Tag Archives: Riddet Institute

Understanding food protein at heart of science prize

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A world-renowned contribution to the understanding of food protein has led to Distinguished Professor Paul Moughan and Professor Harjinder Singh together being awarded this year’s Prime Minister’s Science Prize – New Zealand’s most valuable award for scientific achievement.

The $500,000 award goes to the two who are Massey University food scientists and co-directors of the Riddet Institute, a centre of research excellence led from the Manawatū campus that focuses on food and health innovation.

Their contribution to food protein science is world-renowned. Singh’s expertise is in food protein structures and how they interact in food systems while Moughan’s work focuses on how proteins are broken down and absorbed in the digestive system and the resulting physiological benefits.

“It’s a marriage made in heaven,” says Moughan. Between us we cover the whole spectrum of food protein science, which is rare worldwide.”

Examples of innovation from their work include the development of a highly effective probiotic, ProBioLife, establishing the health benefits of kiwifruit which is giving Zespri an edge globally and a technology that allows high doses of fish-oil-dervied Omega-3 fatty acids to be added to food products without a fishy smell and after taste.

A recent focus has been developing a novel process to isolate proteins and peptides in low cost meat products and use them in a food product that has been shown to have health benefits for older people. The product is being commercialised by a New Zealand meat company.

The two scientists teamed up more than a decade ago to establish the Riddet Institute as a world-leading centre for food science research. Since 2003, the Institute has secured over $40 million in research funding and used it to carry out fundamental and strategic research and apply the knowledge to create new food products, processes and systems. The Institute has also trained 80 postgraduate scholars and 30 postdoctoral fellows.

“A lot of new ideas and ways of thinking are generated at the Riddet Institute and graduates take that knowledge out into industry,” says Singh.

In addition, the Institute has established Riddet Foodlink, a network of more than 100 companies interested in food innovation and research that work with Riddet Institute researchers.

The winning team plans to use $400,000 of the prize money for on-going research to commercialise discoveries made at the Riddet Institute. “We have a lot of bright minds that come up with really good ideas,” says Singh, adding that the prize money will allow the Institute to screen those ideas and take the most promising through to the next stage.

Moughan says he and Singh are honoured to have won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize and see it as recognition that science and technology is a key to New Zealand’s future. “Food is New Zealand’s biggest industry and there is great opportunity to leverage it further, through advanced scientific understanding, to grow the economy and improve our standard of living. We are privileged to be at the heart of that opportunity.”

I’ll just print me a steak …

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Traditional meat exporters will need to consider future protein competition coming from outside the box in the future, as new technology is attracting innovation funding around the world.

One such piece of research, by a US company called Modern Meadow, has this week gained between US$250,000-300,000 for a tissue engineering project. Modern Meadow is said to be developing a fundamentally new approach to meat and leather production, “which is based on the latest advances in tissue engineering and causes no harm to animals.”

The news was announced by the US-based Thiel Foundation, set up by one of the founders of PayPal Peter Thiel. It was one of three new grants, awarded through its Breakout Labs programme. This is a revolutionary revolving fund to promote innovation in science and technology. The two other grants went to medical and therapeutic innovations.

According to Breakout, Modern Meadow co-founders Gabor and Andras Forgas respectively invented and helped to commercialise bio-printing, a technology that builds tissues and organ structures based on the computer-controlled delivery of cells in three dimensions. The two previously co-founded Oganovo,a a San Diego-based regenerative medicine company which applies bio-printing to a range of medical applications including drug discovery, drug testing and ultimately transplant tissues. They plan to use the Breakout Labs funding to apply the latest advances in tissue engineering beyond medicine to produce novel consumer biomaterials, including an edible cultured meat prototype that can provide a humane and sustainable source of animal protein to consumers around the world.

“Breakout Labs is a much-needed source of funding and support for emerging technologies like ours,” says Andras Forgacs. “Investors across the board have become more risk-averse and yet early funding is critical to enable truly innovative ideas.”

Modern Meadow, based in Missouri, is combining regenerative medicine with 3D printing to imagine an economic and compassionate solution to a global problem, says Lindy Fisbhurne, Breakout Labs’ executive director. “We hope our support will help propel them through the early stage of their development so they can turn their inspired vision to reality.”

Launched in November 2011, Breakout Labs provides teams of researchers in early-stage companies with the means to pursue their most radical goals in science and technology. To date, the fund has awarded a total of nine grants, of up to $350,000 each. Breakout Labs accepts and funds proposals on a rolling basis.

Although very early days as yet, the concept supported by the fund could bring printing your own steak for the barbie nearer to reality, but just don’t expect it in the near future.

The Modern Meadow innovation is not alone in attempting to solve the world’s future protein needs. New Zealand’s Riddet Institute is also working on the joint PROTEOS project with its counterpart Wageningen University in The Netherlands, “formulating novel solutions that involve extending and using more effectively future animal-based protein sources, transforming the protein supply chain” – essentially growing meat in the laboratory. Project plans involving staff from both organisations will be finalised this year.

 

 

 

Business Growth Agenda a big stretch, says Barber

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The Government’s Business Growth Agenda progress report on Building Export Markets specifies the target of increasing New Zealand’s exports from 30 percent today to 40 percent of GDP by 2025. It’s a big stretch, says meat industry commentator Allan Barber.

The progress report states that primary sector exports have outpaced the rest of the export sector, growing by half in real terms since 2000 at an average productivity growth rate of 2.1 percent per annum. To achieve the target of 40 percent of GDP, agriculture will have to maintain its growth rate for the next 13 years, while the rest of the economy must lift its game considerably. Manufacturing and services have been increasing by one percent a year and need to lift this to five percent over the coming decade, or alternatively agriculture will be required to expand further to bridge the gap.

This is an enormous challenge, equivalent to creating 250 more knowledge-intensive businesses creating $100 million from exports a year. The report cites Navman as an example of the type of business required. How many more like this can we think of? Not many, so it is highly improbable that these new businesses will emerge from areas totally unconnected with agriculture.

Primary sector exports will therefore have to increase by quite a bit more than the average of the past decade, if the target as a whole is to be reached.

Using a different report and set of figures the Riddet Institute in its recent Call to Arms report challenged the primary sector to treble its exports to $60 billion by 2025, equivalent to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services today. However exports of $20 billion are only one third of the total. These figures emanate from the Government’s Economic Growth Agenda.

We can quibble with the different measurements and totals used to arrive at the conclusions (GDP, total exports, growth rates), but the fact remains, it’s one hell of a big stretch to see how to reach the target. The goal of the Boot Camp taking place at Stanford University this week is to see whether like-minded companies can develop the strategies required to bring agriculture up the value chain, enabling the sort of increase envisaged.

The question is whether the Government’s progress report on the activities of the Business Growth Agenda will contribute to the big goal and, if so, how significantly. It is a big ask, because it demands growth of between 5.5 percent and 7.5 percent, depending on the economic growth path, compared with Treasury’s forecast for the next three years of 1.8 percent.

The report says with a degree of understatement that “to achieve our target will require a concerted effort to develop more internationally competitive businesses in both the commodity and high-value technology-based sectors.” This may be official speak for ‘we know we haven’t got a hope, but we have to start somewhere.’

The key planks of the export growth development strategy are: Delivering a Compelling New Zealand Story; Improving Access to International Markets; Increasing Value from Tourism; Making it Easier to Trade from New Zealand; Growing International Education; Helping Businesses Internationalise; and Strengthening High-Value Manufacturing and Services Exports.

The progress report finishes with a summary of the strategies under each of these headings and Progress Indicators listing detailed actions underpinning the strategies. There is an enormous amount of work going on, notably in trade negotiations, removal of red tape for business, trade missions into key markets and tourism developments such as SmartGate at the airport.

But all work on developing a compelling New Zealand story is listed as a new project which indicates one of the major problems encountered in lifting our exports as a percentage of GDP. There is no agreed brand image under which all New Zealand’s exports and tourism experiences are promoted. The meat industry’s main brand has for a long time been New Zealand Lamb which has been very successful, but a major complaint has been the competition in export markets between exporters. Apart from North America, cooperation has been seriously lacking.

Part of the problem has been the complete lack of a generic New Zealand brand image. Development of this with a believable and compelling story to back it is an absolute priority, because brands take a long time or a lot of money to gain awareness, probably both.

This progress report is the first of six with the other five to come being Innovation, Skilled and Safe Workplaces, Infrastructure, Natural Resources and Capital Markets. Obviously these other areas will play an important role in achieving the export goal.

The Government deserves credit for coming up with a coherent strategy, but it will have to generate a tremendous response from the private sector if the goal is to come close to being realised. Another challenge is the high proportion of SMEs in New Zealand which must be inspired to pursue the new business opportunities capable of converting them into large businesses with the requisite scale.

This article has also appeared at interest.co.nz.

Forming a ‘coalition of the willing’ more important for Boot Camp, says Barber

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Forming a ‘coalition of the willing’ – those who want to work together to get further up the value chain – is more important than forming a new Agri-Food Board, says meat industry commentator Allan Barber.

In an item published online last week on interest.co.nz, he writes that although the proposed Agri-Board will be discussed at the forthcoming agri-food chief executives’ Boot Camp at Stanford University, “it is unlikely to be the main thrust of the gathering, which is intended to generate alignment an co-operation between and within agri-foods sectors.”

While there is “much logic and common sense” in the recent Riddet Institute’s report Call to Arms, calling for a trebling of agri-foods turnover, there is “nagging suspicion that it is just another strategy document, which, despite its stated intentions, will not result in a significant shift in behaviour,” he says.

He suspects that among the Boot Camp participants there will be many of those people who would be expected to be on an Agri-Foods board. “However, they will be too busy getting on with translating ideas into action to have time to worry about joining another board.”

Read his full article here …

In the news this week (3)

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People are key to the success of Riddet Institute’s Agri-Food Strategy wrote Jon Morgan in a Dominion Post opinion piece early on last week. “The prize is too great to abandon,” he said.

So, focus is now shifting to the week-long chief executives’ Primary Sector Boot Camp at Stanford University in California later this month, which will be attended by over 20 chief executives including meat industry leaders Keith Cooper of Silver Fern Farms and Mark Clarkson of ANZCO Foods, alongside Minister of Primary Industries David Carter. On the table for discussion will be the Agri-Food Strategy.

Agmardt is principal sponsor of the private sector-led chief executive forum designed to unlock the global potential of New Zealand’s primary sector. At the time of the sponsorship announcement at the end of April, Jeff Grant chairman of the Agmardt board of trustees said he regarded the boot camp as an ideal fit under the grant body’s new strategic priorities.

“A key outcome of the boot camp is to explore and drive in-market collaboration within New Zealand’s primary sector, which is strongly aligned with Agmardt’s new strategy to fund activities that enable New Zealand agribusiness to identify and explore potential opportunities within the global marketplace.”

Grant said the willingness by senior industry leaders to be involved in the camp to discuss and explore strategies for greater collaboration and alignment across a wide range of primary industries, “is extremely encouraging.”

Other supporters of the Primary Sector Boot Camp, which will comprise leaders from the dairy, beef, sheep, seafood, viticulture and horticulture sectors, include the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Ministry for Primary Industries and NZ Trade and Enterprise.

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Other news appearing over the week included:

Protein sources of the future –A new New Zealand/Dutch study has outlined the coming challenges to meeting future demand for protein. In a review published this week in the journal Trends in Food Science and Technology, Dr Mike Boland from the Riddet Institute and his colleagues at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands have drawn on a range of research sources to peer into the future of the world’s food supply. They say, as demand is outstripping supply of meat, mankind will “need to get creative” with its protein sources, considering competition between humans and pet food industries, noting that rabbits and other novel animal species, “should not be discounted as having an important part to play in future animal protein production systems,” and speculate that there may be ways to derive dietary protein from food waste from biofuel crop leftovers. Whatever happens, consumer acceptance will be key, say the authors.

New NZTE chairman – Interesting to note that former Fonterra chief executive, Andrew Ferrier, has been named as the new chairman of the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) board. Replacing Jon Mayson, he will commence his three year term on 1 November. Announcing the appointment, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says that Ferrier will bring “strong governance and strategic capability to the NZTE board”. Ferrier is a director of Orion Health Ltd and CANZ Capital Ltd. He was appointed to the University of Auckland Council in March 2012. Prior to his work with Fonterra, he was involved with the global sugar industry. Born in Canada, he has been a New Zealand citizen since 2008.

A new Code of Welfare for Meat Chickens came into effect on 26 July, setting out the minimum standards and best practice guidelines for the poultry industry. The new Code replaces the Code of Welfare for Broiler Chickens that was released in 2003. The new Code has a broader scope and includes chickens that have access to the outdoors, says the National Animal Welfare Advisory Council (NAWAC). “Another key change is that farmers will have to take the environment of the chicken into account when deciding how many chickens to keep in a designated area,” NAWAC chair John Hellström says. “Farmers will also be required to stay within the minimum standards for stocking density, but they will now have to also consider things like litter quality, lighting, air quality and temperature when deciding how to house their chickens.” Find out more here.

NZUS Council sponsors MPs visit to Washington – Two MPs Peseta Sam Lotu-Liga and Hon Shane Jones, co-chairs of the New Zealand US Parliamentary Friendship Group, recently returned from a successful NZUS Council sponsored visit to Washington DC. The visit – particularly timely given the stage of the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations – raised NZ’s profile and also gave the MPS the chance to gain valuable insights about US negotiating interests. In a full programme over a four-day visit, the MPs met with members of the Friends of NZ Congressional Caucus and a range of Congressional representatives and had meetings with senior officials in the State Department, Treasury and US Trade Representative’s office. They were also guests of honour at a well-attended lunch hosted by the US NZ Council. Other guests included Congressional staff, senior US company executives and Council members and supporters. The NZ US Council met the costs of the MPs domestic travel in the US and related on-the-ground costs. Arrangements in Washington were made by the New Zealand Embassy.

World price slump put lamb back on Kiwi menus – the NZ Herald reported over the weekend on the news that prices for Kiwi consumers are down too and they are responding enthusiastically. Read more… 

Finally, with the London Olympics in full swing this week, it seems only right to congratulate all of the Kiwi athletes, but particularly B+LNZ Inc’s bronze medal award-winning Iron Maidens Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh for their  success in the women’s pairs (rowing) and Alison Shanks (cyclist) for her tremendous efforts in the team event. All the best now to Sarah Walker (BMX) for her event yet to come on the world sports stage. Go Team NZ!!


 

 

 

 

 

Call to arms for agri-food

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A proposal for a new Agri-Food Board is centre of a comprehensive new strategy aimed at tripling the value of exports for the agri-food sector to about $60 billion.

The Riddet Institute, a national centre of research excellence focusing on food, digestive physiology and nutrition, issued a ‘Call to Arms’ yesterday through the launch of its independent report on the future of New Zealand’s agri-food sector. The report calls for a joint approach from industry and government to drive the activities needed to treble the value of exports in the sector by 2025, as suggested in the Government’s Economic Growth Agenda in 2009.

The report contains options on how sector leaders can work together and why the agri-food industry should lead the strategy implementation work.

It was commissioned by the Riddet Institute and developed by an independent ‘thought leadership’ team led by Dr Kevin Marshall, former chief executive of the Dairy Research Institute, and prepared in response to a call by industry senior executives, who challenged the Institute in 2010 at its annual summit to develop a strategy for science and education-led economic advancement of the New Zealand food industry.

Dr Marshall said: “Our strategies are neither new nor unique, but, in the past, implementation by industry has failed. Crucially, we have provided a pathway and a proposed mechanism for action that will work. There is urgency now because New Zealand faces a mediocre economic future if we don’t drive the major recommendations in this report to fruition.

“Agri-food leaders need to know what to do, how to do it and how to develop the resources they need to do it effectively.”

Welcomed by the Minister

Minister for Primary Industries David Carter welcomed the report, which he said was a vital contribution.

“The Strategy Report highlights that if we are to achieve the standard of living we aspire to by 2025, we must treble the real value of our food exports to about $60 billion,” the Minister said, adding that to achieve a target of real compound growth rate of seven percent over the next 13 years, New Zealand needs to close a gap of current progress of around three percent.

“While the agri-food sectors have been successful, we need to grow faster. To realise growth, we need to collaborate, be innovative, build on our strengths and continue to earn our reputation for safe, high quality food, produced in a sustainable manner.”

New Zealand is lucky to have repositioned itself away from traditional markets, which are currently facing problems, towards Asia. “In the past financial year, exports to China have jumped by nearly 40 percent,” he said.

The Strategy

The task at hand “will not be achieved with business as usual,” Marshall explained.

He outlined the four transformational strategies proposed in the report are to:

  • Selectively and profitably increase the quantities and sales of the current range of agri-food products.
  • Profitably produce and market, new, innovative, high value food and beverage products.
  • Develop value chains that enhance the integrity, value and delivery of New Zealand products and increase profits to producers, processors and exporters, and
  • Become world leaders in sustainability and product integrity.

Four ‘enablers’ back the strategies. These include the development of transformational industry and Government leadership, strong consumer-driven export marketing of branded and consumer and ingredient product, increasing the capability and skills of the agri-food industry and supporting industries and increasing the amount and effectiveness of investment in innovation, research, development and extension supporting the agri-food industry.

He said the think-tank determined that current food industry strategies have not been achieved as they “depended too much on government taking the lead” and that the “captains of industry have not stepped up to take the leadership role.”

For that reason, the most important proposal is to establish an Agri-Food Board “to be the focal point for sector leaders to work together and for industry to lead the work with Government, overcoming barriers to implementation.”

Elements of the strategy link in with thoughts in KPMG’s Agribusiness Agenda for 2012, ‘People Unlocking the Future’ ably presented at the launch Ben van Delden. It also reinforces what the meat industry is already doing with the Red Meat Sector Strategy, B+LNZ Ltd chairman Mike Petersen said.

Strategic echoes include opening access to markets, together with the sector becoming more consumer-driven and collaborative. Discussion also worked its way around the need to attract, develop and retain new graduates and workers for the agri-food sector, the need to develop leadership within the industry and for behaviour and attitude change.

Over 120 attended the launch in Wellington that was attended by the Minister, agri-food industry leaders and senior government officials. Also speaking was NZ Merino’s John Brackenridge. The report will be on the agenda at the forthcoming Primary Industry Chief Executives’ Boot Camp in August at Stanford University, California.

Meat industry leaders, including Keith Cooper of Silver Fern Farms, Sir Graeme Harrison of ANZCO Foods, Sam Robinson of AgResearch, were amongst those who had contributed to the report.

The report is well worth a read to see where the sector’s going. Download a pdf copy of A Call to Arms: A Contribution to New Zealand Agri-Food Strategy or ask for a hard copy by emailing [email protected].