CAN FOOD SECURITY BE SUSTAINABLE UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY? By Antony Heywood, General Manager : Vegetables New Zealand Inc.
Growers at energy workshops in May 2021
There are always lessons to learn from any workshop and the best workshops leave you aware of the opportunities as well as the challenges. There are plenty of challenges facing growers at the moment, from climate change to freshwater quality. But one key question remains: are growers getting a fair deal, or are they paying what amounts to a tax under the direction of government policy due to their exposure to land? Overlay this tax with what growers are receiving for their produce and you have to question whether growers are getting much of a return on their investment. How does this relate to energy? Energy requires a large investment of capital. Capital requires profit to enable that investment. This is a vicious cycle, which ultimately depends on growers receiving a fair price for their produce.
56 NZGROWER : JULY 2021
Back to energy. The latest climate change policy has as a goal the decarbonising of industrial process heat by 2037. This will affect all heated glasshouses that use carbon (coal and natural gas). In partnership with the EECA (Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority), the covered crop industry has undertaken a project to consider viable decarbonisation options for process heat, moving the sector to renewable energy. The project started with an energy survey to build a baseline of industry energy practices and heat resources. At the same time, a review of the technologies available internationally considered the viable options in the global marketplace, both in current practice and in emerging technologies.
