Tagged: farming

Featured image: What if we took all farm animals off the land and planted crops and trees instead?

What if we took all farm animals off the land and planted crops and trees instead? - Climate: Explained

Guest Author • Jul 15, 2020 •

Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz I would like to know how much difference we could make to our commitment under the Paris Agreement … Read More

Featured image: Thinking beyond the impossible burger

Thinking beyond the impossible burger - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Jul 12, 2018 •

The agricultural sector has long been called a “sunset industry”. If so, it’s more a long drawn out polar twilight than a quick tropical dusk. Rosie Bosworth has written about New Zealand becoming the ‘Detroit of Agriculture’. Scary stuff, for some. A welcome transformation for others, if you read the opinion pieces. But are predictions of the … Read More

Featured image: For the birds – reflections on the PCE report

For the birds – reflections on the PCE report - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Jun 08, 2017 •

There’s an important recommendation missing from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s list of things to help endangered birds. It hardly would work for all birds, but it is ridiculous that it is banned for those birds for which it would work. Let people farm them. Roger Beattie has demonstrated that he can successfully raise weka. There would be … Read More

Featured image: Why we need to go back to the future (and give it a name)

Why we need to go back to the future (and give it a name) - Stick

Peter Kerr • Feb 01, 2017 •

Here’s a counter-intuitive notion, that if we’re smart, could allow our ‘analogue’ agricultural systems to thrive in a digital world. But to do so we MUST own our story. My contention is, the more society connects to the cloud, the more we will want to connect to the land. That is, as virtual and artificial becomes ubiquitous and cheaper, the … Read More

Featured image: The internet of things and farming

The internet of things and farming - Griffin's Gadgets

Peter Griffin • Dec 07, 2016 •

The last thing I expected to see when I visited Microsoft Research in Seattle last month were lettuces growing under LED lights and fish swimming in a tank as part of an “aquaponics” experiment. It turns out that the small crop installations are part of growing efforts underway at the software giant looking at the future of food. While Microsoft has leafy … Read More

Featured image: The silent “y” in futures

The silent “y” in futures - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Sep 23, 2016 •

Many discussions about the future are about “what?” and “how?” What will … [insert favourite industry or issue here] … look like? How will we … [insert favourite activity] … in the future? The outcomes are usually lists or descriptions. These are fundamentally second order futures questions. They are a consequence of a need for answers in the face of … Read More

Featured image: Reducing greenhouse gases from cows and sheep needs big picture

Reducing greenhouse gases from cows and sheep needs big picture - Guest Work

Guest Author • Mar 22, 2016 •

Mario Herrero, CSIRO Farming livestock – cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens – contributes around 6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) to the atmosphere each year. While estimates vary, this could represent up to 18% of global emissions. But the livestock sector also offers great benefits. It includes 20 billion animals, supports … Read More

Counting sheep scenarios - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • May 14, 2014 •

I’ve just come across this research project – Counting sheep – being run by Anne Galloway at Victoria University’s School of Design. It is exploring how cultural studies and design research could support public engagement on the development & use of science and technology. In a post last year I had asked if any NZ design groups … Read More

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