Brain Food: ready to transform the food, fibre and agritech sector?
Canterbury is well known as a research and business hub in engineering, software and manufacturing. But it is also a province with a proud history of success within the agricultural industry. Now with tourism decimated due to the global pandemic, both technology and agri-food exports sectors have stepped up to keep the lights on within the New Zealand economy. The newly announced Food, Fibre and Agritech Challenge will deliver further economic gains through networked innovation and by developing knowledge and social capital across these important industries.
According to a recent report from the Lincoln based Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU), the number of employees in the Canterbury food and fibre sector grew by 20% over the previous decade with over 10,000 enterprises in the province exporting almost six billion dollars worth of goods annually. Or to put it another way, around 22% of Canterbury’s GDP is accounted for by food, fibre or related agribusiness. But with relatively low median salaries in the sector and an increasing focus on the need for better environmental stewardship, agriculture is under pressure to find smart ways to create more sustainable and higher added value products and services.
Happily, we have already seen some interesting collaborations forged between the technology research institutions and various agriculture industries across the province. Professor Richard Green from University of Canterbury’s Spatial Engineering Research Centre has been working at the intersection of ag and tech for several years. He’s also an enthusiast for cross-faculty collaboration at the university. A big focus for his team recently has been robotics technology to assist with the pruning of grapes and trees. With borders closed and growers struggling to find seasonal workers at present, it is inevitable that greater automation will be needed across vineyards and orchards in the future. Locally manufactured, artificial intelligence driven pickers, plowers and pluckers could also become high value export winners.
Dr Sarah Kessans dreamed of becoming an astronaut from an early age and already made it onto NASA’s short-list. Currently a post-doctoral fellow lecturing in biochemistry at the University of Canterbury, Dr Kessans received funding from the New Zealand government’s Strategic Space Fund to pursue research into building nano-satellites for conducting experiments looking at protein synthesis in the weightlessness of space. Extending the research could provide solutions for how to feed space travelers on extended journeys. Such a technology could also see palatable algae derived food on the menu at a future Mars colony or even solve food insecurity problems back home.
Leaft Foods extracts protein directly from leafy crops such as lucerne in order to reduce the amount of nitrogenous waste from livestock. Processing of the crops results in a high value protein extract called Rubisco that contains many essential amino acids required for human nutrition. The product can be used as a food supplement or additive ingredient. The low nitrogen chaff byproduct from this process can be feed to farm animals. The company is currently in pre-commercialisation and R&D phase, says Leaft general manager and UC graduate Ross Milne. Leaft Foods founders Dr John Penno and Laury Leyland Penno are well known in dairy farming circles. John was a scientist co-founder of Canterbury success story Synlait Milk and Laury was formerly an executive at Fonterra.
Just a small “taste” of the science and engineering based innovative agribusinesses that are stepping forward. Through connecting talent, capital and our local centres of deep tech research, the future looks bright for the next generation of food, fibre and agritech ventures in the province. Find out more about future opportunities and how to accelerate your agribusiness startup through the Food, Fibre and Agritech Challenge.
If you have a disruptive food, fibre and agritech idea with global potential, this Challenge is for you.
Article thanks to Paul Spence
@GeniusNet @ThincLabUC
