From Wool to Weta

New Zealand has built its economy around natural resources – exporting wool, wood, meat and dairy and importing tourists. But can that economy sustain us in the twenty-first century? From the second most prosperous country on earth fifty years ago, New Zealand has slipped to the bottom half of the OECD rankings in everything from wealth to life expectancy. Whether to London or Los Angeles, nearly a million New Zealanders have moved abroad in search of better opportunities. If we are to turn around those trends, what is the alternative? In this book, physicist Paul Callaghan talks to leading New Zealanders involved in science and business to find the answer. Tackling difficult issues, from the tyranny of distance to our aversion to risk, Callaghan finds a vision for the future built on shifting from Wool to Weta – from relying on agriculture and tourism to investing in a new economy based on science, technology and intellectual property, exemplified by companies such as Weta Workshop, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Tait Electronics.