Richardson, alongside American Gary Hirshberg who founded Stonyfield Farm, the world’s leading organic yoghurt producer, and Auckland investment specialist Cerasela Stancu, kicked off a weekly six-part online speaker series that will examine the nuts and bolts of regenerative agriculture in New Zealand, from international trade opportunities in the wake of covid-19 to how often animals should be moved when grazing.
Pure Advantage chief executive Simon Millar, who produced the series, says regenerative agriculture is moving from the why to the how.
“This is an optimum time for NZ to be considering how to move to a value-based agriculture system. The science is rapidly catching up to the anecdotal evidence and these men and women are showing us how it’s done.
“They are leading from the edge and going mainstream.
“In the wake of covid-19, as people become more health-aware and focus on a product’s provenance, we have a golden opportunity to build on the strengths of our primary sector and become a global model for regenerative agriculture.”
Richardson is excited about the momentum building behind regenerative practices.
Three years ago, after farming organically near Heriot for 22 years, he shifted focus to adopt more comprehensive regenerative practices.
By doing so he’s improved plant diversity in his pastures, sowing 10-15 species in both winter and summer crops. Going into winter 5% of his land is in winter cover crops and he reports good yields with just compost or low levels of fertiliser use.
The Brix levels of his pasture (a measure of sugar context) have tripled to about 10 and while many Otago farmers just look to help their livestock survive southern winters his stock actually put on weight thanks to intensive grazing of the crops.
He has been testing the soil for carbon during the past two years, at depths of 300mm and 600mm. While too early to report definitive results, visual assessments of the soil are promising, the topsoil is extending further down the subsoil profile than before and water infiltration rates are improving.
Richardson says regenerative ag offers opportunities to a wide range of farmers, everyone from organic to high-input and has the advantage it is not as restrictive as purely organic.
While organic farming tends to focus on practice – what farmers can and can’t do on – regenerative farming follows a much wider set of general principles about land management.
Sheep and beef farmers are leading the regenerative way in NZ though there are also dairy farms embracing the principles. Richardson is unsure what’s happening with horticulture.
The demand for organic foods during a health crisis like covid-19 far outstrips supply as consumers take matters into their own hands and avoid anything that could be viewed as toxic, Hirshberg says.
There’s likely similar potential for products grown regeneratively but there are no guarantees of immediate returns. Whether they can generate the same safety message remains to be seen.
Richardson says New Zealanders want to support local producers but there are gaps in food networks.
From a marketing perspective what needs to happen is for dots to be joined to provide a proper path to markets but what needs to happen first is to get more farmers on board so there is the critical mass to serve the market as it develops.
That was where organic farming fell short.
He does not buy the argument NZ farming is already mainly regenerative, saying a lot of conventional farms are not even close.
“We need to highlight what regenerative agriculture is doing then hope others take that up.”
Stancu says the regenerative movement is building but the challenge it faces is how to transform a movement, a passion for something into a commercially viable tactical strategic transition path.
Part of that is how to respond to the commercial opportunities that type of food production could bring.
“How we are going to scale up? How can we bring more people to measure up in the first place?”
That will require developing systems and measurements to match what the market wants.
She says the lack of measurements to define regeneratively produced foods from those that are not will be a barrier to more farmers adopting regenerative practices.
And without an accepted standard it will be difficult to get into export markets though covid has highlighted the potential to capture more in local markets.
Richardson says there is a way to negate the need for certified standards but it requires someone to get inventive.
“As soon as we can get a hand-held device that can measure nutrient density that’s when regenerative agriculture will take off.”
