Agrisea joins up with Agresearch
MOU signing a significant step for seaweed innovator
An agreement was recently signed between Paeroabased Agrisea an innovator in seaweed, and Crown Research Institute Agresearch. Agrisea’s primary products are made from a species of New Zealand seaweed utilised for the New Zealand farming and horticulture sectors.
Agrisea and Agresearch have worked together for several years in the areas of alternative proteins from seaweeds, soils and social science.
Agresearch signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the promise of benefit for the primary sector and prosperous agribusinesses and communities.
Guests included Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, who reflected on his own farming grandparents’ time when milking sheds were built next to streams for easy effluent disposal, and farmers “farmed with a matchbox”.
“That didn’t make them bad people or bad farmers, that was just the commonly accepted practice of the day,” Simpson said. “We’ve learnt a lot along the way, and some of the things we used to do, we wouldn’t dream of doing today.
“What are some of the things people will say 50 years from now about about our practices today?
“This MOU will stand the test of time, and it’s a significant step in the journey of Agrisea. I urged them to keep going with their innovation and passion.”
Agresearch CEO Sue Bidrose said
she had seen many Mous, and the most meaningful were those based on shared values to drive change.
“Nobody is particularly interested in an MOU that wants to keep things the same. Agrisea embody change and we’re so proud to be connected up with you. It’s good for our rep, and it’s good for our sense of what we’re
doing in the world.”
Bidrose talked about Government agencies that were old, established institutions and compared this to the drive for innovation and difference from Agrisea. She said she had attended a recent conference where the twin challenges of food security and environmental sustainability
were discussed, relating it back to the work of Agrisea.
“Over the next 30 years the world has to produce as much food as it’s had to in the last 2000 years, and that is terrifying actually. And it’s with your kind of thinking and innovation and new ways of doing things sped up and on steroids that is the only
hope we’ve got in meeting that challenge,” she told Agrisea.
Agrisea owners Clare and Tane Bradley recently returned from the World Agritech conference in the UK and Europe, and CEO Clare said New Zealand had the opportunity to fasttrack what the world needs through partnership and collaboration.