Robert Hickson • Mar 17, 2021 •
Regenerative agriculture, where the health and wellbeing of the environment, animals and farmers is prioritised, is gaining cachet. I see that as a necessary but insufficient change to how we manage land and watery environments. In some respects discussions about regenerative agriculture are more backward- than forward-looking. Take, for example, the UK’s Food, Farming and … Read More
Guest Author • Nov 24, 2020 •
Jessica C Lai, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Jesse Pirini, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand is in an economic recession and the government is trying to spend its way through it with direct investment to boost the economy and jobs. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of New … Read More
Robert Hickson • Apr 20, 2020 •
In my previous post I set out some simple techniques to help explore the future. Here I give a worked example. Most of the space I have devoted to one scenario, since that probably is the more interesting part for readers. Scenarios don’t predict what will happen. They are a method … Read More
Guest Author • Jun 10, 2019 •
Dave Heatley Necessity is the mother of invention if camping without tent pegs, according to Kinley Salmon in his very readable book Jobs, robots & us. But the development and diffusion of innovation is a more complex story. Economists came rather late to the thinking about what influences technological innovation. The … Read More
Robert Hickson • Apr 03, 2019 •
It’s easy to get momentarily excited about robots on the farm, particularly if they are close to home, picking apples or herding stock. Robots have been rolling out onto farms elsewhere for several years and the pace is picking up, so NZ is in … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 14, 2018 •
When thinking about the future of healthcare, images of robot surgeons, predictive algorithms, nanoparticles and nanobots in your bloodstream, CRISPR, and wearable or ingestible sensors may come to mind. A future of big technological advances that help get rid of once acute conditions (like cancers, infectious diseases), and improve the monitoring and treatment of chronic ones (like heart … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 06, 2018 •
Troy Baisden By legislation, universities have a role to play as critic and conscience of society. Having recently moved to a professorial post at the University of Waikato, I’m taking up that role to initiate this blog at the Our Land and Water (OLW) National Science Challenge’s 2018 Symposium. The event is on yesterday and today in Wellington, … Read More
Robert Hickson • Mar 12, 2018 •
There’s plenty of innovative thinking around building houses, but less so about communities. I’ve been writing a series of blogs on the future of construction for the industry transformation initiative. They’ll be appearing on their website over the next few months. There’s a lot going on in the housing and construction field. It’s not just about increasing … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 30, 2018 •
Alexander Bell, Harvard University; John Van Reenen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Raj Chetty, Stanford University, and Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics and Political Science This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Innovation is widely viewed as the engine of economic growth. To maximize innovation … Read More
Peter Griffin • Oct 13, 2017 •
Last year I found myself sitting on a plane beside a Fonterra executive who was bound for Chicago, where the dairy giant’s US operation is based. I asked him what he considered to be the biggest issues the company faced. He immediately mentioned “trace-ability” and giving Fonterra’s customers confidence in the safety of its products, something that is rightly … Read More