Key insights for farmers from the NZ Agriculture & Climate Change Conference

We had the awesome opportunity this week to attend the New Zealand Agriculture and Climate Change conference virtually. The conference partners of New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre, Ministry for Primary Industries and AgriZero put on a great conference that looked at everything from the issue at hand when it comes to climate change, to trade and market drivers, to updates on science and technology, to farmers speaking about their achievements on farm, and rural professionals speaking to the challenges of adoption. There was so much to take away from this conference and I can’t do a summary that does the whole conference justice, so I will stick to what is core to our work at The Whole Story – what is of most interest to the farmer.

Insights on the big picture

Day one saw Rod Carr, Chief Executive of the Climate Change Commission, deliver an address that provided plenty of food for thought.

‘Increased forestry can buy time but it is not a permanent solution to getting gross emissions down’.

As Rod identified, the problem is not trees. The problem is that they are not permanent. We often think of forestry as a tool that will remove carbon from the atmosphere, however, we need to reframe to remember they are a storage tool. Removal implies gone forever, however this isn’t the case.

It’s no news to anyone that the role of forestry in offsetting emissions has been under a huge level of scrutiny in the agricultural sector. Yesterday’s announcements regarding changes to limit farm scale conversion to forestry will be welcomed by the majority. However, I see that this change, while very positive for pastoral land uses, really calls on us to act and lead by answering the question that Rod posed – ‘If not trees, then what?’. We don’t have to put all of our eggs in the forestry basket but the alternative is not to do nothing. We are seeing that we may get what we wanted regarding limiting farm scale conversions BUT we must ensure that we take on the challenge to hold up our end of the bargain – to look to really champion emissions reductions on farm and across the sector that shows that we don’t want to rely on offsetting with trees.

Rod also stressed that we are not unique. We spend a lot of time talking about the caveats of ‘we have a unique emissions profile’, or ‘we have largely renewable energy’, whatever it may be. But guess what? Other countries are able to tell similar stories for their context. Our circumstances may be unique, if that’s how we choose to look at it, but the way I look at it is that this doesn’t mean we get an opportunity to shy away from the issue and instead means that we have to embrace finding unique solutions for our unique situation.

The last key takeaway I took from Rod’s talk, and others re-iterated this across the conference, was that on average we are better than other countries. Key word: average. Malcom Ellis from Fonterra added in a later session that ‘there is some false sense of comfort that we are the best in the world and that technology will save us. We are good, but let’s be on notice that the gap is closing quickly’. The longer we stick with selling how good our average efforts are, the quicker we will lose our unique value proposition. Everyone is catching up. We can’t rest our strategy on selling that ‘on average’ we are better. It isn’t a strong enough position, but we do have the potential to build on where we are now and seek to chase the gains that can come with further optimising New Zealands systems. Many are doing this but we need to rise by lifting the whole sector up.

“Hope over hysteria”

For those of us that know her, it is no news that the insights of Julia Jones are often not only ones that get us thinking, but are also ones that call us to action. The following call to action, and challenge to current narratives is no exception:

A resounding theme came from the panel discussion with farmers that the rhetoric over the last few years has been one deeply centered in fear. While the ‘war on farming’ may seem like a mere tagline to some, the impacts which it is having in our sector is profound. Whether it be division within or between parts of the sector, or reinforcing a narrative that politics is our solution and we just need to wait until the right people are in power, it has resulted in a deep rooted narrative that change is something we need to fear rather than embrace.

John Roche from MPI highlighted in a different session that ‘leadership is a decision, not a position’. Julia’s call for the sector, whether it be Government, industry bodies, professionals and farmers alike, to work on providing hope rather than hysteria is such a critical one. It is all worth us all reflecting on how we as individuals and/or organisations are adding to hysteria and to providing hope. No-one is perfect, however how good would it be if we could walk united into 2025 with a common purpose of looking to provide hope rather than continue to stoke the hysteria that has only continued to snowball in our sector. It isn’t good for anyone to continue in this direction, and it sure doesn’t benefit our sector long term. So how do we change that? Food for thought.

Insights from mitigation in action

One of the most important sessions of the conference came on day two and it focused on hearing from farmers themselves on what they are doing to realise benefits on their farms in emissions reductions.

The resounding message from these farmers was that the practices they undertake, or changes they have made, have not just had a positive impact on a reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions on farm, but also other areas of their farming business. They have seen benefits such as increased efficiency, profitability, farm resilience, connection back to the whenua, and much more.

There are many ways I could summarise the learnings from this panel but farmers learn best from other farmers. I could tell you about what George and Sharon Moss, and Emma Crutchley and Kyle Hagen have been doing on their farms, but even better, you can hear from them yourself with these great case studies produced by AgMatters.

Insights on barriers to adoption

This session provided so many great insights and thinking points that are relevant to the farmer, as well as the wider industry. Again, there is so much to try and do justice so I will focus on three key areas: 1) the double-word score, 2) the challenges that extension currently poses, and 3) empowering farmers.

Malcom Ellis from Fonterra termed the idea of a ‘double-word score’. Those things are worth gold in Scrabble, but we also have the opportunity to find the gold in how we look to achieve our emissions reductions. There was a lot of focus over the conference of how we could stack different mitigation technologies (e.g. a vaccine, plus an inhibtor etc.), however Malcom offered an alternate view that doesn’t get quite the same amount of air time.

‘We are good at dairy but we can and need to be constantly striving to be better. I have no doubt that the future will provide innovative solutions but let’s also focus on the now solutions’. What is the double word score? ‘Get the best out of what we can do now and then use technology to enhance our efforts when it becomes available’.

Extension is a mainstay of engaging with farmers to support adoption, however, John Roche from MPI spoke to the challenge that an extension system that is not working for farmers is posing for on-farm adoption efforts, irrespective of the topic. A lot has changed over the history of modern agricultural extension but the only thing that has not changed is that a core place where farmers seek their information is from peer-to-peer learning. John identified the challenges with the current state of extension offerings in the sector:

It’s lacking leadership. Farmers are being provided with the advice they want, rather than the advice they need
‘Unpopular’ messages are diluted or silenced.
Farmers are disengaged as they are no longer feel at the centre of extension efforts. They aren’t being asked to collaborate on finding ways forward but are instead being told what to do.
Attendance at events is at an all time low.
There are multiple sources of ‘truth’ which produces confusion and also has resulted in a lack of openness to alternative views.
Those who work in providing advice are run off their feet. There aren’t enough advisors to service the sector, and those advisors don’t have the capacity to keep up to date with everything that is important for the farmer on the ground, but also what is happening in the market and other parts of the supply chain.

There’s an opportunity for the sector to look at how it is seeking to put farmers at the heart of all it does, particularly in extension. The creation of the MPI On Farm Support Teams has sought to do that and is a great start, but it needs to have much wider flow on to all parts of the sector support services.

Empowering farmers is of core importance to us at The Whole Story and was reiterated throughout this session. Erica van Reenen of AgFirst highlighted that ‘industry bodies have been focused on the fight around emissions pricing. They haven’t been helping farmers who want to be doing things on farm now’. She added, that on farm we may be desperate to focus on improving emissions intensity but ‘the planet is desperate for a gross reduction in emissions’. It was reiterated by many speakers that reducing emissions intensity or absolute emissions is not an either or situation. We must look to improve our emissions intensity (increase efficiencies) AND also reduce our absolute emissions (total emissions).

As a farmer , do you currently feel empowered to explore and initiate action regarding reducing your emissions on farm? I really would stress you reflect on this question, and why your answer is what it is.

‘We have been too focused on the all or nothing approach. Farmers miss opportunities… we get further and further away from our goal and create more burden for the next generation…politics becomes an easy reason to not act yet but the magnitude of the stick if we continue to do nothing is significant’.

The future

As George Moss said during the farmer panel discussion – the only way to address a challenge is to walk towards it and make a plan. And that’s what we must do. There is a lot of opportunity now and into the future. We need to walk forward with a hope that embraces change rather than stay stuck in a fear that deepens hysteria.

Erica left us with a fitting quote from the late John Aspinall, who farmed Mt Aspiring station:

“Sustainable management will not be achieved by rules, regulations, legislations or plans. It is achieved by those working the land with sweaty brows and dirty hands”

I’ll leave you with this…