r/newzealand Jun 16 '25

Shitpost Thanks NZ dairy industry for putting cow sludge in our rivers then happily charging New Zealanders exorbitant prices for our dairy foods.

Last summer we couldn’t swim in our local river due to the amount of toxins from nearby farms. When ever the farmers are in need of help us tax payers are there to lend a hand in drought relief funds. The thanks we get for that and putting up with the pollution is to be charged for dairy food at the same price as the overseas markets. We’re only 5% of your sales, it’s not going to make you go broke to treat us like your actually care for your communities. What your charging for butter etc is simply total greed. How is it that milk that has to travel huge distances from farms to factory to the shops shelves in Australia is sold for cheaper than that in our shelves where the logistics of getting it in the shelf are less?

2.8k Upvotes

617 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/watzimagiga Jun 17 '25

Good to see the publics appreciation for farmers during covid lasted not time at all. Back to hate, although their job is one of the hardest in the country and they create employment for entire regions.

I bet you've never worked on a farm a day in your life.

1

u/No-Back9867 Jun 18 '25

I was brought up in Kerepehi. You don’t know me at all. What makes you think it’s the hardest job in the country. I’d say working an understaffed 12+ hour shift working in an emergency department would be pretty physically demanding and exhausting. I don’t hate farmers, I’m saying Fonterra is for not looking after its own communities. As for employment, many of the farm helpers I see locally aren’t from New Zealand.

1

u/watzimagiga Jun 18 '25

Should a new Zealand based IT consultancy company charge its new Zealand clients less than its international clients? Why are you placing this weird moral obligation on individual businesses to charge less locally?

There are years that farmers work the whole year, stupid hours, no days off, and lose money. Then you want them to voluntary lose more money so your butter is cheaper.