Nuffield Blog & News

I was interested by the fact that many felt that New Zealand was perhaps the country feeling some of the most significant scrutiny, with a few people commenting on the fact that New Zealand’s farmers are now considered to be on the table of social standing at about the same level as the politicians.

By Kate Scott, 2018 Nuffield New Zealand Scholar

It’s not every day you walk into a room of 80 odd people and the entire room is abuzz with chatter, where people come together with a common and passionate link – agriculture and food. It’s also not every day that you get to attend the Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) as a Nuffield Scholar.

This year we were able to travel to the proverbial home of agriculture, the Netherlands for a week of immersion in all things Nuffield, including the opportunity to hear from some great speakers, to enter into some challenging debates, see some of the amazing opportunities that the Netherlands have to grow food, as well as to hear about the challenges that the Netherlands is facing in the agriculture space. It was however surprising that despite the Netherlands producing approximately 12 billion litres of milk per year that it was not overly easy to find fresh milk for your cuppa tea!

A couple of highlights included the opportunity to cycle to the farm of 2015 Scholar Gerjan Snippe where we were able to see the inner workings of Biobrass their organic cooperative farming business, and for me a highlight was also being able to attend the Royal Holland Flower Market, a modest 270ha area of land dedicated entirely to the selling and distribution of flowers and plants! (the inside tip for those of you interested in flowers, is that ‘pastel’ colours are on trend for the coming seasons).

It was also a great opportunity to visit the recently opened World Horticulture Centre, which was a great example of collaborative use of space between industry, education and research to advance development in the Horticulture sector.  The Netherlands is truly world leading when it comes to horticulture and their ability to grow an abundance of food and produce, especially from a relatively small footprint.

I was also given the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on the ‘future of agriculture 2030’ from a New Zealand perspective. This enabled me to reflect on where we are at the moment, and what the opportunities might be for New Zealand in the future. One of the key things that came to mind for me was that there is a clear need for us to have an agriculture strategy, and that we need to focus on having the hard conversations so that there is a path forward for NZ to be the most environmentally friendly farming nation in the world. The opportunity is there for us as the leaders in the agriculture sector to seize, but we need to be brave enough to start the conversation.

Despite a jammed packed schedule at the CSC, there was also opportunity to observe some commonality amongst the various countries represented including the increasing disconnect between rural and urban communities, leading to a number of discussions around ‘social licence to operate’ or ‘licence to produce’. I was interested by the fact that many felt that NZ was perhaps the country feeling some of the most significant scrutiny, with a few people commenting on the fact that New Zealand’s farmers are now considered to be on the table of social standing at about the same level as the politicians.

There was also a lot of talk about the vegan movement, which I observed as creating a lot of angst for some amongst the room. However, where some see this as a threat to the agriculture sector, I see it as an opportunity. I don’t believe we are going to change the views of those who are so strongly engrained in their vegan view of the world, but I also don’t see that there will be a move to the majority of people choosing to be vegans (certainly not in the short to medium term).

The opportunity to focus on providing good quality, nutritious food which is known to be safe, exceeds animal welfare requirements and growing in an environmentally sustainable way is where we need to be spending our time. Those nations who can move quickly towards providing this certainty, traceability and confidence in their food, stand to prosper from the increasing knowledge that food consumers have. I believe New Zealand has the ability to lead this space.

After having spent the week in the Netherlands I am still firmly of the view that New Zealand is still at the leading edge in many aspects, and that if we can foster a collaborative approach to managing the effects of agriculture, that our future will continue to prosper as an agricultural leading nation.

The last 6 weeks just seems like a blur of Airports, planes, busses, hotel rooms and most importantly an incredibly diverse sometimes extraordinary string of farms and the people for whom that is their passion and livelihood.

The key word in that is passion, everywhere we went to we met farmers who loved what they did. The common theme was you don’t get into agriculture because you want to make money, you get into agriculture because you love working the land and the outdoor lifestyle that comes with it.

Our first stop was in Singapore where we not only caught up with our own GFP group but the 2 other GFP’s travelling at the same time. When we departed Singapore, while we headed to India, one GFP would head towards China and the other towards Japan only to all meet again in Washington DC 5 weeks later. Singapore has no agriculture of its own but has become a hub for commerce and trade throughout Asia so our meetings were about giving us an overview of agriculture in Asia in general.

India was everything I expected and more, the heat, the noise, the sheer mass of population, but it did also surprise and delight. Away from the cities there are some truly beautiful parts of India, they just take a bit more effort to get to. One of these places is Yercaud. From Chennai we had to fly an hour to a small airport that had only 1 flight a day, and then we had to drive for several hours up a twisting mountain road, but the trip was absolutely worth it and the destination was one of the highlights of India for me.

It was also disappointing to see a country with fantastic natural resources and the ability to grow almost anything, stifled by tradition and corruption, totally unwilling to confront unsustainable practices. In an effort to become self sufficient India is promoting growing rice in Northern India in areas that are just not suitable for rice production. The result is a huge drain on the underground aquifer to flood irrigate vast areas, the result is levels in the aquifer are dropping by 1.5 meters a year. That same aquifer is the only water source for the villages as well and at this rate it is estimated it will run dry in around 10 years.

It was hard to know what to take from what we saw in the Middle East other than if you have unlimited funds you can do whatever you want even in a desert. The wealth being invested in trying to gain some level of food security and self sufficiency is staggering. This was typified by a dairy production facility in Qatar. Our guide had been there last year to visit a small sheep milking facility. 12 months later where there had been dessert was now a facility milking 8,000 cows. 3,000 of those cows had been airfreighted in between daily milking with the balance shipped in calf so they were in production shortly after arriving.

The time spent in France and Belgium reflected the uncertainty being driven by Brexit and the threat the breakup may pose to wider farming subsidies that had become a crutch for many farmers. The greatest threat to farming in Europe is from the urban population who have no understanding of farming. The influence being exerted on politicians by the anti farming NGO’s is starting to become overwhelming. It’s a stark reminder of the path dairy in New Zealand is on and the need to be open and educate people on farming practices that whilst on face value may not seem pretty, are actually done for valid reasons with the animals welfare in mind.

We arrived in Washington DC at a fascinating point in time with the highly divisive Trump administration only recently announcing the tariff war with China. There was a general feeling of uncertainty how it would play out, but one thing was clear, that retaliatory tariff’s from China would hurt American Farmers. It was interesting to see the recent announcement of subsidies to help farmers cope with the impacts of his policy. As Republican Senator Ben Sasse put it, Trump isn’t making America great again, he is making it 1929. There is a huge groundswell of support for Trump within the farming community, even with the threats tariffs place over them. Trumps efforts to “drain the swamp” and shake up the establishment are resonating and his popularity at grassroots level seems to be increasing. Now, if only they could delete his twitter account…

Alabama proved to be a bit of a surprise with an extremely diverse agricultural industry. The properties we visited were some of the leading in the state, but were all heavily invested in using modern practices and technology to maximise what they were producing. The greatest surprise was probably the amount of land that is locked up in old family trusts with just about every operation heavily reliant on leasing land as none was available to buy.

At this point there seems to be no concern about loss of agricultural land to urban growth and water is not currently regulated or a major issue of concern. Other than the availability of land to buy, the greatest concern seems to be labour with a heavy reliance on imported labour from Mexico under the H2A scheme which is very similar to our RSE program in New Zealand.

As I have just completed the GFP in July and submitted this report on final stages of GFP, I will need to digest the insights and learning from this 6 week experience.

By Turi McFarlane, 2018 Nuffield New Zealand Scholars

With a much-touted reputation as the tiny country which feeds the world, The Netherlands is the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products after the USA. The Dutch agricultural sector is diverse and supplies a quarter of the vegetables that are exported from Europe amongst a range of other produce.

During the CSC, we were privileged to hear and visit a wide range of farmers, researchers and rural professionals who emphasised several key themes over the week:

Farming land and succession

Three farmers a day leave farming in The Netherlands and with agricultural land selling for € 60-100,000 per hectare there are massive challenges for the next generation of farmers looking to own their own farm.

Feeding the world versus niche markets

With the world population expected to grow to almost 10 billion by the year 2050, we are regularly presented with the challenge of “feeding the world”. However, how does this align with obvious opportunities for us as a nation to focus on creating high value products which command a premium price in niche markets? Food security, particularly in Africa which is expected to see the most growth over this period is critical to us all, yet perhaps our greatest opportunity as a nation is to provide technical advice and assistance to improve the food self-sufficiency in developing countries?

New technologies

A number of new technologies were mentioned throughout the week as potential game changers. CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is definitely seen as having great potential, offering dramatic advances in speed, scope and scale of genetic improvement. However, the debate around GM and gene editing policy is obviously alive and well – “The CRISPR conundrum”.

We also heard about research at Waginengen University in The Netherlands which has highlighted a natural variation for photosynthesis in plants. With this knowledge they are hoping to breed crops in the future which make better use of photosynthesis – opening the possibility for much higher yields and capture of carbon dioxide.

To finish  – a few interesting quotes from speakers over the week included:

“Every 20 years, the number of people depending on one farmer doubles in developed countries”.

“Climate change is here”.

“Agricultural land per capita has halved since the 1960s (worldwide)”.

“1/3 of globally produced food is wasted”.

“Lactose intolerance is more popular than skinny jeans”.

By Andy Elliot, 2018 Nuffield New Zealand Scholar

It’s been a whirl wind week here in the Netherlands, I wasn’t too sure what to expect in terms of the whole experience and I honestly believe that it will take a while for it to all sink in. The first challenge was the meeting and working together with another 75 other future leaders from around the world. It was incredible, stimulating, challenging and empowering. It really pushed me and forced me to look critically at myself and my perceptions.

Sitting here now reflecting on the week, I realise that there were a few themes emerge that have been interesting to dive deeper into, some issues have been specific to the Netherlands, but many relate to New Zealand.

One of these is the obvious pressures farmers are feeling to become more demand, rather than supply driven. It’s very difficult under a backdrop of subsidy, but we met a few of small operators who are achieving this transition successfully by moving to a direct to customer, or value add proposition within their business model. These farmers are the innovators, the first movers who will always find a gap and are prepared to tread a different path. In the Netherlands, these innovators are supplying a very concentrated local market with quality products. But what about the rest of the farmers?

We learnt that the Netherlands has approximately three (3) small farmers leaving their land every day. They are walking off for several reasons; some of these include the income not being there, there are increasing legislative and regulatory layers and cost and the average farmer is becoming older without a younger generation succeeding them. For every farmer in Europe under twenty five there are seven over seventy five years. The average land price is close to €60000/H and these issues are not unfamiliar for us in NZ.

The Dutch cannot afford to continue to lower the cost of their production and rage battle over commodity prices, as like New Zealand, production costs are too high. Exports need a clear identity, a story, a differentiation from others, which will attract and appeal to the consumers purchasing choice. The other driver in loss of value would be volume, but that’s a bit more challenging to manage.

Can everyone innovate and become a supplier direct to consumer? Is everybody capable of becoming an entrepreneur? I’d suggest not, but we can all change what we do, and we can all prepare ourselves to be in a better position, when such disruption is being forced upon us.

By Simon Cook, 2018 Nuffield New Zealand Scholar

The theme of this year’s CSC in the Netherlands was very much about learning and understanding the history of Dutch agriculture and how and why they have got to where they are now. As a New Zealand farmer, we often hear about the long term subsidies paid to farmers in the EU, without ever understanding why these subsidies were introduced in the first place. During our Nuffield conference in the Netherlands we had a number of speakers fill that gap in our knowledge with the story behind the introduction of subsidies.

After a day of beginning to meet each other and an afternoon farm visit, the second day of our CSC got off to an interesting start, with a presentation being given to the scholars while they sat in the pool in their togs – an introduction to business models.

Once back in the conference room we had some moving presentations focused around WW2 and the famine bought on as the war drew to a close. We had a presentation by Mr Jaques Von Trammel who was a young Jewish boy forced to grow up quickly as he lived in constant fear of being caught by German forces. We were then given the story of Leny Adelaar-Polak, a survivor of the medical experiments in Auschwitz. Leny was the only member of her extended family to survive the war.

We also had a presentation by Ingrid de Zwarte who completed a PhD thesis titled “The Hunger Winter” which focused on the famine that struck the Netherlands as WW2 drew to a close. In the winter of 1945 the population of the Netherlands were struck by food shortages. Bought on by a shortage of local produce and failing supply lines from Germany, the population of Netherlands suffered a severe famine. During April 1945, the average daily calorie intake dropped below 500 kcal, less than a quarter of the daily average an adult consumes today.

This mass starvation and resulting deaths galvanised the population to ensure that farms completely de-stocked and devastated by the war would be given whatever support was needed to get back up and running, to ensure this situation would never happen again. Food security became the utmost priority in the Netherlands and across Europe.

It was interesting to reflect on the low status farming holds in countries like New Zealand and Australia, where there has never been a food shortage, and compare it to countries like the Netherlands and Japan who have known critical food shortages and truly understand the importance of agriculture as a necessity of life along with fresh water and clean air.

One of the major steps towards ensuring not only food security but also political stability in Europe came in 1958 with the formation of the EU. The initial trade agreements, signed up by the six founding nations, that were to form the basis of the EU, were designed to control the supply of steel and coal, the two raw ingredients required to manufacture canons and therefore wage war. By the late 70’s most European countries and the UK had also joined the EU.

Now that I have a better understanding of the environment and pressures that lead to the formation of the subsidies I have a more open mind towards their purpose and introduction.

The question is whether they are still valid in today’s society and it will be interesting to follow the outcome of Brexit which will remove the direct payment subsidies to farmers in the UK, and may also challenge the future of farming subsidies across Europe.

November and the last E Nuff seem a long time ago, but Lisa, myself and the Board have been very busy since then with programmes, events and projects.

It is a good time to acknowledge, as we head into the two yearly AGM, the workload and contribution of the Trustees.  The Nuffield Trustees (along with the two independent Trustee), have the responsibility of overseeing both leadership programmes (Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and the Nuffield Scholarships) which have increased in size and complexity.

While I respect the decision by Juliet to stand down after 6 years as a Trustee and 2 years as Chair, the leadership and the support, time and effort she has given to the organisation and myself as GM has been enormous, particularly given the significant strategic changes and developments in the last two years.

The establishment of the NZ Rural Leadership Trust has required us to review our vision, strategic goals and external brand and the positioning of the programme. I am excited about the branding work that has been done, which will be shared at the Conference.

The Nuffield programme is still a flagship programme for the agribusiness sector and in discussions recently with the Forestry sector, it is clear the status extends wider than the traditional sectors we have operated in.  The exposure of our scholars is also expanding and they are increasingly active in industry events and media broader than their sector.

I have been impressed by the number of presentations already completed by the 2017 Scholars and the quality of their reports ‘hot off the press’ and now live on the website for reading (see the enclosed box for the latest reports).

The encouragement to look at issues facing NZ Agribusiness rather than more technical topics has resulted in greater interest from the wider sector. The 2017 group were invited in March to present their insights and report recommendations at  a) a workshop with MPI staff, and b) an Agmardt Board lunch with both providing some robust discussions and challenges.

Individually, they have already presented at a number of forums including  Irrigation NZ & Landcorp’s Pamu Conferences and have a number of scheduled presentations coming up.

Both the 2016 and 2017 scholars are looking forward to some challenging discussions with alumni following their presentations at conference!

2017 NUFFIELD SCHOLAR REPORTS JUST RELEASED

HOW CAN PASTORAL DAIRY FARMING REMAIN COMPETITIVE?
Ryan O’Sullivan

EFFECTIVE INDUSTRY COLLABORATION FOR ENVIRONMENTAL GAINS
Rebecca Hyde

THE INNOVATIVE FARMER
Mathew Hocken

DEVELOPING AN ONLINE SALES STRATEGY FOR NEW ZEALAND FOOD
Jason Rolfe

GROWING VALUE FOR NEW ZEALAND’S RED MEAT INDUSTRY
David Kidd

BROKEN FOOD SYSTEMS – DEVELOPING A CITIZEN CENTRIC NEW ZEALAND FOOD STRATEGY
Nadine Porter

 

Our 2018 scholars who we announced in the last newsletter, are well into their programme. The group attended a two day briefing in December, with government and industry representatives ensuring that their knowledge of New Zealand and its positioning and activities globally were well understood.

This year the scholars were also offered the opportunity to attend a leadership skills workshop in January, in conjunction with the Kellogg group, run by Coach Approach in January. This proved to be really beneficial for them in gaining greater insights into their personal leadership profile and developing higher level skills in question formulation.

The five scholars (Simon Cook, Andy Eliot, Turi Mcfarlane, Solis Norton and Kate Scott) commenced their first international component with the Contemporary Scholars Conference (CSC) in the Netherlands from 10 – 17 March along with 80 plus other international scholars. They share their reflections, insights and questions to explore further in their travels in this E Nuff.

The CSC is always a big week with the Dutch organsers, Djûke van der Maat and Henk Smith and their team, putting on an excellent programme of fieldtrips, speakers and panels presentations. Many of the recent Dutch scholars were involved in assisting with the conference and hosted field visits and provided food products for the self-contained apartments that the conference enjoyed.

One memorable experience of Dutch life, was a 20k round trip cycle into the countryside (see header photo) visiting the very successful farm and production enterprise of one of the 2015 Dutch scholars and his business partners.

However, the “Beast of the East” temperatures with -2 chill factor and snow which hit during the CSC, was in stark contrast to the outdoor activities enjoyed in Brazil, the previous year!

Alongside the CSC, the Nuffield International meetings of Board and Country Executives were scheduled. This is a particularly important time for strategy development, sharing of information, planning of events, and alignment of programmes. The NI Board (with Andrew Watters as the NZ representative) spent many hours on reviewing the strategy and financial business plan. Andrew will share the key points at the Nuffield NZ AGM.

Upcoming Events

As this Enuff arrives, a group of 10 Nuffielders from around the world, including NZer Kate Scott, will be completing their Brazil GFP – NZ Leg with a programme in the Hawkes Bay organised by Tom Skerman and Sam Lang (with support from other alumni). This is the final week of their 6week programme which started on 18 March with visits to the Netherlands, Ireland, USA, Mexico and Brazil & NZ before concluding on 26 April.

Registrations close in a few days for the 2018 Nuffield NZ Biennial Conference & it is only a few weeks until we get together in Tauranga. Dave Hurst and his team have put together a great programme, and put in a lot of hard work with support from management.  Dave and his team have successfully secured a family of local sponsors, who along with our strategic and programme partners we look forward to engaging with at the conference.

Work is building for the 2020 Nuffield Triennial Conference which will be held in March 2020.  We hope that alumni will use the opportunity to invite their Nuffield cohort for a reunion in NZ. We will release more details in the next E Nuff as promotion of the conference will be launched. Confirmation of hosting the 2020 Nuffield NZ Biennial Conference in conjunction with the Triennial will be made after discussion with alumni in Tauranga.

Finally, on a sad note, Nuffield NZ lost one of our oldest and respected scholars with the passing of John O’Connor.  Condolences were sent on behalf of the alumni and Board to Del, Damien and Bede and thankyou to Julian Raine who represented the alumni at the funeral.  Many will remember John & Dell attending part of the last conference in 2016 in Blenheim and he desperately wanted to be in Tauranga to see Bede present and Damien as Minister open the conference, but unfortunately it was not to be.

I look forward to seeing most of you in Tauranga on 10^th May.

Anne Hindson