Fonterra is getting ready to tackle its biggest source of emissions - farmers
Fonterra is getting ready to tackle its biggest source of emissions - farmers
Under pressure from overseas markets, big customers and banks to improve sustainability, Fonterra is turning its focus to farmers who supply its milk.
For those who have been following the "Dairy/Emissions/Climate Change" saga the last few days, this story highlights the role that Fronterra will/must play in turning the industry around to be accepted on the World stage. This includes at least some move to plant based production. Fronterra can dictate to farmers what practices are acceptable, or it won't collect the milk, this has been done before, so Fronterra has the power to force the change.
As one of the early commenters below the story highlights, this does nothing for the pollution of NZ Rivers that continues, though. It IS time for the Farmers to pay, and I suspect many are going to pay dearly.
Here before the "without farmers there is no food" comments. FFS, they aren't telling you to stop, only consider the full environmental impact of how you make a living... you know, like the rest of us.
There's also no food when the environments fucked, so small change now it's better
This sounds great - I'm sure it's a sore subject and no one loves being the bashed victim, but I'm fairly confident the farming community have some overly loud complainers that aren't willing to change (that's my prejudice, at least).
I'm excited to hear Fonterra may be able to force this and is essentially leading the charge. It's gotta hurt, but I see this just like the flattening of the COVID curve - less pain before it's too late...
I say this because it's obvious to me that we need to diversify from milk and meat - as soon as those are cheaply synthesized we're done for (as far as GDP, etc). It happened with the wool market, so they all switched (those that weren't bankrupt) and made exactly the same mistake again (by going all in on beef & dairy).
All good, except this:
no one loves being the bashed victim
The farmers who will bear the brunt of the changes are not victims. They are the ones victimising the environment and the rest of us.
They're had decades to change, to adapt to sustainable practices, all the while getting a hefty discount on the actual cost of their practices. Times up.
Touché. I concur
I don't know how they are tracking now, but this comapny made some waves with their seaweed approach back in 2021: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2112/S00513/ch4-aotearoa-opens-auckland-office-and-expands-team-after-announcing-further-investment-by-sir-stephen-tindall.htm
Basically, they feed a red seaweed to dairy cows and the cows fart less. From memory it was something in the seaweed that prevented a specific type of bacteria that produces the most methane. Back in 2021, there wasn't a lot of research around long-term health for the cattle, or how it affected the milk product, but it was a very promising approach.
I don't know how they are tracking now, but this comapny made some waves with their seaweed approach back in 2021
Terribly! They promised 80-90% reduction of methane back then, but recent trials in Aus show it having less than 30% reduction and the cow looses considerable weight. So the end result is more like 10% reduction and long term effects on the cow are still to come in.
There is another one available now that claims 30% reduction (forgot its name) but I've not seen any real trial results yet.