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Speaker 1: I've got an unusual request for you. Well, actually, I

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Speaker 1: mean the request is bog standard. It's government financial help,

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Speaker 1: but the outfit making the request is less less. So

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Speaker 1: it's a dung beetle rearing business that's running into trouble.

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Speaker 1: Dung Beetle Innovations imports dung beetles obviously, and then sells

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Speaker 1: them to farms to clean up the water. But the

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Speaker 1: sales are drying up. Doctor Sean Fogy is the co

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Speaker 1: founder and he.

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Speaker 2: Is with us.

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Speaker 1: Now, Hi, Sean Hiding, I'm well thank you. Now let

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Speaker 1: me just understand how this works. So you get the

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Speaker 1: dung beetles onto the cow farm and they clean up

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Speaker 1: the manure, meaning the manure doesn't run into the water.

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Speaker 1: Is that about right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's one of the many benefits yep.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So why are the sales drying up if it's

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Speaker 1: magical like that.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think part of it is that we have

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Speaker 2: probably statistically speaking, about fifteen percent of our farmers are

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Speaker 2: very innovative early adopters on things like this. There's another

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Speaker 2: fifteen percent that will see what they're doing and think, okay,

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Speaker 2: that's a good idea and get on board too. So really,

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Speaker 2: I think we've got a small percentage of the farming

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Speaker 2: community that are willing to look at this. And I

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Speaker 2: think part of the process with this, if you want

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Speaker 2: to do a nationally scale, wide process, you kind of

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Speaker 2: need a central government nationally fund a dungel or rest

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Speaker 2: if you want everyone to get on board.

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Speaker 1: Ah okay, So the first thing I thought when I

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Speaker 1: read about this was that we haven't had a great

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Speaker 1: run introducing exotic things into this country because you know,

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Speaker 1: it starts affecting the ecosystem. Do dung beetles not do that?

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Speaker 2: No, not at all. So we've actually New Zealand's got

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Speaker 2: one of the leading processes for making sure that any

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Speaker 2: new organism that's brought into this country goes through a

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Speaker 2: very rigid risks, costs and benefits process. It's by the

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Speaker 2: Environmental Protection Authority. As I said, it's one of the

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Speaker 2: best in the world. And of course dung bells went

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Speaker 2: through that in the early day, in which we had

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Speaker 2: to go through that whole process to see what they

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Speaker 2: would do and what they wouldn't do. If they had

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Speaker 2: had any negative consequence, they wouldn't be given permission to

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Speaker 2: enter the country. Now, that was actually co funded by

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Speaker 2: the MPI, Ministry of Prime Industries through a Sustainable Farming

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Speaker 2: Fund and some post introduction research stuff through GRADI one

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Speaker 2: International Councils. So they've been in for quite some time

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Speaker 2: gone through that process to make sure they do what

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Speaker 2: they're supposed to do, which is get rid of poop

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Speaker 2: off the pastures.

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Speaker 1: Oh good, hey, okay, Look, there are loads of businesses

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Speaker 1: having a tough time through the recession that we're coming

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Speaker 1: out on the other side of. Why should the government

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Speaker 1: put money into you?

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Speaker 2: Well, I think you know, in terms of increasing productivity

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Speaker 2: on the farm and also one of our big one

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Speaker 2: hundred percent New Zealand campaigns that we do, we look

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Speaker 2: at improving water quality. Well, really the mitigation tools that

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Speaker 2: we're currently using those are ryperium buffer strips and fencings.

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Speaker 2: Will in terms of surface flow and high rainfall events

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Speaker 2: for reducing water quality, it's not doing particularly well. It

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Speaker 2: could do much better if you add an additional tools

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Speaker 2: such as dungbills on the past chair as a solution

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Speaker 2: to take pressure off those existing mitigation tools. Now that's

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Speaker 2: a massive thing for reducing surface flow of contaminants entering

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Speaker 2: our waterways, of which we rely heavily on and partial productivity. Well,

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Speaker 2: you know, we need all the boosting we can to

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Speaker 2: increase our GDP coming out of livestock production. If you

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Speaker 2: can improve soil health through the introduction of beetles and

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Speaker 2: getting rid of all that poop, which is free fertilizer,

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Speaker 2: then why not be investing in it. Really, it doesn't

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Speaker 2: cost that much to compare to other tools that we're

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Speaker 2: investatively into.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Sean, thanks very much for talking. U s A

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Speaker 1: doctor Seawan forgy Dung Beetle Innovations, co founder and director.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

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