So, I’ve been thinking about our dairy industry, and I reckon it’s facing existential threats on a number of fronts. We know the environmental issues – water pollution, habitat loss, deforestation, methane and CO2 emissions. Animal welfare is also an issue, for example the ethical treatment of male calves.
And then there’s tech. Lab-grown milk protein is a thing now, and plant-based dairy is seeing big gains. Fonterra’s even investing into lab-grown milk proteins. See https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/130551099/labmade-milk-getting-the-creaminess-without-the-climate-pollution for other companies in NZ making lab-grown milk. When China realises mass production of casein in labs, demand for our milk powder will… evaporate. And that milk powder, is, what, 95% of the demand?
I don’t see how we can just ‘adapt’ dairy farming. These aren’t small problems, they’re insurmountable challenges. And those pressures are only going to increase.
If these threats are unlikely to be mitigated, the focus must shift towards planning how to downscale dairy farming in a responsible way. Industries have come and gone before ( whaling, anyone? ). Anyone got some thoughts on this? What will NZ look like in 20 years?
Dairy is facing an existential threat, but at least there are places people in that sector can transfer their skills, and the smart people are already starting to.
The entire west coast of the south Island is built on coal. Coal mining as an industry has a much more significant crisis on their hands, is even more reluctant to change to adapt to it, and is a work force that will have an even harder time transferring into other roles. There are going to be huge parts of the country that turn into ghost towns in the next generation or two, which is going to suck for everyone
I hate that farmers seem to think the only options are dairy or forestry, or in my area, grapes. No one seems to grasp that a monoculture in any particular is a bad idea and if it goes belly-up, the way dairy is going to, there’s nothing to fall back on. With food supplies getting a little shaky you’d think there’d be a push to start growing more stuff locally so we have less reliance on other countries and on shipping, but I guess planting out crops means Fonterra won’t be funding next years’ Ford Ranger purchase.
Cheese
I switched to plant based milks and it cured my acne. Fuck dairy milk, I’m looking forward to the decline.
I’d love to switch to plant based milk but I really love cheese and brie and really can’t find any good plant based alternatives. Hopefully this changes with better tech. I’d jump ship immediately to lab grown dairy and meat.
In 20 years we will have involuntary euthanasia for people who suffer from bad thoughts about the government
