12 Questions
growing food in old tunnels and central city buildings. Other options are recycling more waste, shared urban gardens, supermarkets may grow some of their own food on roofs. Water is also coming under increasing pressure as we saw in Cape Town this year.
6Should
A lot of people are shifting to more plant-based foods. It could well be better for the environment but we can also find different ways to produce animal protein. People are going to want more diversity in their diet and that’s a big opportunity. Plant and Food does a lot of research on emerging food sectors which are well below the potential they could reach with better investment. 7Growing
As a kid I loved growing plants in pots in our playhouse and writing little stories about them. It’s interesting how much the way people eat has
we be eating less meat? up in Christchurch, was science a big part of your childhood?
changed just in my lifetime. When my parents bought their first home in Shirley we had no refrigerator; there was a safe to keep food cold. We’d buy fish, veges and bread from trucks that would come to our street. 8How
Looking at the impacts of climate change on the pastoral industries in the late 1980s was a watershed moment in my career. You need to build an international team to address problems that complex. I didn’t have any real resources or control to do this so I had to engage people by inspiring them to participate in something bigger. Our aim was to reduce uncertainty about climate change to a point where decision makers could take action. Insurance companies, banks and regional councils treated the issue as real from quite early on because their survival was at stake.
9Fast
did you learn the art of team-based science? forward to 2018, how do you think society is doing in engaging with climate change?
I can remember thinking, “I hope I live long enough to see people acknowledging that this is real and doing something about it” so I’m really pleased we’re approaching that point. At the early stage it was about developed countries vs developing countries. China has come a long way in a short time and is really starting to engage. I’m an optimist. I believe people are adaptable. From the recent past we can see a whole range of new technology like solar panels and electric cars has come in quickly. I think the big challenges for the future like water care, sustainable food-growing systems and equity in society will get rolled into one so we’ll be looking at ways to optimise the whole system rather than trying to solve things in isolation. 10Should
Scientists who stray into the advocacy can quickly lose credibility. On the other hand, I think science is going to have to engage more closely
scientists get more involved in politics?