In a summary of their experiences the unbalanced rhetoric around emerging technologies was also noted.
Wellington based government agricultural development manager Jessica Bensemann reported her concern over New Zealand agriculture’s level of disconnectedness from global trading trends and patterns after visiting Asia, United States, Europe and the Middle East.
Instead she warned New Zealand’s primary sector appeared to be transfixed within the farm gate.
She urged the sector to leverage off its considerable international networks to raise a greater level of awareness of global issues that will impact directly in coming years on NZ’s farming communities.
She was also concerned at the stagnation in agri-investment she had witnessed globally with a focus remaining more on productivity gains with sustainability investment only a “nice to have.”
For Samuel Leung, environmental manager turned shepherd, putting the substance behind environmental claims was highlighted in Ireland’s Origin Green initiative.
He noted that despite the benchmarking and measurement systems in place to provide information to consumers, he was surprised by the lack of interest among farmers to lift their environmental or welfare performance to meet the initiative’s expectations.
“Transparency without enough substance carries risk and lessons that we can learn from,” he said.
He looked to Israel as an example of a country committed to research and development that included developing more sustainable farming methods. That country had a scientific environment that gave researchers a high level of job and income security, and a reduced competitiveness for funds between researchers and institutions.
Te Puke dairy farmer Richard Fowler’s study into synthetic food identified three key drivers behind the investment frenzy underway in that sector, particularly within the United States.
He found the biggest driver was environmental, with carbon emissions associated with livestock production claimed to be greater than that from all the world’s vehicles, trains and ships.
Animal welfare proved the next driver, impacted by the industrial farming models used in Europe and the US, followed by the common driver of making money.
Fowler became concerned at the lack of balance around the claims made for conventional agriculture, and the supposed benefits of cellular-synthetic type food production.
Qualified solicitor and Waikato sheep and beef farm co-owner Tom Skerman finished his scholarship challenging the standard industry call for greater corporate governance use within farming systems.
He said he was increasingly convinced corporate governance was over-hyped and over sold within many parts of the primary sector, and governance changes have left the sector poorly equipped to handle the massive changes and disruptions due in coming decades.
He attempts to address in his final report on whether formal governance structures will benefit owner operators at all, and whether businesses need the “entire” governance workshop experience, or just some parts of it.
West Coast dairy farmer Bede O’Connor completed his scholarship over a two year period, and during a visit to China identified a clear and present danger to NZ’s red meat processing sector.
That was in the form of meat processing facilities designed to handle imported carcases that were quartered and frozen.
He theorised it was only a matter of time until such plants bought the closure of NZ processing operations as “almost a certainty.”
Taking it a step further, he believed this could lead to a loss of NZ’s ability to add value at the point of origin, essentially commoditising red meat further.
He also gained an insight to the role subsidies play in many countries in preserving environmental standards, and the need for NZ to better understand the philosophies behind those subsidies rather than simply speaking out against them.
