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MIA NEWS MIA News Seeking sheepmeat efficiency The chronic skills shortage and the hunt for processing efficiencies are the two reasons for a new meat-industry coordinated initiative focusing on automation in the sheepmeat industry. The Ovine Automation Consortium (OAC) is a new commercial initiative to focus work on automation within the sheepmeat industry. With an overall budget of $15 million, it is planned to be funded jointly by meat companies and the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology (FRST). Industry part-funded MIRINZ Inc will provide the industry funding in the first year as that organisation winds down. The MIA’s newly appointed innovation programme manager, Richard McColl, will spearhead the initiative and manage the programme as it evolves. He will bring his commercial meat processing experience with Alliance and later with AFFCO’s executive team to bear on its evolution. He explains that the MIA council has determined that commercially-focused consortia are the way to go forward to leverage government funding and also to ensure there is a direct evisceration and pelt-pulling technology with a dozen projects in progress. Some have already had work done on them, while others are ideas that have been on the shelf for a number of years. Industrial Research Ltd’s DeviceWorks and Millers Mechanical are the two process engineering companies that will be involved in work on the projects. “The aim is to have at least two or three of those projects commercially available by the end of 2009,” says McColl, who adds that he expects about eight meat companies to participate jointly in the cross-industry activity. The OAC will also explore interest in collaborative work from Meat & Livestock Australia but it is early days on that side as yet. As he says, “The proof of the pudding will be in the eating.” McColl and Conway join MIA staff Richard McColl (left), the MIA’s new innovation programme manager, has been joined by another new staff member, policy analyst Matt Conway Prototype Y-cutting robotic tool in action linkage with industry and a focus on achieving targeted outcomes as well. “The meat industry recognises that it needs to work collaboratively if it wants to make essential gains and gain research funding from government,” says McColl, adding that OAC is the first of several potential initiatives in the meat industry pipeline. “OAC is an inclusive, industry-good vehicle for the programme, enabling smaller players to benefit alongside the larger.” The chronic skills and labour shortage faced by the industry, together with a need to improve processing efficiencies as a whole were two of the reasons that the OAC programme has been moved to the front of the queue. The focus will be on Hailing from Invercargill originally, Richard joined the MIA in early November 2008. He has a strong commercial background. In addition to roles at AFFCO and Alliance, he graduated from the University of Otago with a Bachelor of Commerce and gained an MBA from Massey University. Matt Conway started at MIA in mid-December, coming from NZ Trade & Enterprise where he worked as a research analyst. Prior to that, he worked within the Parliamentary Library. Matt was born in Palmerston North and comes from a farming background. Reduce global warming - eat NZ meat, says meat industry The argument behind the UN’s call for consumers to consider eating meat for one less day a week to counter climate change is oversimplified and being countered by the New Zealand meat industry. The UN call came in September last year from the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr Rajendra 36 Food New Zealand
Pacheuri, who received a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 jointly with US politician Al Gore for their work raising awareness of climate change. “This argument has been boiled down in the media and very much over-simplified,” Silver Fern Farm’s group marketing manager Glenn Tyrrell says. He attended the World Meat Congress last September and heard a paper from Dr Pierre Gerber, one of the authors of the UN Food and Agriculture Association report called ‘The Long Shadow of Livestock’, which criticised livestock farming and meat production for emitting 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas, more than the total transport industry. “This led to Dr Pacheuri’s extraordinary, reported public statement that people should eat less meat to reduce global warming,” Tyrrell says. “In his address Dr Gerber showed that over one-third of the 18% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributed to livestock is created by deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by the Brazilian meat sector. “Other significant contributors are intensive grain and fishmeal feeders. Deduct these from the equation and countries like New Zealand, with natural extensive grass-fed production, have a very low level of GHG and yet we are grouped together by the UN in statements advising consumers to eat less meat.” Clearly, Brazil has no intention of reducing expansion of their beef industry through continued deforestation, Tyrrell says. “So the New Zealand meat industry has established contact with the FAO and requested isolation by country of livestock carbon footprints. Global consumers should know that Brazilian beef is a major contributor to global warming due to deforestation, but also that New Zealand grass fed beef, lamb and venison has a very low carbon footprint. “We hope to work with the FAO on obtaining information that we can use to highlight our position to global consumers - ‘reduce global warming - eat New Zealand meat’”. New Zealand is leading the world on GHG mitigation in the pastoral sector. For the past five years, the Pastoral Gas Research Consortium, a cross livestock industry group in New Zealand, has been working on a range of ways in which to mitigate this country’s GHG emissions. One of its first results in the middle of last year was a world-first in research terms, genemapping one of microbes responsible for producing methane in the stomachs of cattle and sheep. That understanding should lead to ways to reduce methane production. Other results will follow this year. Adapting for climate change Climate change is real, its impacts are real and it’s a matter now of how we prepare for and cope with that change, was the message from MAF senior policy analyst Trecia Smith at last year’s MIA conference. “To be forewarned is forearmed,” she said. “The projection for New Zealand is that the whole country will become warmer: the west HamburgS-Attentive-NZFoodMg 10/1/08 will become 7:24 AM wetter Page and 1 the east Trecia Smith will become drier,” Smith said. “In average years, projected changes averaged across the country are likely to be small, but there is regional variability. On the plus side, the warmer weather will mean more growing days and increases in the length of the growing season, but, in extreme years, the droughts will be worse than have been experienced before.” Adaptation to those changes is seen as part of sustainable development: it has a link with green house gas mitigation and it means adjusting over time and evolving with information. An Adaptation Technical Working Group has been set up and has proposed a five year adaptation programme leading to 2013 and the proposed inclusion of agriculture in the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Feedback to the programme indicates that due to greater awareness adaptation will be a higher priority for adaptableland managers. They will be using better weather forecasting tools and business risk models and changing practices to improve resilience. Issues include changing production systems, resource management and social/economic factors to take into consideration, Smith said. Research must be proactive. Adaptation of crops and livestock so they can thrive in a water-limited environment, in a carbon-rich world of different temperatures and changed pest pressures means that agricultural research and development needs to be actively working on climate-change resources, according to Jeremy Burdon, chief of CSIRO’s Plant Industry Division. Speaking to the Guild of Agricultural Journalists’ jubilee conference in Wellington last October, he sees two options for producers/processors: either adapt at the local scale, or move the farm i.e. adapt at the landscape scale. Understanding water availability crucial Understanding the future availability of water in New Zealand will be crucial to processors’ and livestock farmers’ ability to adapt their systems to suit the local environment. Work is being done by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) to establish where the right quality water will be available in the ‘right’ quantities in New Zealand. Bob Wilcock, principal scientist, aquatic chemistry, another speaker at the Guild’s jubilee conference explained the complex interactions between ground-water and surface-water catchments and then groundwater use and discharge impacts downstream. Discharge from dairy farming into groundwater streams has been under the microscope to date. NIWA and AgResearch are working with farmers, district and regional councils, MAF, dairy companies, FRST and others in the ‘Best Practice Dairying Catchments Project’ to improve streams in Waikato, Taranaki, Canterbury, West Coast and Southland. The approach is a combination of monitoring streams, surveying land use and farm management, defining land-water linkages, isolating key drivers, developing best management practice and farmer uptake of the new ideas at regular farmer meetings. “By simply fencing a stream, you can achieve remarkable benefits,” Wilcock said. His predictions for the future are that there will be an increase in intensity of land and water use alongside an increase in predictive ability, mitigation and improved practices. “But, will they balance” he asked. Time will tell. MIA NEWS Highly attentive service. Expect nothing less. The following toll free numbers will connect you to your nearest Regional Customer Service Centre: Outbound : 0508 222 444 Inbound : 0508 333 666 For more, visit us at www.hamburgsud.com No matter what. February/March 2009 37
Page 1 and 2: February/March 2009 NZ’s Authorit
Page 3 and 4: Contacts Rosemary Hancock, Executiv
Page 5 and 6: In-Brief In-Brief New Years Honours
Page 7 and 8: Trade waste biosensor research at L
Page 9 and 10: Innovative bioplastic packaging at
Page 11 and 12: Keep noise down ACC 1741 Use quiete
Page 13 and 14: their favourite sites on the way, s
Page 15 and 16: Something old, something new: Hurdl
Page 17 and 18: Table 2: Examples of the diversity
Page 19 and 20: al flora used to produce red smear
Page 21 and 22: Oils and Fats News OILS & FATS Laur
Page 23 and 24: y Springer. This is exactly what Mo
Page 25 and 26: given specific advice about particu
Page 27 and 28: Conference Update NZIFST Food Eleme
Page 29 and 30: New Members NZIFST NZIFST welcomes
Page 31 and 32: Branch Activities NZIFST Canterbury
Page 33 and 34: NZIFST Enjoying the occasion are, (
Page 35: Graduate Opportunities at Cadbury..
Page 39 and 40: MIA NEWS lers tions le ion t Kevin
Page 41 and 42: • Meat companies report profits -
Page 43 and 44: Scottish nationalism alive and well
Page 45 and 46: Book Review Food product developmen
Page 47 and 48: International Conference Diary List

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