Ruminant Biotech aims to equip 100 million cows with Emitless methane-reducing tech
New Zealand's Ruminant Biotech says that while it has big goals, the scale of the problem it seeks to solve requires it.
Pricing agricultural emissions is wrong and there are better ways, says chair of Beef + Lamb NZ Kate Acland.
A report commissioned by B+LNZ shows that New Zealand is out of step with global climate policies. The report produced by New Zealander Macauly Jones, an independent agricultural and sustainability consultant based in Berlin, surveyed sixteen jurisdictions internationally to see how they are dealing with reducing agricultural emissions.
Acland says only one other country besides NZ - Denmark - is considering pricing agricultural emissions and their scheme is heavily subsidised.
She says B+LNZ is not saying that it doesn't have a part to play in reducing agricultural emissions, but says she wants the Government to consider alternatives to pricing. She says there is also a myth that agriculturer is being let off the hook by excluding ruminant emissions from the ETS.
"This report is about prompting the conversation that there is a better way and that we need to reconsider how we are looking at the best way to address agricultural emissions. All pricing will achieve is a further reduction in stock numbers and that's a worry," she says.
Acland says the report shows that there are examples of other countries around the world who are addressing their agricultural emissions in a better way.
Meanwhile, the issue of agricultural emissions was in the spotlight this month with a two-day agricultural and climate change conference in Wellington. This attracted more than 400 people - a mixture of scientists, politicians, policy makers and others.
Among the keynote speakers was Agriculture Minister Todd McClay who reiterated that his government is committed to farming - noting that this was why they took agriculture out of the ETS. He says it makes no sense to have a punitive tax that says farmers must change emissions on farm.
McClay says there hasd been significant investment in finding solutions for climate change mitigation.
"Those investments are coming out of the laboratory and being tested around the world and in NZ, and over the years I think these will become available. The approach we are taking is not to tax farmers, which will see less food produced. Rather, we want to collaborate with them and find technological innovations that mean NZ gets to lead the world in food production. We are not about closing farms," he says.
As regards setting up a pricing system for agriculture by 2030, McClay to some degree played this down, saying any consideration of a price would be done later on after many other things are done, and the bottom line was they would not send jobs and production overseas.
Managing director of Woolover Ltd, David Brown, has put a lot of effort into verifying what seems intuitive, that keeping newborn stock's core temperature stable pays dividends by helping them realise their full genetic potential.
Within the next 10 years, New Zealand agriculture will need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth, conservatively valued at $150 billion in farming assets.
Boutique Waikato cheese producer Meyer Cheese is investing in a new $3.5 million facility, designed to boost capacity and enhance the company's sustainability credentials.
OPINION: The Government's decision to rule out changes to Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) that would cost every farmer thousands of dollars annually, is sensible.
Compensation assistance for farmers impacted by Mycoplama bovis is being wound up.
Selecting the reverse gear quicker than a lovestruck boyfriend who has met the in-laws for the first time, the Coalition Government has confirmed that the proposal to amend Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) charged against farm utes has been canned.
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