A Northland student has successfully tackled one of the biggest challenges facing the world - how to produce more nutritious food - to win the inaugural Massey Innovator's Award.
Laura Blundell, a Year 13 student from Ruawai College, was part of the team that took out the competition with the innovative idea of fortifying sheep's milk with iodine, calcium and iron to produce a mineral-rich drink for toddlers. The team also developed a cute brand for their product - MilkBaa, offering flavours like 'straaw-berry', 'choco-laate' and 'baa-naa-na'.
The competition, run by the Young Enterprise Trust and sponsored by Massey University, was held at the weekend as part of the annual Enterprise in Action weekend and involved 80 of the country's brightest, business-minded teens.
For the first time, Massey was asked to develop its own challenge focused on stimulating New Zealand's economy and future prosperity, choosing food innovation because of its importance to the country's economy, but also because feeding the world well will become increasingly difficult.
"Food isn't just a way to make money or create employment. It is one of only three commodities, along with water and shelter, that every human on the planet needs to survive," said Dr Jeff Stangl, the Massey Business School's executive director of education partnerships.