Latest / Best of Business / Dr Jacqueline Rowarth: Agribusiness expert on Nestle pulling out of a global methane accord

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Dr Jacqueline Rowarth: Agribusiness expert on Nestle pulling out of a global methane accord · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: Now Nessley has pulled out of a global alliance for
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  Speaker 2: cutting methane emissions from dairy farming. The Dairy Methane Action
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  Speaker 2: Alliance was launched less than two years ago, and now
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  Speaker 2: Nesley has quit. And this has come just days after
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  Speaker 2: the Net Zero Banking Alliance basically voted to end itself.
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  Speaker 2: Agribusiness expert doctor Jacqueline Roworth is with us on this hijackeline. Hello, Hello,
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  Speaker 2: why do you think NESLA has done this?
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  Speaker 3: Not moving fast enough for them? The alliance has not
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  Speaker 3: worked as well as they thought. And remember Neslie's doing
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  Speaker 3: some really good work around the world regenerative agriculture, with
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  Speaker 3: cropping and with us with New Zealand. Lots of rewards
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  Speaker 3: for farmers who are able to cut their methane. So
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  Speaker 3: they're putting their money where they're actually getting action. And
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  Speaker 3: that makes sense to.
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  Speaker 1: Me where.
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  Speaker 3: Well New Zealand and around the world in America, a
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  Speaker 3: bit in Britain through the EU they're trying to cut
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  Speaker 3: with cropping, which is not our forte Well, how is
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  Speaker 3: the domestic supply is our good cropping stuff. So with
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  Speaker 3: the export the stuff that they buy, that money is
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  Speaker 3: going through from various of the dairy companies to directly
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  Speaker 3: to the farmers to encourage them to do ever better.
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  Speaker 3: And the farmers are doing the better, so it makes
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  Speaker 3: sense to me to do a good investment.
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  Speaker 2: The optics of this are not great, are they, though,
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  Speaker 2: because it looks like this lay just doesn't want to
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  Speaker 2: be held to account on methane emissions and their supply chains,
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  Speaker 2: which is what the alliance does.
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  Speaker 3: But they are reporting, but not through that alliance. And
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  Speaker 3: I think there's been problems with the alliance with other
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  Speaker 3: companies not doing what they said they would do, so
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  Speaker 3: the alliance itself has not been working successfully.
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  Speaker 2: So they're adi leg ads.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think that's what I would hate to call
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  Speaker 3: them legards, but they're yes, possibly because they haven't been
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  Speaker 3: reporting well and it took them a while to get together.
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  Speaker 3: So the reports well about.
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  Speaker 2: The ex party and just as a case and point
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  Speaker 2: about the objects. The X party is looked at this,
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  Speaker 2: put out a press release and said this adds weight
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  Speaker 2: to the argument that we should pull out of the
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  Speaker 2: or at least tweak the Paris Climate Agreement, because all
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  Speaker 2: of these initiative, all of these alliances are starting to
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  Speaker 2: fall apart.
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  Speaker 3: Oh two of them are. But the global research are
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  Speaker 3: at least poor Jacqueline. Oh, okay, yes, Globally it is
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  Speaker 3: really difficult to do because everything is contextual. But in
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand we are doing good work. We are working
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  Speaker 3: with some of the big customers. Remember we sell to
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  Speaker 3: Neir Sley and that's why they're doing all this encouragement
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  Speaker 3: and able to report that they are reducing me then,
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  Speaker 3: but for us, being part of the Paris Agreement allows
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  Speaker 3: us with the trade agreement and it allows us social license.
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  Speaker 3: Can you imagine what it would be like if the
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  Speaker 3: farming community actually pulled out of Paris? And remember Paris
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  Speaker 3: Agreement does say do everything you can without reducing food production,
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  Speaker 3: and we are approaching that point. We've done an awful
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  Speaker 3: lot of the things we can do and most countries happened.
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  Speaker 3: So we have the well, we have the high ground
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  Speaker 3: at the moment, and we have trade deal.
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  Speaker 2: Do you think that assurance is go, which is the
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  Speaker 2: thing that a lot of people cling to in the
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  Speaker 2: Paris Agreement, Do you think that that is going to
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  Speaker 2: be honored by part signatories to the agreement who we
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  Speaker 2: trade with.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, most countries are still trying to reduce methane and
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  Speaker 3: they haven't done the reducing that it hasn't impact on
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  Speaker 3: the food production. But yes, it may be that everything
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  Speaker 3: changes in the future when people realize that food production
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  Speaker 3: is the major goal for the world, given the increasing
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  Speaker 3: population and the.
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  Speaker 2: Increasing in practice, how does it work in practice?
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  Speaker 3: Right?
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  Speaker 2: So we get to the point where because we have
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  Speaker 2: talked in the past, Jacklin, I mean here what Economa
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  Speaker 2: has talked about culling like fifteen percent of our herd
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  Speaker 2: in order to get the numbers down. So how do
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  Speaker 2: we in practice? How what happens? Do we go as
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  Speaker 2: the New Zealand government? Does the New Zealand government go, Look,
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  Speaker 2: we have reduced to the point as far as we
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  Speaker 2: can and the next step is to start shooting cows
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  Speaker 2: and and the rest of the world. Well, oh, it's cooled,
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  Speaker 2: don't shoot them. You carry on a misting.
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  Speaker 3: Well I've just been at the SAO Food and Agricultural
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  Speaker 3: Organization meeting in Rome about sustainable livestock production, and there
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  Speaker 3: is a recognition that we have to keep going with
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  Speaker 3: with meat and milk because that's the most sufficient way
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  Speaker 3: of people getting their nutrition they need. So for New Zealand,
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  Speaker 3: the fifteen percent was really trying to get improved deficiencies
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  Speaker 3: and we are doing that, and the data from the
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  Speaker 3: milk companies.
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  Speaker 2: That's not what I'm asking you. What I'm asking you,
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  Speaker 2: how is it going to work? If New Zealand stands
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  Speaker 2: up and goes, hey, guys, we've done everything we can
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  Speaker 2: short of actually shooting our animals. So are you cool?
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  Speaker 2: If we keep all the animals and we're emitting a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more than we wanted to, is the reasonable
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  Speaker 2: going to be like, that's fine? Where are they going
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  Speaker 2: to mountain? There?
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  Speaker 3: I think that then big customers, the Nesleighs, Dunnones McDonald's
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  Speaker 3: will say we want your milk because it's lower emissions
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  Speaker 3: per kila or product that we want than any other components.
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  Speaker 3: So yes, I do think that what will happen?
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 3: And of course sometimes I have gaze in my engaging
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  Speaker 3: in my crystal ball, but they want time the closet,
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  Speaker 3: slow emissions.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah good, Hey, Jacqueline, thank you as always appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 2: That's doct Jacqueline Row with agribusiness expert and dairy and
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  Speaker 2: z director.
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