We don’t need a perfect answer. We need a reliable answer with Tom Sturgess, Methane Mitigation Ventures

Consumers will pay a premium for climate-friendly red meat, but not the way you’re thinking about it. This premium is not a mark-up on any single purchase. It’s customer loyalty to the retailer selling the product. A brand with integrity keeps customers coming back, and the retailer, the real customer, captures that lifetime value.

Today I am joined by Tom Sturgess, who has been involved in red meat production since 1985. Thirty years ago he moved to New Zealand and taught himself sheep and beef farming. Today his farms produce around 70,000 tope quality lambs a year that earns a 40 to 50% market premium. Tom has also spent over a decade investing in to reduce the carbon footprint of livestock production includeing funding a team developing a low cost feed additive with a target price of 1.5 to 3 cents per animal per day.

Tom acknowedlegs atht rumiant mathe is challenging. That said, he aslo agues that research system is too often its own worst enemy. The combiantion of the cost and need to conduct many large in vivo trials is crippling to many innovtaors. Rapid, small-scale animal trials that give a reliable, roughly 80% answer, are needed so researchers can learn and iterate before committing to expensive formal studies. 

Tom sees the California dairy industry as the standout success story. The combaination of  legislation and state funding behind them have enable California dairy farmers to cut emissions by close to 50% in around seven years. He also praises Australia as offering the most supportive research and regulatory pathway he has experiinced.

We discuss when innovations are ready for venture capital, and why funders need to monitor closely rather than impose rigid milestones. Tom also explains why genetics, feed, forage and husbandry solutions will stack together, and why, in the end, it all comes down to people and teams.

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