Research
Fonterra is investing in climate change research and development.
Together, the agriculture sector and the Government have already invested NZ$27.5 million since 2002 and have committed to a further NZ$19.5 million by 2012 in climate change work through the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGgRC), which Fonterra helps fund and currently chairs. It’s proving to be money well spent. Recently the Consortium had a major research breakthrough – cracking the world’s first genetic sequence of a microbe which produces methane from the rumen of livestock.
This breakthrough will allow the Consortium to advance its search for ways of reducing the amount of methane farm animals produce – which accounts for almost a third of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions. The PGgRC programme of research and development is considered to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
Still, the Consortium believes it is probably five years away from finding a practical solution to reduce methane emissions, and another decade before such technology would be cost-effective enough to be widely adopted by farmers. In time we believe science will allow us to produce more meat and milk while producing substantially less methane.
Fonterra separately invests in research in pastoral genomics, which aims to increase pasture digestibility and reduce animal emissions.
Find out more about the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium.
