Primary Sector Policies
Colin Smith
Public
Seen by 107
What policies are we going to put in place for our primary produce manufacturing sector. They are going to need some serious help!
http://www.new-harvest.org/ This site is the death bell ringing for this industry.
To understand the situation:
• They are able to produce Eggs, Milk, Chicken, Lamb, Beef and Pork. “Without The Animal”
• The problem they are now facing is one of scalability.
• This they should be able to do within the next 10 years.
• This means our primary industry is a Zombie industry. (It does not know it is dead yet, or is just hoping to hell that they can find a niche.) Remember to include ALL other countries when thinking about any local consequences.
• Taste or quality is a non issue – it is better than the real thing. (Read the latest reports – not the early ones)
Result
• Good Bye Foreign exchange, it was nice while it lasted.
• No need for Dairy Cows, Beef Cows, Chickens, Pigs or even Fish. (Including Oysters apparently)
• No need for farmers, farm hands.
• No need animal farms or specialised farm building (Milk Sheds)
• No need for real estate agents who specialize in farm sales
• No need for the companies that specialise in building milk sheds or the companies that supply them with specialized parts.
• No need for the staff at those companies
• No need for stock trucks or milk trucks for delivery of produce.
• No need for the drivers. (Assuming they did not install self drive milk tankers)
• No need for stock ships for the live shipping of animals overseas.
• No need for the stock agents that buy and sell animals.
• No need for Stock sales yards.
• No need for milk processing factories.
• No need for the milk processing staff.
• No need for the specialised companies that support the milk processing industry. (Or their staff)
• No need for abattoirs.
• No need for butchers at said abattoirs.
• No need for the specialized companies that support the abattoir processing industry. (Or their staff)
• No need for farm vehicles – Sales – Maintenance – Spare Parts. (Or their staff)
• No need for agricultural chemicals and delivery systems. (Or their staff)
• No need for University classes (Massey) to teach animal husbandry.
• No need for the teachers to teach the above classes.
• No need for animal fertility companies. (Or their staff)
• No need for veterinary services to this industry.
• No need for animal research. (In terms of farming them)
• No need for Banking services and loans to farmers.
• No need for Fontera and its staff.
• No Public Houses (Pubs) because everyone will have left the rural towns because there is no work or money there.
The Field Days are not going to be what they once were.
Country Calendar will not be the same.
Have you seen the advert on TV for Fonterra were the farmer talks about how he can tell which field the cow ate breakfast. The guys that designed and made all that neat tech. Well they will not be needed either. Lets hope they can find another use for it.
Does anyone else think this sector and rural NZ is now well and truly F**ked or is it just me.
The question that is now in my mind is what are we going to export once these have gone. The only renewable we have left is forestry.
We do have Fisher and Paykel Healthcare. But they have built and are building manufacturing facilities overseas to be closer to their market. I do not think that will help us because the shareholders are not all locals.
pilotfever Sat 27 May 2017 3:57AM
Start nominating me for your favourite party(s). I will return and win a seat.
Colin England Sat 27 May 2017 5:15AM
the question I have is if these people producing these artificial foods have considered how they're going to the get the resources to produce them.
Josh Rich Sat 27 May 2017 6:58AM
As someone who works in a primary industry and studied a fair bit about it I completely disagree with you.
This is still sci fi, maybe not for long though. But these assumptions are a huge leap.
You're missing a large proportion of plant based primary industries for one.
The other is what Colin bought up, you still need to fuel the resource consumption.
The example I would like to use is hydroponic/vertical farming. I've had quite a few people try and tell me its the future etc But the aspect they're missing is the resource input.
You need (to keep it simple) minerals to put into this system on a large scale. On a large scale this begins to get very costly and not cost effective (unless you live in the middle of a giant city, cause its cheaper to move 1 bag of "minerals" instead of a whole truck or two of lettuce.)
I see the same problems with this currently (may change if the economics do too).
Its going to be cheaper to have a plot of land with some grass then mass scale meat growing.
(not going to touch that adaptation of this tech from the public will take a very long time)
Daymond Goulder-Horobin Sun 28 May 2017 11:04AM
This is awhile away yet but I remember at the Recent Auckland Meetup Colin Smith Talked about a company that could grow a steak within 16 weeks using cells or something like that. Might be good to put a few more references and sources to reinforce this.
Colin England Sun 28 May 2017 8:41PM
Growing artificial foods is well worth looking into but it's not just the end product that needs to be looked into. We need to look at where the resources to grow the food is coming from and where it's going to. Technically it should be some sort of circle to keep it sustainable.
Colin Smith Mon 29 May 2017 8:46AM
Videos for reference - This is what they are happy to show the public, it may not reflect where they actually are. This could be the current level or they could be a lot further along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnzTrWaZO5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU7ggZbOR6k
For resources (Depends on their approach) they are using exactly what the animal would eat themselves. They are cutting out the middle man - errrr I mean middle beast. Just one of the efficiencies arrives because we waste a lot of what it consumes over its life time. This approach we do not have to grow skin or bone or other organs. Example:- currently "a single hamburger patty" using conventional methods consumes 400 Liters of water. from birth of the calf to sitting in burger buns. This method: what water does not actually go into the product gets recycled.
The Chilean "AI" approach I like a lot. I think that will be the one to watch.
The Dutch guy states that the process he is using is so simple you could do it at home.
It just occurred to me - no leather for shoes or clothing.
I would love to find out just where our NZ experimental tech is sitting in comparison?
Colin Smith Mon 29 May 2017 8:50AM
Biotech opportunity here. Who will fund me to start a biotech company to grow leather without the animals involvement?
Jo Booth · Fri 26 May 2017 3:33AM
I wonder if @pilotfever is still into policy discussions - it's certainly a big part of what NZ is.