Final call for Alliance’s 2027 Graduate Programme
Alliance is calling for final applications for its 2027 Graduate Programme, with applications closing on Sunday 25 October.
Former Minister of the Crown, diplomat, still a farmer and now chair of the globally recognised Riddet Institute, Sir Lockwood Smith says the red meat sector is going through a good phase now with prices, especially for beef.
He says he can’t recall such a good period since the wool boom of the 1950s.
He says there is an air of confidence in the sector and an interest in the fact that it can do better, which he says is really good to see.
“If I had one criticism of the industry, it would be that there is not enough investment in researching new products from our red meat. Whereas I observe Fonterra and the dairy industry investing hugely in new food products, the risk the meat industry faces is that it could be seen as being caught up with the issues of today rather than thinking about the future,” he says.
Smith says new high value cuts of meat are being developed to sell in high-end markets, which is good, but this is still just cutting meat. He says the dairy industry is creating all sorts of valuable new products from milk and the meat industry needs to find products that are worth far more than the traditional steak.
According to Smith, research is needed into what he calls the 5th quarter of the carcass – meaning the blood and other organs and creating new products.
He says while there an awareness of this, he doesn’t see enough research going into it yet.
Smith says the Riddet Institute has done some outstanding work on what are called Digestible Indispensable Amino Acids that show that red meat protein is better than protein derived from plants. This research shows that red meat proteins are readably digestible whereas plant proteins aren’t. He says the other great advantage of red meat is its iron content.
“A huge number of women globally are deficient in iron and of course red meat is a wonderful source of iron. It’s a global problem and woman die because they don’t get enough iron, and it’s also problem for woman in NZ. We need to have the research to show that people need more iron and red meat and red meat offers all to these nutritional benefits,” he says
Smith says times in the past haven’t been easy for the red meat sector, but with the present upturn in the fortunes, serious thought needs to go into investing more money into food science R&D to unlock new opportunities and keep ahead of our competitors.
