Ika Makimaki
@pezmico@mastodon.nz  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago

To the butter price discourse and how Fonterra and the government say there is no choice but paying international prices for locally made products...

I just want everyone to remember that the dairy industry (NZ's biggest polluter!) is the only one exempt from the Emissions Trading Scheme. (Ineffective and flawed as it is, but that's a different discussion)

We're literally giving them a massive discount (and have been for decades, allowing endless pollution and ecosystem degradation for free) but they couldn't possibly make a bit less profit in return.

My pitchfork is sharp already. 馃嵈
Joe :tinoflag:
@Antigrav@mastodon.nz replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
@pezmico , their feeble, stupid excuse is: 'we can't make it cheaper in Aotearoa because overseas companies will swoop in and buy it all up'.
What a load of rubbish!
Fonterra can sell it to our two supermarket empires without anyone else being able to do anything about it.
They're the perfect example of:
'Profits are privatised and losses (dirty rivers, drinking water pollution, animal cruelty, etc)
are socialised. Despicable W...ers!
Pete
@98Percent@mastodon.nz replied  路  activity timestamp 2 weeks ago
@pezmico Butter is not hard to make.
What we need are citizen-owned farms (by citizen I mean the 99%), a citizen-owned dairy factory making butter and perhaps cheese and a citizen-owned distribution system.
All of these should be operated on a cost-plus basis - for the 99% at least; the 1%-ers can pay market price based on the international price. The plus should be sufficient to cover overheads and a profit margin for future plant replacement and growth - no more, whatever the market does.
Anyone want to start a fund to do this?
As they say, from a tiny seed a mighty tree can grow!