About
The Whole Story
Inspiring Sustainability. Empowering Farmers
We are a team of Agricultural Sustainability Coaches focussed on inspiring, facilitating and articulating holistic sustainability in agriculture. As a B Corp Certified social enterprise, purpose is at the core of our business and the beneficiaries of our purpose are farmers.
Becks established The Whole Story in 2020 using the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals as inspiration for a framework to make sustainability aspirational, holistic, tangible and something that farmer’s get excited about, not just wrapped up in compliance and regulation. After all isn’t farming all about community, land, environment, economy, people and legacy?
We believe Sustainability should be embedded in everything we do and it shouldn’t be something that costs the earth to prove. Our team works alongside farmers empowering them through the process not doing it all for them and leaving them in the dark about their own farming business. We are farmers, working with farmers!
Meet the team
Becks Smith - CEO & Founder
My passion is to inspire sustainable change from the ground up.
The Whole Story was founded in 2020 by Becks Smith who saw an opportunity to address challenges she was facing personally and to inspire positive change in the agricultural sector.
Becks has been working in agriculture since 2009 as a rural mixed-practice Veterinarian and she now also farms a 700ha Sheep, Beef and Deer property with her husband & three young daughters.
With a life-long passion for sustainability, Becks recycled before it was cool, but she is also passionate about health and wellbeing. Becks is the voice of The Whole Story Podcast and an endless generator of new ideas. When not donkey-deep in The Whole Story she
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
Becks Smith
Agricultural Sustainability Coach
0273034844
Lucy Brown
Agricultural Sustainability Coach
Master of Science (Distinction) (Geography), Bachelor of Science (Geography), Intermediate Certificate in Sustainable Nutrient Management, Intermediate Certificate in Freshwater Farm Planning.
Lucy is passionate about working with farmers to understand and navigate change, as well as empower them to tackle these challenges head on. Growing up on a 450ha sheep and dairy grazing farm in Albury, South Canterbury, she developed a love for landscapes and their associated systems. She has particular interest in freshwater systems and management, as well as developing robust plans and systems to record, measure and monitor all the great things being done on farm.
Her Masters thesis explored the hydroclimatology of fog deposition to tussock grasslands at Swampy Summit, Dunedin, establishing an understanding fog versus rain inputs to tussock grassland systems and the local- and synoptic-scale drivers of these events.
Outside of work Lucy can be found pottering in her garden growing everything from veges to natives, down at the hockey turf coaching or playing, or on an adventure with her dog, Harry.
Lucy assists in many areas at The Whole Story, whether it be adoption support, facilitation, research or planning. Feel free to get in touch!
Amy Maw
Impact Assistant
Amy is a mum, educator, catchment group champion and native plant grower.
She lives in East Otago with her husband and two children on their sheep and beef farm. Her educational background is in psychology, primary teaching and more recently, post-graduate environmental management. She is passionate about the future sustainability of agriculture in New Zealand and loves learning new things that challenge her current thinking. She is a systems thinker and finds inspiration in nature, spending much of her time outdoors. She enjoys being immersed in New Zealand’s native bush, something she credits to the many hours spent hiking with her family as a child.
Amy has a keen interest in integrated farm systems and is particularly excited about increasing on-farm biodiversity and realising the multiple benefits this brings to farm systems.
Impact Reports
Mission
To inspire, facilitate and articulate conscious, holistic sustainability on farms.
Vision
This mission is achieved through engagement, education, alignment & facilitation.
SDG alignment
- 2. Zero Hunger
- 3. Good Health & Well-being
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12 . Responsible Consumption & Production
- 13. Climate Action
- 15. Life on Land