Fonterra downplays threat to dairy
WELLINGTON: Fonterra Cooperative Group claims it is confident the complexity of cow milk will always trump plantbased alternatives, which the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman sees as posing an ‘‘existential threat’’ to the country’s economic fortunes.
Sir Peter threw down the gauntlet in a keynote speech to the annual NZBIO conference in Wellington last week, saying there was a growing consumer appetite around the world for synthetic alternatives to meat and milk, including in the allimportant Asian market, with plantbased foods now crossing the taste and texture threshold and offering a much smaller environmental impact than food derived from pastoral farming.
‘‘Fundamentally there’s an environmental concern for the population as a whole, not only in the United States, but in countries like China there’s an environmental consciousness,’’ he said.
‘‘The question is, for New Zealand, is it a fad? Or is it a real threat for our commodities?’’
When Sir Peter was appointed to the position eight years ago, he viewed synthetic foods as one of the ‘‘big existential risks to New Zealand’’ and ‘‘now I think the risk is real’’.
Dairy products account for about 27% of New Zealand’s annual $50.84 billion of exported goods and New Zealand households spend 10% of their food budget on dairy products.
Fonterra was keeping tabs on what was going on with synthetic foods and was investigating consumer attitudes to alternative proteins and the role technology played alongside dairy, a spokeswoman said in a statement.
‘‘Milk from cows provides a natural and complex mixture of proteins, fats, minerals and other nutrients, which will be almost impossible to manufacture, so there will always be a global, growing market for dairy,’’ she said. ‘‘We believe there’s a place for both categories, but it’s clear that the natural, nutritional strength of dairy will be the premium nutrition of choice.’’
Fonterra noted the growth in consumer interest in ‘‘social and environmental factors when making purchase decisions’’ in its 2017 annual report, and predicted ‘‘shifts towards diets with lower environmental footprints’’.
Sir Peter said the shift raised a number of ‘‘really hard questions’’ that will need a wide public debate because plantbased synthetic foods rely on genetically modified ingredients to enhance the taste and texture. He sees New Zealand as having three options: stick with ruminantbased farming but adopt new practices including the use of GM foragers; switch to GMfree plantbased ingredients; invest in the full supply chain and produce meat and milk alternative foods.
He said the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment was already tackling those issues in ‘‘considerable depth’’, although the ministry downplayed how far down the track it was.
‘‘MBIE is in the early stages of exploring with a wide range of stakeholders the potential for New Zealand to be an international leader in plantbased protein and the next generation of food innovation and commercialisation,’’ Peter Crabtree, MBIE’s science, innovation and international general manager said in a statement. ‘‘There is an increasing international market demand for plantbased proteins for health, environmental and commercial reasons. Various New Zealand companies are already involved in this space.’’
Sir Peter said New Zealand was betterplaced to reopen conversations about genetic modifications than it was 20 years ago. That debate was one the public would need to be engaged in, and would canvas new questions about what constitutes ‘natural’, with food derived from GM crops already allowed to be sold in New Zealand if approved by the Australia New Zealand Foods Standards Council.
New Zealand’s current settings mean the use of GM techniques need regulatory approval, which Sir Peter said was stifling innovation where the technology is regulated rather than the output. — BusinessDesk