Jamie Mackay: The Country host on Lucidome Bio receiving an additional funding boost for methane vaccine

Two key players looking to help Kiwi farmers reduce their emissions have given a new company some additional funding to craft a methane vaccine.

AgriZeroNZ and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre are providing $13.5 million ($8.5M and $5M respectively) to Lucidome Bio to fund their research.

The Country's Jamie Mackay explains what this move could mean for farmers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Together do for c Ellen and with us now is
Jamie mckaye, Host of the Country, Hey Jamie.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Yeah, I'm with you here. They can't defend the indefensible
bug of the gangs, and I just want to say
I'm agreeing with you too much here at the night
Heather Jared Kerr from Kiwi Bank bang on a fifteenth
point rate cut on October nine. I think Adrian Or
can officially claim success for one job or one thing
he's done well as a Reserve Bank governor, and that's

(00:28):
screwing the economy and screwing it down so hard. We've
effectively been in recession for the past two years. And
from a farming point of view, from a primary sector
point of view, from a productivity point of view, the
best thing he could do for the economy is to
get those interest rates going down sooner and faster, because
you know, the farmers and business people and homeowners are

(00:51):
feeling the pain too.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Right, well said, how are we going with the methane vaccine.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Well, I have big news today and this is quite
exciting because we're looking for a solution for our ruminants
who beuch methane. We know all about that and the
global warming that occurs as a result. So Agri zero
NZ this is the joint venture between the government and
a whole lot of industry people like Fonterra and silver

(01:19):
Ferns and all those sort of people above God and
with the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Center, and they're
investing thirteen point five million to pioneer a methane vaccine.
So chief executive of agg egg zero en Z Wayne
McNee said, a vaccine that reduces methane from rumin and
animals would be a transformational tool for New Zealand's eg

(01:42):
sector and for farmers worldwide. It's right, It's widely recognized.
He went on to say, as the holy grail to
reduce emissions as its low cost, high impact and has
the potential to be adopted in all farming systems. And
just I know, are you going to ask this question, Heather,
So I've pre empted it. How does it work? Well,
A successful vaccine would trigger an animal's immune system to

(02:03):
generate antibodies and saliva that suppresses the growth and function
of methane producing microbes in the room and significantly reducing
the quantity of potent greenhouse gasses. At birds out everything
you ever wanted to know about methane, but we're afraid
to ask.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Oh, Jamie, you actually even sound like you know what
you're talking about. I appreciate that science explanation. When you're
finished with that, you were finished with with hosting radio show,
you can go be a science teacher. Jamie McKay hosted
The Country Always Super informative Hither Can you please ask
Liam Dan why we don't report all of these figures
monthly instead of quarterly? These are the GDP figures. Look,
I think I can actually answer that question for you there,

(02:41):
because we are a bit of an outlier in terms
of a lot of the countries that we compare ourselves
to in only doing it quarterly. And I think we
all I mean at geez, the Reserve Bank last time
admit it didn't they that they were starting to look
at more high frequency data than official data because the
official data wasn't coming out regularly enough. So we know
this is holding us back. We know this is a problem.
We know it's causing blind spots for Adrian or and

(03:03):
he doesn't need any of that, does he. The reason
we don't do it is because it's too expensive. It
is just too expensive to pump out these these figures
monthly instead of quarterly at least. I think it was
stats n Z who said that, And you know, to
that point, isn't that just one of the problems that
we have as a country, Like I love this country,
I think we're awesome, but we know the price of

(03:25):
everything and the value of nothing all too often. And
that's a case of this, like, just pay the money
because it's worth it for the health of the economy.
Headline's next, then Sam Dickie for more from Hither Duplessy

(03:46):
Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
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