Bill Gates
BILLIONAIRE philanthropist and climate change investor Bill Gates has made an appearance in Australia, taking time to chat to the Lowy Institute about a range of topics – including red meat.
Mr Gates has become well-known in recent years for his controversial comments in 2021 calling for policies requiring people in rich countries to eat “100 percent synthetic beef”. Many in the livestock industry at the time called out his vested interests in ‘synthetic meat’ startups including Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats and Hampton Creek Foods.
Lately his investments have gone towards methane reducing supplements for livestock – with his company Breakthrough Energy Ventures last week announcing its investment in Western Australian start up Rumin8. In a filmed question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, Mr Gates elaborated on his ideology towards red meat.
“Six percent of global emissions are from cows, who burp and fart methane, and we have two paths to solving that,” he said.
“You can either fix the cows to stop them doing that or you can make beef without the cows. Both of those will be pursued to see which one can lead to a better product in-terms of taste health and cost.”
The impact of cows on the environment has been the source of plenty of debate in recent times. Earlier this week, Beef Central heard from a scientist who believes historic populations of wild herbivores on the planet are likely to have been much higher than previous estimates have suggested – and “more or less” match current domestic herbivore biomass.
Australian ag trending in the right direction
Mr Gates said the Australian agricultural industry was doing advancing well in its environmental management.
“Our foundation funds a lot of agricultural work with the Australian Government helping farmers deal with climate change and have more productivity,” he said.
“Australia is amazing when it comes to agriculture, including tropical agriculture and dry-land agriculture, which are the two most important ecosystems where we need better crops.”
Mr Gates said Australia was in a position to reap the benefits of de-carbonising the economy.
“Australia is very blessed, whether it is wind or solar, the opportunities created by a world that is getting rid of greenhouse gas emissions exceed the things you have to give up,” he said.
“I think you would eventually have to give up almost all of the coal mining activity.”
Mr Gates commended the Albanese’s Government’s increased ambition on climate change targets and said it was an imperative to continue trading with the world.
“Australia was fairly unique until quite recently at not having a climate commitment,” he said.
“It is great to have Australia engaged in climate and the world isn’t going to trade with people who don’t have serious climate commitments.”
US leading the world in innovation
When asked about who were the powerhouses in global innovation, Mr Gates said the United States was still the world leader.
“The US has this unique advantage that it draws in talented people from all over the world,” he said.
“Whether it is climate technology, curing cancer, curing obesity – there is no country that is going to take that position off the US. It is not like all the smart people are saying ‘let’s go to China and hang out’.”
Mr Gates said countries like China and India were becoming more innovative and were going to play a stronger role in world governance.
“China has gone from being incredibly impoverished in 1980 to being the most wealthy, middle income country,” he said.
“I tend to see China’s rise as a huge win for the world. But I do think the current mentality of the US towards China, which is reciprocated, is a lose-lose situation.”