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Field notes from the 2023 Value Chain Innovation Programme.

Just over two weeks ago a group of people from across New Zealand came together in Auckland for a week of visits to operations within four key value chains – Dairy, Red Meat, Apple and Kiwifruit.

Any one of the twenty-two Value Chain Innovation Programme visits seen in isolation, would generate plenty of ‘aha moments’. To run four value chains in their entirety was quite something else. It’s what makes this programme work so remarkably well.

The level of access to the leaders, founders, operators met on the Programme created the feeling you were often being ‘let in’ on some extraordinary insights. This made possible by the understanding that Chatham House Rules apply.

In this article we share ‘field notes’ from the perspective of the people who were there.

Jesamine Wanoa, also wrote a post a day while on the Programme and offers her unique perspective as a specialist grower of native NZ plants and owner-operator of Tangikaroro Native Nursery.

Rachel Baker, was one of the four 2024 Nuffield Scholars on the Programme. We share her post-programme post. Rachel is a Farmer and Portfolio Manager of MyFarm Investments’ Hawke’s Bay apple syndicates.

12.11.23
Day 1 – Jesamine Wanoa:

Good first day, departing at 1pm from Auckland Airport to Hamilton.

Instantly connected with two Ngāi Tahu women, and enjoyed deepening my understanding of the three disciplines of value chain models, and seeing the potential for where Ngāti Porou might adapt a model to suit our purposes. A good overall general structural framework for navigating this journey with.

Thank you Hamish and Phil for both leading and Co-facilitating, and Matt and all my colleagues on this journey with me. What a talented bunch!

I’m so excited to finally be here growing our network and understanding together. Thank you my whanau back in Te Araroa and in Tuwakamana for this opportunity.

13.11.23
Day 2 – Jesamine:

Visited Te Rapa Farm (Fonterra Farm Source) and witnessed milk testing technology at Fonterra today, as well as cheese and dry milk powder production. Then visited the cold store facility prior to export. Every truck bringing in product must meet a standard of cleanliness! Amazing 40 ton forklifts that lift 28 ton crates.

Additional field notes:
First stop was a Fonterra Farm Source working dairy unit, where new on-farm technologies and innovation are trialled for wider rollout.

We explored MilkTestNZ, where milk samples from 10,000 dairy farms are tested every day in a remarkable feat of logistics and efficiency.

Then we moved to Fonterra’s impressive distribution centre, to LIC and DairyNZ where senior leaders spoke with us directly. And the NZ cream on top – a visit to Zenders Cafe, run by three sisters who grew up on a Dutch dairy farm.

14.11.23
Day 3 – Jesamine:

I was very impressed with our host Hayden’s approach. Hayden works with Robotics Plus. The ability of Robotics Plus to recognise where their strengths lie in solving problems, helps them then play between the flags of those strengths, to produce customer-focused solutions.

Their model allows for collaboration with other partners, who hold expertise in other areas of the value chain outside these flags, to create a solution fit for purpose to meet the client’s needs. Ka mau te wehi!

My take-away from this visit, is that it’s critical to customer trust and confidence to be transparent about what you’re skilled in, and then decide what components for the solution should be out-sourced to business partners who are better positioned to meet those requirements.

This collaborative approach towards knowledge sharing to solve the customer’s problem, allows business partners to use their unique skillsets to support you and your customer’s business, and vice-versa.

This model is so efficient and utilises a strong collaborative network approach that puts the customer at the centre – and is future focused. Everyone on the workshop floor understands that culture from apprentice to Manager. Everyone has genuinely taken ownership of their part in the value chain, creating an incredibly innovative and creative work environment that’s a safe space for developing their talent.

After Robotics Plus, the Ports of Tauranga. The volume and variety of export that goes through this space is mind boggling! It requires every individual on-site to be committed to best practice in terms of biosecurity and health and safety.

There are layer upon layer of control measures needed, not just to keep you safe on this extremely busy port, but to keep you alive! We saw here the forestry logs, and the automated Robotic Plus technology used, to measure each log’s length, diameter and therefore weight.

The next visit was at Zespri, who have shifted over time from being supported by government entities, to now leading and supporting our government on the international stage. Such is the success of their approach, which is thorough but future focused, with the consumer always front of mind.

Also invited to speak were KVH (Kiwifruit Vine Health), who focus on NZ’s biosecurity response. KVH anticipates future threats before they hit NZ, to mitigate and minimise their impact. Again, another visionary entity, who like Zespri and NZKGI (NZ Kiwifruit Grower’s Incorporated), were willing to share material in their presentations today, and made the process of choosing the kind of model that would be a good fit for Te Tairāwhiti easy.

I express my sincere gratitude to all the above businesses for their kindness in opening themselves up to our questions, and for their generosity in sharing their answers. I have found today absolutely invaluable. Kei te mihi tino nui ki a koutou.

Additional field notes:
Port of Tauranga Ltd, the largest of NZ’s 13 ports. An impressive operation to see firsthand – 80% of NZ kiwifruit exports, 70% meat exports, and a total of 24.7 million tonnes moved through the Port last year.

Next stop, hearing from senior leaders at Zespri, KVH and NZKGI in Mt Maunganui – a collaborative model combining single point of entry via Zespri, strong advocacy via NZKGI and world-class biosecurity from KVH.

15.11.23
Day 4 – Jesamine:

We started the day with Plant and food research, who perform a critical service in protecting our horticultural industries like Zespri. They have a pioneer research team working on taonga foods. I’ll share about this at a future date. So exciting!

We then left for Trevelyan, who are a legacy NZ company that’s been around for eons. Time critical performance schedules for grading, sorting and packing, to get produce exported to their international market.

Then we had the pleasure of a walk through an A Class nursery, Southern Cross Horticulture. An awesome set up that’s got so much to offer in specialist knowledge for growing Kiwifruit.

Additional field notes:
Day four, continued the kiwifruit value chain. First stop – the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre, a collaboration between Plant and Food Research and Zespri. KBC finds out what growers need in a cultivar and then deliver through accelerated research.

Then onto the Te Puke based Trevelyan’s, an independent, family-run, single-site kiwifruit and avocado packhouse – and NZ’s largest. It has a 50+ year history and has family values woven through all facets of the operation.

Southern Cross Horticulture – orchard developers, cropping and orchard management. We saw a perfectly constructed system, consistently delivering the perfect plant.

Finally to Pāmu’s Wairakei Estate to complete the dairy value chain. We heard from senior leadership on Pāmu’s dairy beef, organic dairy, winter milking, A2 and deer milk, and pastoral business mix, as well as an extensive sustainability strategy on all 112 Pamu farms.

16.11.23
Day 5 – Jesamine:

Today I broke my ‘beer drinker virginity’ with a tall glass of Gizzy Gold! Thank you Gerard and Jason from First Light for treating the local pub as your classroom 😀. By embracing a real world approach, (the course) allows us as participants to get up close and personal with export industry leaders, in their mix and mingle comfort zones, which in NZ is the local pub.

However, before we got to the pub, we visited Lochinver, a huge farm with huge stock numbers. The value chain here is commodity based, which is very different from that of First Light.

Aside from livestock, I can see huge potential in the land itself here, and the still untapped natural resources of native plant seed harvesting and propagation, and gourmet food developed from wild Canadian Geese. The geese are a pest here, that could add economic value as meat. However, that would require a shift in mindset which may not suit their current customer focus.

So what I learned from First Light is that different value chains will have a different focus depending on who they identify as their customers, which can be at different ratios for customer groups, with strategies to cater to each of those customer groups.

Additional field notes:
“We’re driven by growth, but by growth in value.” Jason, First Light Foods.

Jesamine:
Being able to forecast how the dynamics in the make-up of that customer group will change over time is key to longevity. Looking after every step of your product’s journey from farm gate (nursery) to the customer, while never losing your “story” and point of difference, is also a skillset NZ is leading in, but can always improve on.

Additional field notes:
“I’d rather stab myself in the stomach than lose a point of difference.” Jason, First Light Foods.

Jesamine:
The journey from Lochniver to Napier took our team through Eskdale Valley, where a colleague walked us through the disaster as she experienced it. What we saw, the impact on the land, the homes and the lives of locals was incredibly sobering. To say that the people here are resilient is an understatement.

Upon reaching Napier, prior to meeting the owner operators of First Light, we had the privilege of meeting Gourmet Direct, who BBQ cooked delicious samples of Rose Veal for us, and believe me, it’s to die for! It’s the one thing that both Gourmet Direct and Zespri got right. They both show-cased their product for us to taste test. That’s a mark of confidence that’s earned each of them a 10/10 in my book.

I loved Kate and Perry’s “who and why” story for their value chain. The success of it will be significantly influenced by how well that story is communicated both locally and internationally. (I shared an idea. I hope they use it).

Additional field notes:
Lochinver Station kicked off day five on the Value Chain Innovation Programme. 13,000ha’s of mostly sheep and beef finishing.

Next stop was one of New Zealand’s first direct to consumer online perishables retailers, Gourmet Direct. Owned line, Rose Veal, sees animals raised in pasture to 8 Months. No hormones, antibiotics or palm kernel are fed.

First Light Foods’ founders hosted an inspiring discussion at Havelock North’s Giant Brewery. First Light continues to show how to produce the highest quality grass-fed wagyu and farm-raised venison.

17.11.23
Day 6 – Jesamine.

Today we visited Turners & Growers, Rockit and Mr. Apple. So in a nutshell, apples were the food of choice for the day. We also were introduced to a newly created beer, one of my course colleagues produced. I’ll wait until he launches it first though, before I mention the name. My Dad would absolutely love it.

We saw the differences in the value chain models employed by each of NZ’s top apple growing companies. We also touched on the impact of Climate-change, Covid, Delta, War, Government, and building human capacity, and how that looks for each group.

I met people today, who are not just international superstars in the horticultural and agricultural space, I also witnessed trail blazers passing on the torch to a group of passionate, driven and motivated visionaries – my colleagues. It’s humbling to meet local NZ giants, who understand the international market place so well, they can put you at ease, while describing their story in a way that makes it easy to digest.

There were times I could enjoy bite-size pieces, and there were times I knew I just had to live in the moment and absorb whatever I could. The thing I felt grateful for, was that the way they told their story allowed me to feel I was sharing in it. The quality and callibre of leadership in the room amongst my colleagues, meant that I was learning from the questions they asked and the answers we all received as a result.

I hope they in turn, were able to take away something from the answers to my questions. I’m really proud of all our NZ apple exporters. Thank you for your commitment to lifting our country’s economic future up to where it needs to be on the world stage. Tautoko!

My last point, is that the style of teaching in this course, requires you to have an appetite for the market place, regardless of what your focus is in your given industry. You can’t wait to be spoon fed. You have to be proactive, to stretch yourself – at times painfully – outside your comfort zone. That in itself, is a very important characteristic in the market place, which changes shape often. Adapt or die is a loud enough message here.

Fortune favours future-focused visionaries, who appreciate the value of our own authentic story, to share in a new way on the world stage for everyone to enjoy. It’s our point of difference, that makes us the premium product, and therefore the premium price point.

Additional field notes:
Day six, T&G Innovation Orchard. This vertically integrated continuous improvement model covers research, growing, sales and marketing.

Next was Rockit Global, where we spoke with one of New Zealand’s most experienced, accomplished, and humble sector leaders.

Rockit was a clever apple waiting for an idea to fall on it. And, the idea that landed turned out to be rather big; apples in a tube, sold at service stations – and a huge export earner too. It’s a story that “…neatly blends FMCG requirements with fruit realities.”

The final visit Mr Apple, export 25% of the New Zealand’s apple crop around the world and follow a philosophy of “…discipline not control…”

To end the day, programme participant Carlos Bagrie kindly shared the first pull of his fantastic new beer in the hi-tech brewery it was made in.

18.11.23
Day 7 – Jesamine.

The opportunity to see Craigmore Orchards today, was an experience that will stay with me for a long time. Simply because of the sheer size and scale of the operation. There are literally tons of apples taken from here to international markets, with most being IP branded to specific companies.

The fascinating thing about the apple industry, is the collaboration between growers supplying the market. Growers are both transparent and supportive of one another. Working together lifts the standard on both the domestic and international front, because best practice outcomes add value to the market’s perception of NZ apples as a “trusted source”. This perception of us as a trusted source, is what allows us to trade our NZ apples (in competition with other international growers like Chile 🇨🇱, USA 🇺🇸, etc.) at a premium price.

Our country’s leadership in the apple industry, regard people as a valuable asset to be invested in, developed, and up-skilled. The apple capital of NZ is Hawkes Bay, where staff retention can be a challenge. So this approach is pivotal to this industry’s survival and success. There are good success stories with migrant workers, which has benefitted our local retail in Hawkes Bay, and the families of these workers in the Pacific.

Out of all the apple brands out there, Rockit, Mr Apple and Turners & Growers lead in this space. Thank you everyone for your enormous generosity towards our group, who will one day be your future industry leaders.

Additional field notes:
The last day of the Programme – Craigmore Orchard, producing 2500 tonnes a year. The Orchard’s leader has a passion for people, “…along with locking up great IP … good social practices will be something that differentiates NZ Horticulture.”

The day ended with Lisa Rogers, Rural Leader’s CEO, and facilitators Hamish Gow and Phil Morrison chairing participant preso’s before a final dinner together.

A truly inspiring and informative value chain experience, where sharp ideas, insights, new connections and friendships have been made.

Good things.

Summary – Jesamine.

The Rural Leaders Value Chain Innovation Programme: If there is one word that springs to mind to describe this course, it would be “access”. Access to a wider vision for understanding the same landscape. Access to business models that can shift you from a business transaction to a business relationship with other entities. Access to incredible industry giants who I believe genuinely care about “our country”.

The second word is “relationships”. The wealth of “industry know how” across the horticultural and agricultural sectors became available to other course participants and I, because of the relationship “Rural Leaders” has with industry gurus in their field of expertise.

So then after having found access to these relationships, the question is now, “Where to from here?”

My experiences have re-shaped my vision. I arrived in this space believing I would discover a value model that I could take home, adapt and bend into a Maori framework to create a “Maori Rural Leaders Value Chain Programme” for Ngati Porou. What I realised by day 1, is that this approach would rob my own people of the huge value that is found in the interactions between Pakeha, Maori and Tauiwi course participants in this space.

The learning in these interactions is just as valuable as the knowledge gleaned from sitting face to face at the table with industry experts, and the mentoring by course leaders.

Although my Koro, Ben Wanoa was a farmer, as was his father Rev. Matauru Wanoa, I myself had no experience of farming other than to feed Papa’s chooks as an 8 year old from the wool-shed platform. Listening to the calibre of questions issued by my Pakeha colleagues working in dairy and beef, to CEOs, Chairpersons, Managers and the like, gave me a greater appreciation of their huge concern for the horticultural and agricultural industries in Aotearoa-NZ.

There were also Ngai Tahu women leaders present as course participants, whose skill and expertise were wonderful to witness. I believe my own questions and answers had some impact, even if I hadn’t intended to challenge the CEO of Rural Leaders.

When I was asked, “What do you think is the biggest impediment to Maori accessing this course?” I plainly answered, “Money. I have heard my Pakeha colleagues share about the very real hardships they have faced with Covid, weather events, government and industry bodies. If they’re operating at 60% with all they have access to, then my people who have no access, are operating at 40% or less.

We can’t say NZ’s the best in the world if we’re operating at 40/60. We’re only the best when we’re all operating at 100% in total. To get there we can’t operate as ‘them’ and ‘us’ on the world stage. There has to be just ‘us’ if we’re going to compete as a country against international competitors. The 100% lift we’re looking for with resource allocation, must be right across the sector to get prime product status for all of NZ. Rural Leaders are acting on this.

Rachel Baker – via LinkedIn.

Last week I toured the North Island exploring NZ food sectors on the Value Chain Innovation Programme delivered by Rural Leaders and facilitated by Hamish Gow from Lincoln University.

This is a truly outstanding programme. Learning as a group from each other, while being connected with the leaders, innovators and rockstars of businesses in dairy, red meat, kiwifruit, apple and logistics, and doing a deep dive into each.

It continually struck me over the week that as a food producing nation, we trade on trust. Trust in relationships (many buyers were customers of 20+ years), the quality of product (rigorous grade standards, consistency), how it is produced (sustainability, transparency) and who produces it (farmers and growers behind the product). Trust must ultimately reach and deliver to what our customer wants. Customer-led value chains knew their customer profile intimately.

Taste was talked about a lot. “People buy with their eyes. Marketing will get you the first sale, but taste will ensure you get the repeat customer.” We put this to the test with Zespri SunGold, Rockit apples, Rose veal and a soon-to-be released craft beer.

Other observations were that while NZ’s seasonality plays to our farmer/grower strengths, on the flipside it has the potential to erode value with uncontrolled volumes and inconsistency of product.

Capitalisation of some value chains is needed to manage future planned volume increases, and to fund innovation and technology advancement – in a capital constrained environment, where will this come from, and how will it be prioritised?

Every value chain required more highly skilled and trainable people. Those with seasonal staff celebrated and individualised them, which is not often highlighted when politicised. Our education system needs to be geared to advance our primary sector, yet some tertiaries are reducing their focus on ag/hort, science and food…

Much “thought for food” and “food for thought”…!

Thank you to all who generously hosted our tour group and to Nuffield NZ for giving me a thought provoking and inspiring opportunity.

Follow Jesamine Wanoa on LinkedIn here.

Follow Rachel Baker on LinkedIn here.

Register your interest in the next Value Chain Innovation Programme here.

Meet the 2024 Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholars.

Carlos Bagrie

Carlos Bagrie has been across multiple ends of food production and the value chain, including primary production, distribution, retail and media.

He recently founded Royalburn Station, a renowned high-country farm that has carved a niche for itself by distributing premium quality food to some of New Zealand’s top-tier restaurants.

Carlos further diversified influence in the food sector when he co-founded My Food Bag. This innovative food distribution company helps answer the ‘what’s for dinner?’ question for tens of thousands of Kiwis every week. During the COVID lockdowns, Carlos played director and videographer, filming TV1’s hit ‘Nadia’s Comfort Kitchen’ on his iPhone.

In 2022, Carlos found himself in front of the cameras on TV3’s ‘Nadia’s Farm’, a TV show that highlighted the intricacies of farm life and food production at scale.

Alongside his wife, Carlos delved into the world of books and media. Together, Carlos and Nadia self-published a series of Number 1 best-selling cookbooks that resonated with home cooks.

Carlos can usually be found on the farm, either in the butchery, on the combine harvester, or moving mobs of sheep across the property.

“I’m humbled to be selected as a Nuffield Scholar and will be focussing my research on circular farming systems that reduce waste while improving the bottom line.”

For Rachel Baker, the Primary Sector is both a passion and growth enabler. Her path has always involved the people, communities and business of food production.

Rachel’s extensive professional experience includes working as a dairy veterinarian, a dairy farm systems consultant, sharemilker, dry stock farm owner, educator, and more recently, an asset manager for horticulture investment businesses.

“While being relatively new to horticulture, my role as Portfolio Manager of MyFarm Investments’ Hawke’s Bay apple syndicates, has enabled me to learn, understand and challenge the grower model. I have been involved with development and management of 100ha of Rockit® plantings in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne.”

Rachel’s current governance experience includes serving as a trustee of the Rockit Apple Growers Trust and directorships of horticulture and commercial property. Rachel is a 2016 Kellogg Scholar, a 2018 NZ Dairy Woman of the Year finalist and past Chair of the NZ Dairy Industry Awards.

On Rachel’s proposed Nuffield research, she states, “My research topic will explore the impact, challenges and opportunities of existing and proposed global food strategies on food producers, with particular interest in the applications for New Zealand.”

Rachel’s recent focus has been the response and recovery of properties impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Rachel Baker

Jenna Smith

Jenna is the current Chief Executive of Pouarua – a diverse Māori Agribusiness encompassing Dairy, Arable, Beef and Horticulture on the Hauraki Plains.

Jenna serves as a trustee for DWN, on the board of BEL Group and chairs St Francis Catholic School in Thames.

Jenna has extensive corporate agriculture experience across Waikato, Canterbury, Otago and Southland, having previously worked for SOE Pāmu, and syndicated overseas investment farming portfolios. During this time, she has always “kept a gumboot in the grass” through her and her husband’s farming businesses.

Leading Pouarua Farms to be awarded as finalists in the prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy for excellence in Māori Farming in 2021, Jenna was also named a finalist in the 2021 Zanda McDonald Award which recognises talent and passion for Agriculture across Australia and New Zealand.

“I am looking to study economically and sustainably viable alternate land uses for lowlands and peatlands that are highly susceptible to climatic pressures.”

Passionate about creating environmentally sustainable agribusinesses – Jenna regularly contributes to advisory boards for MfE, MBIE and MPI.

Peter Templeton is a 5^th generation dairy farmer based on the south coast of Southland. 32 years old, Peter is passionate about southland dairy farming.

Peter has been dairy farming for 11 seasons, working his way up from 2IC to farm manager before returning to the family farm in 2016. Peter began his ownership journey as a 50/50 sharemilker for five seasons, before leasing the farm for two seasons and finally owning the farm in August 2023.

Peter is interested in focusing on the future of farming, what it is likely to look like on an individual farm basis – in particular on new technologies to implement on farm.

“I am always curious to see other systems and challenging myself to see what I could use in my own environment.”

Peter also states he is excited to see and gain a better understanding of New Zealand’s value chains, understand how they intend to innovate to compete.

Peter Templeton

Dr Alison Stewart – FAR and the role of arable systems in agriculture.

In this podcast, Dr Alison Stewart, CEO at the Foundation for Arable Research, talks with Farmers Weekly’s Managing Editor, Bryan Gibson, about the role of arable in agriculture, her role at FAR and the delivery of research that benefits growers.

Dr Stewart also discusses her involvement with the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and the importance of exposure to diversity of thought for leaders in Food and Fibre.

Listen to Alison’s podcast or read the transcript below.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

Kia Ora, you’ve joined the Ideas That Grow podcast, brought to you by Rural Leaders. In this series, we’ll be drawing on insights from innovative rural leaders to help plant ideas that grow so our regions can flourish. Ideas that Grow is presented in association with Farmers Weekly.

My name is Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly and this week I am talking to Dr Alison Stewart, CEO at FAR, the Foundation for Arable Research, and a regular speaker on the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

Bryan Gibson:
G’day Alison. How’s it going?

Dr Alison Stewart – Chief Executive Officer at the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR).
Yeah, great. Thanks for having me.

BG: Great to have you here. Now, you’re the Chief Executive of Far. What’s been happening in your world lately?

The current arable context.

AS: Well, we’ve just had a referendum. So, every six years, our levy peers vote to decide whether FAR is doing a good job and they want to continue paying their levy. So that happened just last month. I guess for the last year, we have been focused a little bit on the referendum and making sure that the growers know what we’re doing and what value it delivers. And fortunately, yes, we got good support.

Although I have to say getting growers to vote was the biggest challenge. They’ve just got so much happening in their lives at the moment and so much information being thrown at them that they’re almost in a situation where finding the time to vote in a referendum was not a high priority. That actually was the biggest challenge, convincing them to get onto their computer and vote.

BG: And running the organisation, what does your job entail? What do you do in a week?

AS: My job is to make sure that everybody else in the company is doing their job really well. I’m joining all the dots. We’ve got some amazing research staff who are out there doing applied research, trying to find new management systems, new tools, new technologies that will assist our farmers.

We also have a lot of extension people focused on trying to support them with all of the compliance regulations that are coming down the track. And then we also have to deal with the biosecurity incursions. We’re dealing with two at the moment.

Amongst all of that, we’re just trying to promote to the general public, to the other sectors, to the government, the value of arable systems and the value that they bring to New Zealand agriculture. I jump around a lot, getting involved in lots of things, across lots of areas, at different levels of responsibility. It’s never a dull day.

BG: Yeah. Our Food and Fibre Sector is dominated by the big two animal proteins. I guess, as you say, the animal sector is as big and successful of its own accord, but in some ways plays second or third fiddle sometimes?

AS: Oh, very much so. That frustrates me in the sense that we actually underpin the livestock sector because we produce all of the seed and the grass seed that they need to grow their pastures to feed their cows. If we go under, then the livestock sector is going to be substantially worse off.

We also produce a large amount of the animal feed the dairy sector and the beef sector and the poultry sector need. So, I’m not sure that we ever get full recognition for the important role we play, not only in our own right through producing milling wheat and quality seed crops, but also underpinning the livestock sector. I try to remind my colleagues in the dairy and beef and sheep sector that they need us as much as we need them.

World-leading seed production.

BG: I guess a lot of people do just think of fields of maize or barley or wheat, but that seed production part of things is really important, but also quite an opportunity and a success for New Zealand, isn’t it? We’re quite good at it.

AS: Absolutely. It does help that the big global seed companies can see that they can get out of Northern Hemisphere seasons and they can get seed crops being produced in New Zealand. We have really good environmental conditions.

We have good quality certification, verification and accountability systems. We’re seen to be a very important seed producer. That’s really good from the perspective of an arable farmer because it provides a really nice rotation.

We’ve got our foundational cereal crops, but then we’ve got the seed crops in the foundation of the rotation and that gives a nice diversity, but it also introduces the opportunity to capture another revenue source.

Dr Alison Stewart - A CEO’s career path.

BG: Now, how did you get to the position you’re in now? What’s your career been like? What did you do when you left school?

AS: Well, I mean, gosh, I’ve been around the block. I’ve always been interested in plants. Even as a child, I was always out in the garden with my mum planting and looking after plants. I did botany at university, and then I did a PhD in plant pathology, and then I came to New Zealand.

Obviously, I’m Scottish, and I came to New Zealand, got a lecturing job at Auckland University, and it was the old Botany department. That was how I started off my career being an academic, and I had 10 years at Auckland. Then I moved down to Lincoln University because I wanted to be doing more applied research and more closer to the actual farming sector. I was 18 years at Lincoln University as an academic, running a big research centre, looking at sustainable production systems.

Then I decided to challenge myself a little bit more and I went off to California and ran a biotech company. Then I came back to New Zealand and headed up forestry science in Rotorua with Scion. Then I moved from there and came to be the CEO of FAR.

I’m probably relatively unusual in the sense that I’ve been in academia, I’ve been in the CRI system, I’ve been in a commercial company and I’m now working in an industry body. I’ve worked across horticulture, vegetable cropping, herbal cropping, and forestry. So it gives me a nice broad perspective on what’s happening, particularly in the plant-based sectors in New Zealand.

FAR - delivering the arable research that benefits growers.

BG: Well, that’s quite a CV. I’m interested in your interest in applied science and knowledge transfer. That’s something that’s been talked about in our sector as something that works pretty well, but does need work, if you know what I mean. Is that something that you think is moving the dial over the years?

AS: Oh, most certainly. I mean, there isn’t much point in doing research if you’re not going to get the results of the research out, being taken up and used by farmers and growers. FAR in particular, over the last 25 years, has been an exemplar of an organisation that has effectively delivered its research to benefit the growers.

It’s becoming more difficult because the environment is so much more challenging for growers. I won’t say the good old days, because I never think that the old days are actually that good. But in the past, FAR would do research and it would be identifying a new plant growth regulator or a new fungicide or a better fertiliser programme. And you’d go out and you’d say, if you do X, Y and Z, that will deliver a one-ton increase in yield.

That’s a really easy story to tell. The growers will go, that’s a good idea. I’ll do that. The growers get a one-ton increase and they think, Oh, my levy is good value for money for us doing a good job. But we’ve driven yield optimisation pretty close to the optimum.

A challenging arable environment.

Now the challenge is, how do we maintain those optimum yields given all of the constraints that growers now have around input costs and compliance around fresh water and climate change. That’s a much, much harder knowledge exchange programme because you’re potentially, and quite often, telling the growers something that they don’t want to hear. So you’re always trying to find a way in which you can present that information in as positive a way as possible.

At this moment in time in New Zealand, farmers feel as if they’re really under the pump with people throwing compliance regulations at them, their cost of production is going up. So often their headspace is not necessarily that favourably inclined towards hearing some quite difficult messaging. It’s challenging. It’s a really challenging space for the growers, and it’s a really challenging space for the labour organisations.

FAR and the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

BG: Very much so. Now, turning to Rural Leaders, you have a bit to do with the Kellogg Programme, is that correct?

AS: Yeah. I mean, they roll me out twice a year where I come and I talk to the new cohort of rural leaders. I’m one of these people that, and it causes me a lot of angst over the years, I tend to just say exactly what I think. That can get me into a lot of trouble!

I really enjoy challenging young people around what they’re thinking, why they’re thinking it, and what they want to achieve in their careers. I love having discussions around what leadership actually means, because leadership means quite different things to different people.

In New Zealand agriculture at this moment in time, with all of the challenges that are coming up, it’s really hard to be a leader because levy organisations, for example, are reliant on doing what their levy peers want them to do, and that sometimes prevents you from being able to take a true leadership position.

I really like talking about some of those challenges, and it’s a good environment because it’s not out in the public arena. You’re not going to get hung out to dry on social media, but you’re able to have some really honest and sometimes quite painful discussions about how New Zealand agriculture needs to move into the future and the changes that need to be made. And that young cohort of Kellogg leaders are up for those kinds of discussions, and I just love it.

BG: I mean, it’s an interesting group because most of them already have a career and then they have a day job, and then Kellogg is back to school. So I guess it’s different from your previous work in academia, where it was 9:00 to 5:00 learning. And that has some upside, I think, of the Kellogg Programme, do you think?

Kellogg exposes leaders to diversity of thought and opinion.

AS: I think it’s a fantastic programme because it provides an opportunity to bring multiple thought processes to the table. Scott Champion, who’s one of the key Facilitators on the Programme; he’s very well connected and he can bring quite disparate views to the discussion.

That’s really important because if you stay in your own industry, in your own space, in your silo, then all that happens is that everybody validates preconceived ideas and it’s really good to be challenged.

I think that’s what the Kellogg Leadership Programme does. It makes you realise that what you thought you knew and what you thought was a valid belief, there may actually be alternative viewpoints. You have to open your mind to different ways of thinking and different people’s perceptions of agriculture and different conclusions that you can draw from the vast amount of research that’s out there.

It’s a fantastic learning opportunity for young people to avoid getting into a siloed mantra of just believing the here and now and what people they tend to engage with think. It’s a bit like when you google something, the algorithm sitting in behind Google can work out what your preconceived ideas are, and therefore they tend to give you links to things that validate those preconceived ideas.

I think we’ve always got to try and make sure that we don’t get into that mentality of thinking that because we believe something now, that means it must be true.

BG: Cross-discipline research or work in real time, isn’t it?

AS: Absolutely, yeah.

BG: So, you’d recommend the Programme to anyone thinking about the big issues facing the sector, and thinking about leadership?

AS: I think you have to be prepared to put time and effort into it. It’s like anything in life that if you don’t commit and put your passion and energy into it, you’re not going to get the same amount of benefit out of it. I think you have to be prepared to come to the table and listen to those diverse views and be prepared to change your opinion about things.

If you come to the Kellogg Programme with a preconceived idea that you’re right and everyone else is wrong, you’re not going to get the benefit out of the Programme.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas that Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast in partnership with Massey and Lincoln Universities, AGMARDT and Food HQ. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly.

For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, or the Value Chain Innovation Programme, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz

Hamish Murray podcast - Building stronger on-farm teams

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

The magnitude of the decision to apply, to commit to a year or more of study, travel, and growth is significant. Most applicants are on farms, working in agribusiness – sometimes both. They are busy people, even without a Nuffield Scholarship.

In the search for 2024’s Nuffield Scholars Rural Leaders received approximately 30 applications. Here’s an approximate breakdown of this latest applicant group.

The search for the next Nuffield Scholars: the path to receiving an application.

Here’s a brief summary of what is involved in the search for our Nuffield Scholars.

Our Nuffield alumni critical in helping prospective scholarship applicants get to grips with the process of applying and the Nuffield Programme itself. Alumni are also active in referring those in the sector they feel would benefit personally and professionally from a Scholarship. Rural Leaders follow referrals up with personal emails and phone calls.

Alongside the referral activity, Rural Leaders run a modest, traditional paid media campaign, both paid and unpaid social media, as well as some digital placements. All activity here asks for registrations of interest. This activity is rounded out with help from partners and networks.

The registrations of interest build over time and these are nurtured with a 3-4 month email campaign featuring podcasts, testimonials, links to articles and details on the Scholarship.

It’s a rewarding experience for all involved. To see the first indications of interest develop into an application. Some have applied before, some are not well known to us, and some may have had Nuffield on their minds for many years.

The applicant demographic profiles shift and change over time, while such leadership traits as: pragmatism, passion, courage, and self-awareness remain constant.

In early November we’ll be in a position share who our 2024 Scholars are. For now, we’d like to thank all the incredible, dedicated people who applied. We know it was a decision that likely involved partners, family, work colleagues and friends.

The final submitting of an application is just the start of the story. It’s also the end of this one.

Inspiring value chain change – book your place on 2023’s Value Chain Innovation Programme.

The Value Chain Innovation Programme is ideal for those looking to give their strategic and entrepreneurial mindsets a boost.

Want to start a new business on-farm, lead value chain transformation, or start an entirely new value chain on, say, cherries? Or simply bolstering our value chain and farming and food production systems knowledge, then the Value Chain Programme offers high alignment to those.

Since 2020 Nuffield Scholars have had the opportunity to participate in this unique value chain immersion, whether that was 2021’s ‘World Tour of New Zealand’ pilot programme, or the first Value Chain Innovation Programme, held last year.

Fellow participants will be a mix of mid to senior level leaders, with some looking to develop new businesses.

2022’s cohort found the Programme inspiring and informative. Here are comments from Allan Richardson and Satwant Singh, 2022 Value Chain participants.

The Value Chain Innovation Programme was an action-packed week with highly motivated people from every industry in the sector. We saw the leading adopters of value chain innovation, they told us their pathways to success, often with one-on-one contact.

Just as important has been the new network of industry leaders that I travelled with, and now keep in contact with. Allan Richardson

And from Satwant Singh,

The Programme was a great opportunity to connect and re-energise with likeminded industry leaders and learn more about our own backyard. We can sometimes get narrow minded to our own industry (speaking for myself as dairy).

This programme showcased multiple successful NZ value chains first hand from farmer to market, providing some great insights and learnings.

The greatest value I took from the Programme though, was the people who all still keep in touch regularly.

This one-week immersion tour runs from 12-18 November (Auckland to Napier) and focuses on North Island based dairy, red meat, apple, and kiwifruit value chains.

Facilitators Prof. Hamish Gow and Phil Morrison bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and approachability to the Programme. They enjoy debate, discussion and the exploration of ideas. There’ll be plenty of that on the coach (aka the Think-tanker) in-between panel discussions, operation visits, and in conversations with business leaders and owners.

You can read both facilitators’ bios by clicking below. You’ll also find an application form below – just get it to us before midnight Sunday.

If you are interested in joining mid November’s fast-filling tour, just reach out to Matt Hampton at matthampton@ruralleaders.co.nz

Julian Reti Kaukau – Bridging the connection between our people and the whenua.

In this podcast, Julian Reti Kaukau, 2021 Kellogg Scholar, talks with Farmers Weekly’s Managing Editor, Bryan Gibson, about his Kellogg research and to share insights from his work with MPI Māori Agribusiness.

In reference to his research, Julian reflects on the historic prowess of the Waikato Maniapoto Māori in the agriculture and horticulture sectors and suggests that by harnessing the wisdom of the ancestors who once nurtured the Whenua, today’s Kaitiaki can make profound and impactful economic and sustainable decisions for the Whenua and their futures.

Julian believes that Māori who have been disconnected from their homelands can better reconnect with their Tupuna Whenua, fostering a profound sense of Tūrangawaewae, enhancing the Mana of the Whānau and Hapū, honoring important Tīkanga such as Manaakitanga and be given the ability to uphold the crucial role of Ahi Kaa.

Julian completed his Kellogg research on how can Waikato Maniapoto Māori landowners increase productivity whilst improving the environmental protection of their land?

Listen to Julian’s podcast here or read the transcript below. As always, the transcript has been modified for readability.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

Kia ora, you’ve joined the Ideas That Grow podcast, brought to you by Rural Leaders. In this series, we’ll be drawing on insights from innovative rural leaders to help plant ideas that grow so our regions can flourish. Ideas that Grow is presented in association with Farmers Weekly.

My name is Bryan Gibson, Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly and this week I am talking to Julian Reti Kaukau, a 2021 Kellogg Scholar and currently the Facilitator Programme Lead for Māori Agribusiness at the Ministry for Primary Industries. How’re doing Julian?

Julian Reti Kaukau – 2021 Kellogg Scholar, Facilitator Programme Lead for Māori Agribusiness at MPI.

I’m doing great. Thank you, Bryan.

BG: Cool. Where are you calling in from today?

JR: I’m calling in from Rotorua in the sunny Bay of Plenty.

BG: Now, you were a 2021 Kellogg Scholar. How did you find that experience?

Completing Kellogg and settling on a research topic.

JR: The Programme was geared up to bring out the most in terms of that academic space within myself, that may have been neglected since I left high school. In all reality, having gone into the workforce pretty much as I turned 18, having the opportunity to go into the academic space was quite onerous.

I felt the Kellogg Programme helped guide and shape me. Patrick Aldwell was instrumental in assisting me to basically learn how to write, how to write well, and get my writing out there in the public space so that I could share what was on my heart and mind. In summary, I think that’s what the Kellogg Programme helped to do – is to really get those thoughts out.

I think those thoughts were really great ideas – at least to me – the Programme enabled me to get these out there in a more public domain and allow others to provide some feedback, thoughts and alignments on some of those ideas. I think that’s what Kellogg really did for me.

BG: Now, what did you focus your studies on? What was your report about?

JR: Initially, it was a bit of going around in circles trying to flesh out your topic. I actually started wanting to do a report around Māori Agri-business. But as you get further into the Programme, you realise you might have to go a little bit deeper, more specific and compartmentalise your particular subject because Māori Agri-business is quite broad in general.

I specifically chose to focus on the area that I whakapapa to, or have genealogical ties to, which is the Waikato and Maniapoto area, namely the King Country.

Embracing history for an informed future as Kaitiaki of the whenua.

JR: My topic was around what’s happened over the last 150 years with having a thriving agricultural primary sector within the Waikato, Maniapoto. Then leading into the 1860s period with the land wars and then the following land confiscations of almost 1.2 million acres of land being confiscated between 1860 and 1865, and a further 1 million acres being confiscated through various legislative policies between 1870 and 1970.

I think what really made me want to focus in on my own people, my own backyard, if you want to call it, is that we were once a powerhouse in agriculture. Our people were quite fast and quick to pick up the knowledge around agriculture, and I always felt that the future for our people is within the land.

So in order for us to be good stewards or kaitiaki of the whenua moving forward, we have to know a thing or two about how to look after the land. Whether that be in primary production or in an environmental capacity. That’s why I chose to go deep on around how our people could embrace the history that we once had, take those learnings and knowledge of our elders, right through the pre 1860 period, the post 1860 period up to about 1970, and having 1970 till today.

Then really look at the leadership that we had within our hapu and our iwi and our whana and take learnings out on how we could maintain our mana, maintain our footprint, our foundations of our land. For me, I believe that’s through making the land sustainably economical, whether it be a dairy, sheep and beef, forest, plantation, horticultural enterprise, whatever. But doing it right, doing it properly, pretty much, Bryan.

BG: There seems to be a movement to obviously the sustainability movement in farming is finally, I guess, getting momentum. That links beautifully to some of the things you’ve been talking about in terms of kaitiakiakitanga, and manaaki whenua. Is that something you found in your studies?

Kaitiakitanga and the sustainabilty movement.

JR: I wouldn’t say that I found it in my studies. It’s probably a concept that I’ve always grown up with. I’ve seen it enacted or lived out by my grandmother, my grandfather, out there on their quarter acre with the most beautiful garden, the māra, that you would ever see, feeding the masses.

Then as I got older and went to visit the cousins in the rural areas and seeing them out on the land and seeing how they connect and relate to our whenua, be it partaking in a mahinga kai, which is the collection of watercress, pūha, and eels. Or collecting kai moana, seafood, and just really acknowledging that the sustenance of all human life and animal life comes from Mother Earth.

There’s a reciprocity philosophy that co-joins guardianship of the land where we acknowledge that our life comes from the land. Therefore, we must do what we can to ensure that that life is going to be enjoyed by our children and our grandchildren, but at the same time, they create a life of some type of bountiful sustenance while we’re here on Earth.

In terms of the kaitiakitanga, I know there’s a huge movement towards sustainability that’s probably more in light of the impacts the rapid industrialisation of the primary sector has had. Now we’re now starting to see those impacts visibly, be it with nutrient-dense rivers or waterways or underground aquifers being depleted, and in the erosion of our soils.

It usually just comes hand-in-hand when you’re seeing those types of impacts, whether you’re Māori or non-Māori. You feel a deep sense to try and protect and restore that so that your children and your grandchildren can enjoy the same economic sustainability that you currently or once enjoyed yourself.

So in terms of kaitiakitanga, it’s wrapped around those points I’ve just mentioned Bryan, and more. And when I say more, so for Māori, it comes to whakapapa, which is the connection that you have through your ancestors to particular land and the efforts that your ancestors put into their land to maintain it for the future generations – to have a living of it.

There’s a dual concept of sustainability, but also protecting what was set out by your forefathers and mothers and making sure that’s passed down to the next generation. There’s probably a lot in there.

BG: Yes. And you’re still involved in some projects in that region, aren’t you? You were working for a Haukinga mai ki te whenua. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

Reconnecting our people with the whenua.

JR: Yeah, when you work in the Māori space, if you don’t have a proper employment contract, then you’re pretty much a volunteer. I’m volunteering on a number of trusts and boards.

Probably the one that’s the closest to my heart is Hokianga mai ki te whenua, which is a project initiated by my whanau to bring relations brought up in urban settings, in cities, or even overseas, like Australia, and connect them back to their foundational roots.

It gives them a sense of where their ancestors once dwelled and lived, and a sense of their own belonging and where they come from. Basically, just to answer the question, who am I?

Then it’s a journey. We have multiple engagements, which we call wānanga, which can be also called workshops, over a period of years. Then it’s building on each wānanga. One could be around, where do we get this land from? How did we come to be where we are today? Currently, 95% of our people live outside of our land-based areas. How do we bring our people back?

To do that, you need to have some type of economic base. All we have is land. What can we do with the land we have to ensure we can bring at least some of our people back home so that the mana, the mana whenua of our whenua is upheld and our fires, or what we call ahi kā, continue to burn.

BG: Also in your day job, you work in the Māori Agribusiness section of MPI? Is that right? What does that involve?

JR: It involves a number of jobs, mainly listening, first and foremost. Listening to the many pātai and ideas of our people. Being in a special place where we stand as conduits between Crown funds, the Crown support, and the aspirations of our people.

Mahi in Māori Agribusiness.

What I have found to date, depending on which groups that I’m working with, is that a lot of our people don’t have a strong understanding on how to seek support to assist them with their land aspirations. Whether this be to potentially take over a long-term lease of their land leased out to the local neighbour for the last 60, 70 years. Yes, I’ve seen a few of those. What do I do with this land now?

A good example here would be to be able to get some expert advice, some sound feedback on what to do with their land. Usually, it requires a person of knowledge and experience on certain areas, such as land use options, which requires a bit of money to pay someone to get that done.

Now, whanau that have been in those situations, where they’ve had no money coming into a land block, have the opportunity to work with Māori Agribusiness, to work with the experts that we currently have employed within our team, and also the networks that we have outside of MPI, to assist them in making sound decisions for the future of their land. That’s just one small aspect.

We cover a number of areas within the directorate of Māori Agribusinesses, but the main overall objective is to assist our people with their economic, sustainable aspirations. That is, producing healthy produce from their whenua that’s going to sustain their people, their whanau, their communities, and ultimately, New Zealand as a whole.

BG: That’s excellent. Māori agribusiness in New Zealand is currently a powerhouse, but as you mentioned, with the history that we share in New Zealand, it’s also in some ways just still getting started. What are your hopes for the future on how Māori agribusiness can thrive?

Future hopes for Māori Agribusiness.

JR: It’s a good question, Bryan. I’ve been involved in Māori agribusiness for most of my working life, almost 22 years. What I’ve seen over this time is probably the lack of capability and capacity within our own people, Māori, to be able to work within their iwi organisations. Especially in relation to the primary sector assets they may hold and to really drive from the front.

That could either be a member in the executive team or governance team, being able to make tupuna or mukapuna decisions, as future decisions that impact on our children.

The reason why I highlight that is because a lot of our organisations, they are currently hiring the best people to run our primary sector assets. The best people may not necessarily be Māori people. I find that some of their thinking that comes from running a multimillion-dollar enterprise is largely economic thinking, not necessarily Māori thinking.

That’s why I have mentioned that the lack of capacity and capability within our people being an area of focus I would like to see be invested in and to continually improve on. This, so we have more of our people, their whakapapa to the whenua, making decisions about the future of their whenua.

BG: That’s great. Just circling back to the Kellogg Programme, is it something you’d recommend for others?

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme and digging deeper.

JR: Most definitely. It was a challenge and something that I had a peripheral understanding of. I’ve seen others go through the Programme over the years, but it was something I thought that was maybe a little bit out of my league. That’s mainly because I don’t have a strong academic background.

I pretty much left school 16, 17, and went straight into the labour workforce. That’s where I felt was my place and I really loved it there. But over the years, you come across great mentors and you build great relationships, and you start to realise that you could probably do more than you think you can.

Joining the Kellogg Programme for me was a bit of an out-of-the-box experience, putting myself out there. I’m quite introverted by nature, so having to promote myself amongst others that were also vying to be a part of the Kellogg Programme at the time I joined. It was out of my comfort zone. But then being a part of the process, being part of the cohort, you meet some great people, some awesome people that are up and coming and doing big things in the primary sector today.

You make some great mates; you make some great friends. But also, the Programme is well thought out in terms of the people that are leading it. Scott Champion comes to mind. The way that he facilitated and drove the cohort from start to finish, keeping us all on track, keeping us all to the tasks, that helps you dig deeper and brings out the best in you. If I can encourage anyone that’s thinking about wanting to do the Kellogg Programme, do it if you have the opportunity to do so.

For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, or the Value Chain Innovation Programme, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz

Nuffield Scholars on their GFP’s.

In this Alumni in the Spotlight we share a couple of James Allen’s LinkedIn posts of some pre-GFP travel. (#NuffieldNZ). Images below show James’ visits, including the University of Illinois.

We follow this up with a summary of the Global Focus Programme (GFP) travel so far completed, or to be completed soon by Scholars from the last few cohorts.

James Allen, LinkedIn Post 1 – 2 weeks ago.

First part of the Nuffield journey underway. Thanks to all the wonderful people at Purdue, Illinois and Missouri Universities for their willingness to share ideas, as we all consider how technology is changing the way we farm, and the way we use information. Thanks to the Nuffield sponsors for making it possible!

James Allen, LinkedIn Post 2 – 6 days ago.

Finishing up the US leg of my Nuffield journey. Thank you to the wonderful people at Purdue University, University of Illinois, Missouri University, Kansas State University, Bayer, Climate Fieldview, and Grasslands (and many more!) for your hospitality and willingness to share ideas.

My Nuffield study is examining how the role of the agricultural advisor/extension agent will evolve as technology is changing the way we farm and the way we use information.

I have gained good insights about how AI is being used to improve site specific recommendations for farmers that can both improve financial performance and reduce environmental impacts at the same time. I believe AI has the potential to help us manage the ever increasing amount of data farmers are collecting, to make better decisions.

Now heading to the UK to talk to the best and brightest!

Summary of the Global Focus Programme (GFP) travel by recent Scholars.

2023 Scholars

James Allen (2nd from left) – is currently traveling independently (USA mostly) as detailed in the posts above. James will also join a GFP traveling to: Kenya, Norway, UK, Spain, Italy.

Kerry Worsnop (2nd from right) – is currently doing independent travel and will join a GFP traveling to: Argentina, Ireland, France, Poland.

Kylie Leonard (Left) – March/April 2023 did the Nuffield Triennial, then went to Brazil, USA, UK, Belgium. Kylie also went on independent travel as well.

Matt Iremonger (Right) – March/April 2023 did the Nuffield Triennial, then went to Brazil, USA, UK, Belgium. Like Kylie, Matt also undertook independent travel.

2022 Scholars

Anthony Taueki (Centre) – March/April 2023 did the Nuffield Triennial tour, then went to Brazil, USA, UK, Belgium.

Parmindar Singh (Left) – October/November 2023, will be in Argentina, Ireland, France, Poland.

Lucie Douma (Right) – May/June 2023 was in Singapore, Qatar, Germany, USA.

2021 Scholars

Lynsey Stratford (Left) – August 2022 was in Japan, Belgium, Ireland, USA.

Dan Eb (Centre) – May/June 2023 was in Singapore, Japan, Israel, Netherlands, USA.

David Eade (2nd from right) – May/June 2023 was in Singapore, Japan, Israel, Netherlands, USA.

Ben Anderson (2nd from left) – March/April 2023 was in Brazil, USA, UK, Belgium.

John Foley (Right) – August 2022 was in Japan, Belgium, Ireland, USA.

Dan Eb – Moving to citizen-connected food and farming.

Dan Eb, 2021 Nuffield Scholar, is based in Auckland. Dan runs Dirt Road Comms, established to support those building a more just food system. He is also the founder of Open Farms.

With one foot on a Kaipara farm and one in the city, Dan is well placed to talk about the importance of re-connecting urban kiwis with our land, food and farmers.

Awarded a Nuffield Scholarship in 2021, Dan completed his research on
The Home Paddock: A strategy for values-led redesign of the domestic food system.

Listen to Dan’s podcast or read the transcript below.

Bryan Gibson – Managing Editor of Farmer’s Weekly.

My name is Bryan Gibson. I’m the Managing Editor of Farmers Weekly and this week we are checking in with a recent Nuffield Scholar, Daniel Eb. How’s it going?

Daniel Eb – 2021 Nuffield Scholar, founder of Open Farms and marketing specialist.
Kia Ora. Very well, thanks.

BG: And where are you calling from?

DE: I’m calling from Auckland, but half the time you’ll find me at the family farm up in Kaipara.

BG: And is that where you grew up, in Kaipara?

Work fuelled by rural and urban perspectives.

DE: I mostly grew up in the city. I was very lucky to have a foot in both camps. We bought a farm when I was a teenager, and I would normally spend the weeks in the city. Then, either most weekends or every second weekend up at the farm. The older I’ve got, the more time I’ve been able to spend up there.

BG: I know a little bit about your work over the last few years. I mean, you’ve married those two aspects of your upbringing into a career, haven’t you?

DE: That’s exactly it. My mother’s been in public relations for a long time and my father’s a farmer. So I thought, you know what, let’s do agri-comms.

BG: You run Dirt Road Communications. Tell me a little bit about that.

DE: Dirt Road Communications is a purpose marketing agency. I’m selective of the people I work with. They need to be driving towards a shared mission of mine, which is a just and regenerative food system in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

I have the privilege of working with people like AgriWomen’s Development Trust, who are really focused on building capability amongst farmers. I work with local food system advocates as well. We’re looking more at systemic issues and big changes in food and farming. I support these people with digital marketing and brand positioning, helping them understand their value proposition, building big projects, that sort of thing.

Forging stronger connections to food and our farming system.

BG: That is in the same wheelhouse as your Nuffield Scholar Report, isn’t it?

DE: The report was an opportunity to slow down and look at the big picture as to the change these organisations are driving for. It was about articulating, well, what the future looks like when we achieve a food and farming system in New Zealand that benefits producers and every kiwi, because food is really important and it doesn’t just drive our economy, it drives our families, it drives our culture, and it drives our health.

The report was an opportunity to step back and paint a picture of what success could look like when we change that system.

BG: Yeah. It’s a criticism or a challenge often talked about in terms of our food production sector that it’s so good at certain things, but that it’s lost the connection to its own community, if you know what I mean? Because we export 95 % of all the food we produce. Therefore, all our food prices are driven by international market forces, like the price of cheese, which gets on everyone’s nerves. Is that something that you were looking to address?

DE: I think you’ve explained it really well. I like to tell stories to explain these big concepts. The thing I think about is, if you’re a kiwi mum living in, I don’t know, Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch, 84 % of us live urban lives now, so you’re one of that big majority. You’re aware that in the background food and farming is important to New Zealand as an economic driver. But, the thing that you’re most worried about is, what are you feeding your child for dinner? Is it healthy? Is it nutritious? Has it been grown as sustainably as possible? Is it affordable?

As growers and producers, we’re really good at the production side of things, but that relationship is really important. That Kiwi mum’s kids are going to be the people that we want to recruit into food and farming later on. If they’ve got a broken relationship with food and farming, it’s going to be really difficult to encourage them into food and farming careers. That Kiwi mum’s a voter. She might end up voting for parties that want to be more restrictive on food production.

We’re seeing that now with all the regulation that’s coming through. There’s a missed opportunity that she’s not going to jump on social media or when she’s overseas, badmouth food and farming in New Zealand. There’s a missed opportunity to turn her into an advocate for what we’re doing because she has a broken relationship with food and farming or with farming.

How do we strengthen the connection to food and food production?

We can’t think about farming without thinking about its role in society, and this is now an urbanised society. Until we start building things to rebuild that connection and start taking that relationship seriously, we’re going to continue to see bad results. I think those three big areas; recruitment, social license, and the ability to tell a cool, authentic, proven story overseas.

BG: So how do you go about unpacking this, or solving this, or moving the dial on this problem in a Nuffield Scholar Report? Where did you start? How do you go about it?

DE: Slowly and painfully is probably the best description. The first place I went to was to take a really zoomed-out view, and think, how do we often think about food and farming, and how should we think about food and farming? We often think about it as a business and as an industry, but I feel that food and farming doesn’t necessarily belong just there. I think it should be thought about more as a public good.

Food and farming as a public good.

An example for public good is health care and education. These are sectors within our society that have a high degree of touch with everyday New Zealanders. There’s a whole lot of trust, like social license is almost unquestioned. No one questions whether we need education. It’s just there.

I’ve had the privilege of having a lot of time on farm, so I know that the farm can be a place of healing, it can be a place of learning, it could be a place of inspiration, it could be a place of health. In my eyes, farming has the ability to transcend just a mere industry: shoes, iPhones, socks, handbags, and actually sit in a public good space.

I think that reframe is really important because it opens up a lot of potential. Now you can start saying, well, how would we make farming more like education? Why is education such a trusted sector? It opens up more opportunities for things like funding, because now you can say, can we go to the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Development, and the MPI together and do system change. Because it’s really good for society. So, you’re suddenly in a different ball game just from that mindset shift. So that was the first bit.

BG: And you’re not talking about, for example, if we look at education, a lot of the schools are run centrally. You’re talking more about a partnership in a way of looking at things. So farming businesses go, my bottom lines are met by making a profit on these animals that I raise, but also taking these things off in a social or environmental sense. Is that the idea?

DE: Yeah, that’s the starting place. Then you start to think about what concrete solutions would look like. Education might not be the best example in this instance. Healthcare is probably a better example. To me, healthcare is quite interesting because you effectively have two models that sit side by side. You’ve got a private health care model where people pay for service, and then you’ve got a public health care model. Interestingly, doctors flip between the two. You can have public doctors that operate privately and vice-versa.

Regardless of which system you play in, every doctor gets paid well. It’s a very respected role in society. To me, they’re solutions that mindset will prompt you into.

A relatively concrete solution that I could see is if there was an organisation set up to encourage farmers who are farming close to cities to transition to local food economies and local food business models. Whether that’s community supported agriculture or technology driven food distribution, like Happy Cow Milk, which is the Fonterra factory-in-a-box model. That has some government support because it would be required to reduce the amount that some consumers are paying for food and it could operate on something like a postcode system where, depending on your postcode, you pay a different amount for your food.

But alternatively, a farmer who’s further away from town would probably participate in the more status quo export model running through your processor and then selling our kai overseas. There’s no reason why those two things can’t sit well blended together. But by having that, some farmers incentivised to operate in that local system, you’re solving all these other big issues like social license, like recruitment, like people understanding where their food comes from, and also creating this really fertile ground to tell a really compelling international story about food security and how important kai is to New Zealanders, and this is how we treat it. You’re creating content and you’re building this overseas provenance story as well.

So, a lot of it really does sit within that reframe that, you know what, smart investment from industry and government into these public good food system models, particularly local, can net some massive results in the long-run.

Opening farms for a win-win.

BG: I guess we should mention, since you’re the bright spark behind Open Farms, that programme was run on a lot of farms and most of them were relatively close to urban centres. That showed that there was appetite from both farmers and from the general public to come together and engage on this food journey.

DE: Exactly, and I think if we could build local food models that by design connect urban kiwis with the sources of at least some of their food production, then there’s an economic rationale to a farmer to host open days. Now there’s an economic rationale for a farmer to connect with a local school, and maybe there’s some financial incentives that go along with that. Suddenly, you’re breaking that barrier, that 60-minute barrier between city limits and where farming starts.

You start blurring that line and I think the blurring that line is really important if we’re going to solve some of these entrenched issues that urbanism has created over the last 50, 60 years. But we need new models to do that. We can’t just hope a couple of open farm days are going to do it. We actually have to do relatively large system change to design the outcomes that we want.

BG: What else did you find in your report that you think could help in this values driven food transition?

DE: I think it’s important to believe this change is already happening. This isn’t something we have to manufacture. This idea of citizen connected businesses or new business models; this stuff’s already happening organically. It’s about latching on to that. Instead of seeing that as a threat to the export talk, dominated, centralised system of food, we see that as a really supportive ancillary model that the two can gel well together. I do just want to reiterate that these two models aren’t in competition at all. Quite the opposite. I know when we talk about public good, it starts getting into the realm of politics and words like socialism get thrown around and stuff like that, I think that’s a side track.

At the end of the day, we’ve got to focus on the outcomes we actually want and be a bit ideologically agnostic. This is 2023, and we need every tool we’ve got on the table to fix some of these deeply entrenched problems. In terms of other stuff, I think there’s a whole lot of smart tactical plays that we can do to get us there as well.

The Nuffield Global Focus Programme and public good overseas.

These are things like social diversifications that we can layer on to farms. I’ve just come back from my Nuffield GFP travel, and one of the things that really stood out was a bunch of people in the Netherlands who are using their farms in partnership with local health care providers or local schools. These are financial business transactions and having kids come onto the farm regularly as a partnership with local schools. It’s becoming an education platform.

There was one farmer who had partnered with a local healthcare provider to bring kids with learning disabilities onto the farm. It was a collaboration between a healthcare provider, a learning disability specialist, and the farmer. They were all co-collaborating to create this programme for those kids. Now, the funder is the Ministry of either education or health care in that instance. But that diversification costs the farmer to build a hut to make sure they don’t get rained on and some time to build the system. But at the end of the day, that’s a revenue generating diversification that he’s layered onto his farm. That costs him very little and it’s returning him a good profit.

We’re desperate for these ways to eke out some more margin off our landscapes. I just think that these community connection diversifications are an unearthed gem. They cost very little to do. Yes, there’s some soft skills that are required, and there’d be some upskilling, and you’d have to get relatively comfortable with new people coming onto the farm too. But it’s a lot cheaper than putting in kiwifruit for example. Then you’re also running the risk of a bad harvest and all that stuff. There’s very little risk here.

I think in a time when traditional food production on our farms is becoming harder; pick a reason: government regulation, higher import costs, climate change, poor returns on global markets, this social diversification is just gold. I just don’t feel that enough farmers, particularly in those peri-urban areas, are seeing that. That’s what a large part of my work is, building projects that make it easy to move into this new citizen-connected farming model, which I think is going to be really valuable for farmers who are cash-strapped.

BG: Now, you mentioned your travels. That’s obviously a big part of the Nuffield. Any other highlights from your trips you abroad?

DE: Heaps. I’m trying to write up a bit of a reflections document now. It’s hard because I keep trying to add stuff in instead of taking stuff out. We had a great group. We went to Japan, then Israel, then the Netherlands, then Washington DC, and the Central Valley in California. To me, a highlight was seeing what the driving force behind agriculture in these different contexts was. We’d go to Israel where water infrastructure was at the scale and of the excellent standard that it is, not because of government policies or anything like that, but it was all done for security reasons. Security is the number one driver in Israel. So, agriculture is almost a by-product of security. That’s what happens when you fight three existential wars in the last 70 odd years.

Interestingly, the big driver in a place like Japan was tradition. They’ve actually inadvertently figured out through trial and error and population growth in a relatively restricted coastal plain, that they have to fuse agriculture and urban life together. Outside of downtown Tokyo, the landscape is a mix of residential business, rice paddies, vegetable gardens.

They don’t have a social license problem because their geography represents that breaking of the barriers and fusion of urban and rural and food production and the lifestyles that I’ve been talking about. The geography has pushed them into a space. It’s interesting to look at those places and think, Well, what’s our driving force? If we’re honest with ourselves, right now, it’s agribusiness. It’s an economic powerhouse. There’s nothing right or wrong with that. But to me, that feels very limited. I think there’s a lot we can explore and experiment on top of it as just an economic powerhouse.

I think food and farming can be a public good. Interestingly, I think our geography, this idea that we’re basically restricted as Kiwis to our urban centres, and there’s a whole lot of farmland in between, that’s a huge barrier. We’ve got to build little strings and break little gaps in that wall, particularly in our peri-urban areas, to get where we want to go. That being a society where people are really proud of food and farming, are healthy, and see food and farming not just as a viable career, but as a mission and a purpose for something that they want to do for the rest of their life.

I think that’s entirely achievable. We just got to build things to do it.

The Nuffield Scholarship experience.

BG: How have you found the Nuffield experience overall?

DE: Awesome. Honestly, I can’t recommend it highly enough. I think everyone’s experience is a little bit different. I think it can give you what you’re looking for, even if you don’t really know what that is. For me, it was time. It was a forced requirement to sit down and write out my manifesto, almost. These thoughts are running through my head. How are they all working together? What am I aiming for? And that was really valuable for me. It’s enabled me to articulate some of these things, which are pretty hard ideas to describe. And so Nuffield gave me time, whereas I can say that for a lot of my fellow scholars, Nuffield gave them experience, or some learning about themselves that they wouldn’t otherwise have got. For me, it was time.

BG: Thanks for listening to Ideas that Grow, a Rural Leaders podcast in partnership with Massey and Lincoln Universities, AGMARDT and Food HQ. This podcast was presented by Farmers Weekly.

For more information on Rural Leaders, the Nuffield New Zealand Farming Scholarships, the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme, or the Value Chain Innovation Programme, please visit ruralleaders.co.nz

Hamish Murray: Building stronger on-farm teams by getting out of the way.

In 2022, the Food and Fibre Centre of Vocational Excellence commissioned New Zealand Rural Leadership Trust to research and design a leadership development ecosystem for Aotearoa New Zealand’s Food and Fibre sector.

The first report looked at the state of leadership development in the sector.

This new report, A Principles-centred Leadership Model for Aotearoa New Zealand’s Food and Fibre Sector, builds on the findings of that first report.

The Principles-centred Leadership Model proposes three impactful elements. Each element can be considered separately, though real power comes from all three elements being applied together.

The Model states that leaders who truly lead unleash their potential and that of those around them. In doing so, they create an exponential impact for the Food and Fibre sector and for Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Model combines three major elements to be applied holistically:

The Food and Fibre context, which is significant to New Zealand’s wealth and wellbeing, is founded on an entrepreneurial spirit and requires leaders to be grounded practically, environmentally, culturally and in their communities.
Food and Fibre Principles. Feedback from the sector has been distilled down into three leadership principles, people, service, and teams.
1. Leadership starts with knowing and understanding people – if you wish to influence others, first know yourself.
2. Leadership is about the service and accountability, not status – you wish to lead, serve.
3. Leadership is a team sport. Leaders build teams and teamwork – if you wish to generate power, share it.
Three dimensions of true leadership.
Who we are is at the core of why, what, and how we lead. To truly lead requires more than physical and practical behaviours, it requires more than the psychology of hearts and minds, true leadership requires the leader to do the internal work to truly know themselves, their wairua, and lead from within.
The best leaders then also see beyond the horizon and lead those they serve through the changing context, for the purpose of a thriving future and in a way that unleashes the potential of those they lead.

If we create pathways for people to develop and take on increasing responsibility in the Food and Fibre sector can have a multiplier effect on Aotearoa’s future prosperity that goes beyond the impact that leadership systems in other sectors can create.

The next phase of this project is the development of the leadership handbook – available 2024.

We look forward to sharing more on the project over the next few months, but should you wish to discuss the leadership model further, please reach out to Lisa Rogers, CEO Rural Leaders, at lisarogers@ruralleaders.co.nz

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Engage – a Rural Leaders and Lincoln University programme collaboration.

Engage is designed, developed, and delivered collaboratively by the NZ Rural Leadership Trust in conjunction with Lincoln University (Dr Victoria Westbrooke), and with funding from the Ministry for the Environment.

The first pilot for a new programme ‘Engage’ wrapped up after an inspiring and highly interactive three days, spread across workshops, field trips and hearing from industry leaders.

Facilitated by Dr Scott Champion, Engage bridges the knowledge gap for individuals aimed at those with moderate to low knowledge of the sector. Engage is ideal for those connecting to the Food and Fibre sector, particularly in farmer-focused roles such as policy, advisory, or regulatory.

Engage really is a case of seeing the need and addressing it. One of the challenges people entering the Food and Fibre sector can face is acquiring enough knowledge and skills to approach and speak to farmers collaboratively.

Engage is designed, developed, and delivered by the NZ Rural Leadership Trust in conjunction with Lincoln University (Dr Victoria Westbrooke), and with funding from the Ministry for the Environment.

The three-day programme included speakers, workshops, and visits to two impressive farming operations: arable-mixed (Hamish Marr and Stuart Marr), and dairy (Matt Iremonger).

Our sincere thanks to both Hamish, Matt and to all of the industry leaders who shared their time, knowledge and insights with the group (Mel Poulton, Jess Smith, Mike Peterson, Ian Proudfoot, Sam Mander, and Denise Beswell from Scarlatti).

Engage is now into it’s second pilot as well as the third of five bespoke programmes for a large organisation. If you’d like to know more, or to book a team member or group on the May 1-3 programme, contact Dr Lyndsey Dance, Programmes Manager at Lyndseydance@ruralleaders.co.nz

The Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme has been developing leaders for the rural and agri-food sector since 1979.

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