Using technology

GREENPEACE tells us that the dairy industry is New Zealand’s biggest source of greenhouse emissions, but that ‘‘we can’t use technology’’ to fix this.

Why not?

Genetic techniques are now being tried to breed cows that burp less methane, grow fodder that inhibits its production, and enable crops such as corn to fix their own nitrogen, as legumes do, instead of needing ammoniabased fertilisers. The same tools gave us our Covid vaccines, and make all the insulin for diabetics. They are also used in most of the rennet for cheesemaking.

If climate change is such a massive problem, shouldn’t we be using science to fight it? The Green ideology of simply banning nitrogen fertilisers was tried very recently in Sri Lanka, with disastrous results — crop yields collapsed, and so did the government.

Roslyn