Methane campaign is 100% politics
OPINION: We are endlessly told that livestock are responsible for half of New Zealand's total emissions.
A committee which carried out the review into New Zealand's science system says the underinvestment will continue to compromise the country's future.
The committee, headed by Sir Peter Gluckman and consisting of other prominent science leaders, says in its report to government that there is overwhelming evidence investment in research and science is absolutely core to productivity growth.
And it adds that "failure over several decades to accept and act on this causation has led NZ to being a poor performing outlier compared to most advanced economies of comparable size". Essentially this is a rap over the knuckles for successive governments for underfunding science.
This is the same committee that recommended the merger of the four agricultural related CRIs (AgResearch, Landcare Research, Plant and Food Research and Scion) into a mega organisation called Bioeconomy. They will no longer be called CRIs; rather they get a name change, and probably a new logo, and will be known as a PRO or public research organisation.
As part of the changes, a new entity will emerge called Earth Sciences which will bring together NIWA and GNS and, as already signalled, will see MetService become a wholly-owned subsidiary of NIWA.
ESR will be renamed the Health and Forensic Science Services PRO with a 'new' focus. Gone is Callaghan Innovation, with the Government saying its functions will be spread amongst other PROs.
The rationale for this move, according to Judith Collins, the Science Minister at the time of the announcement, is to ensure that there is a science system that generates maximum value for the $1.2 billion the Government invests in science funding.
There are other changes afoot, including the establishment of a special investment agency and a super advisory body to provide strategic oversight for the changes.
"This work, along with our move to overturn what has effectively been a 30-year ban on gene technology, will unlock enormous opportunities for our science sector and New Zealanders," she says.
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.
DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.
Academic freedom is a privilege and it's put at risk when people abuse it.
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