The Auckland Regional Council has been involved in a nationwide soil health monitoring programme for some years. Now the ARC has included soils from some sites that are farmed organically, as part of that suite of sites.

This will compare them with neighbouring soils that are traditionally farmed, and will help monitor future changes.

Four soil types and three farm types (dairy, orchard and market garden) have been sampled.

Councillor Jack Henderson, who requested sampling from farms using organic methods in late 2000, said the testing program is very exciting and a credit to the Council.

“Organic agriculture is a great example of New Zealand adding value to what it traditionally does well. The export potential is tremendous and the food tastes better too.”

“Yet there has been very little information about the composition of soils farmed under an organic regime in the Auckland region.”

“Auckland Regional Council officers have taken up this initiative with enthusiasm and believe it to be a New Zealand first.“

Release ends.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>