, and bring new areas of ecological understanding to their traditional skills. They will also have to demonstrate that they have the skills they claim to have. Moreover, since conservation of biodiversity frequently requires the maintenance or restoration of ecological processes a change in the common focus of planning on development approval with limited monitoring or enforcement, is required

Does practice make perfect? Debate about principles versus practice in New Zealand local government planning

Legislation and practice are two arms of public policy planning. Legislation empowers or enables; practice is the articulation and implementation of legislative principle. In New Zealand there has been widespread debate in recent years about the relative importance of practice versus legislation in achieving planning outcomes under its key planning legislation, the Resource Management Act 1991. This paper proposes that the effectiveness and efficiency of planning practice may depend on a range of factors, some of which are beyond the control of planners, and outside of legislation. They include political priorities and the countervailing administrative responsibilities of the public agencies involved

The political economy of a productivist agriculture: New Zealand dairy discourses

The New Zealand dairy industry faces political and commercial pressure to improve its environmental performance on the one hand while maintaining economic efficiency and commercial competitiveness in a global marketplace on the other. The growing scale and intensity of dairy production have caused significant cumulative environmental impacts. Productivist constructions of environmental improvement by the industry are an example of ecological modernisation by a large international agri-food organisation in the face of global trade competition and domestic political pressures. This paper explores the productivist constructions of environmental management by the New Zealand dairy industry in the context of global economic competition and notes an alternative response inspired by an ethic of sustainability. It suggests that despite global pressures of economic competition it is possible to incorporate non-material values into farm management provided these are recognised and rewarded

Rugged individualism versus co-operative enterprise: different responses by New Zealand pastoral farmers to agricultural change

In relation to sustainable land use, this paper explores the different responses by New Zealand dairy farmers on the one hand and sheep and beef ('drystock') farmers on the other, to changing global trade patterns and government policies over the past fifteen years

Production, environment and biodiversity: Conflicting dairy discourses?

While farmers as private landowners are a prime target for native biodiversity conservation, they are also the focus of strong pressures to manage land for production. The pressure is particularly strong for dairy farmers who face a high capital outlay in the cost of land, dairy cows and milk company shares. This paper reflects on the messages that dairy farmers receive from the mass media about environment and production. It reports the results of a content analysis of articles from a popular New Zealand farmer magazine, and notes the news media reportage of a recent environmental policy initiative related to water quality. The aim of the content analysis was to compare the quantity of information that dairy farmers receive about environmental and production issues in a magazine that receives wide circulation within the dairy farming community