Rachel Baker didn’t set out to become a gene technology advocate – she set out to understand what it would take to keep New Zealand food competitive on the world stage. The 2024 Nuffield Scholar, based in Central Hawke’s Bay near the Ruahine Ranges, brings a career that defies easy categorisation: trained veterinarian, dairy consultant, sharemilker-turned-dry-stock farmer, and portfolio manager for pipfruit and cherry assets at MyFarm Investments.

That cross-sector range – a foot in both pastoral and horticulture – gave her a sharp lens on where New Zealand’s primary sector value proposition is heading, and where it could fracture.

The Nuffield programme took Rachel to Brazil for the 2024 Contemporary Scholars Conference, then on a six-week Global Focus Programme through Indonesia, France, Denmark, California and Chile alongside eleven scholars from Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Chile and Zimbabwe.

The breadth was deliberate: each country offered a different vantage point on food production economics, emissions policy, water constraints and trade dynamics. Then came independent study travel to Ireland, Italy – where she attended the FAO World Food Forum – the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Washington State, USA, drilling into the one thread connecting every conversation: gene editing, and what opportunity there was for New Zealand’s primary sector, including what regulatory change was needed, while aligning with global customers and other exporting nations.

Her report, Coding for Change: Navigating adoption of gene editing in the New Zealand primary sector, maps the global regulatory landscape, stress-tests the risks to Brand New Zealand, and argues that a fast-follower approach to gene technology legislation – anchored in ESG principles and genuine public engagement – is exactly the balanced path the country needs.

Rachel holds a BVSc with Distinction from Massey University and is a Kellogg Rural Leadership alumna. She farms alongside her husband Rowan and their three children.