Changing food economies
I know the problem but not the solution. With a burgeoning world population, a rapidly advancing food technology (e.g., synthesising food rather than growing it), and our economy relying on inefficient meat and milk production, in the medium term we are going to be redundant as a food provider. Somehow, we need to begin a gradual switch away from meat and diary into more effective and non-polluting use of arable land.
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Narena Olliver commented 2016-11-30 13:36:05 +1300Has anyone read Jeremy Rifkin, the end of capitalism and the 3rd industrial revolution, the collaborative society etc? With cultured food and vertical farming, we can return half the planet to wildlife, and spend our lives not working as slaves to the 2nd capitalist revolution.
Incidentally, NZ hill country farms return so little to the NZ economy, we could give most of it back to the birds and bees now. -
Narena Olliver commented 2016-11-30 13:19:35 +1300Cultured meat and milk are here. The impact of the world’s vast herds of cattle on climate change make it imperative that we move to cultured meat and milk. What future NZ farmers?
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Narena Olliver tagged this with important 2016-11-30 13:19:35 +1300
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Tim O’Donnell commented 2016-11-26 22:34:11 +1300I agree we should look at other options however it will be a slow process. To start with we have to stop such intensive farming on land that can’t naturally sustain it. From what I’ve read dairy farming in the South Island (generalisation) is rediculous. I’m happy to have milk & meat just do it sustainably.
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Tim O’Donnell tagged this with interesting 2016-11-26 22:34:10 +1300
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Tim O’Donnell tagged this with important 2016-11-26 22:34:10 +1300
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Alan Barraclough tagged this with important 2016-11-26 17:44:50 +1300
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Timothy Kilgour commented 2016-11-26 08:42:15 +1300Yes, good comment around diversification with seafood. Just to emphasise a point to the doubters about artificial meat; as soon as we have the ability to manufacture food that looks like meat, tastes like meat, has the texture of meat, and is cheaper than meat, then effectively the animal meat industry is going to decline rapidly. Same with milk. That leaves us with tourism as our main economic driver if we don’t diversify. This is not science fiction. It is being worked on now.
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Andi Shen Liu commented 2016-11-26 08:14:32 +1300You only mention “land” – it should be important to note that mussel farming has many times the efficiency of land-based farming for the same amount of protein, plus it doesn’t compete with animals and humans for habitat, and requires no fertilliser input. In addition, omega 3:6 ratios are much better for seafood than for grains, which may be important for population health.
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Andi Shen Liu tagged this with interesting 2016-11-26 08:14:32 +1300
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Susan Jones tagged this with important 2016-11-26 07:57:54 +1300 -
Narena Olliver followed this page 2016-11-26 07:48:36 +1300
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Philip Robins tagged this with low priority 2016-11-25 20:47:28 +1300
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Graeme Kiyoto-Ward commented 2016-11-25 20:25:15 +1300I suspect that people have been eating real food for so long that there will be a market for it in the future. We should be promoting how our beef and lamb is essentially ‘free range’. That’s a better response. My opinion.
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Graeme Kiyoto-Ward tagged this with low priority 2016-11-25 20:25:15 +1300
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james reardon tagged this with important 2016-11-25 19:18:39 +1300
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