Geoff Ross, founder of 42 Below Vodka and past owner of Ecoya candles, addressed delegates at this year’s red meat conference about efforts at Lake Hawea Station to make the operation carbon zero and to use that to leverage new market opportunities.
“I just wanted to ask the farmers one question: ‘Imagine the headline in a UK newspaper article about the protest stating ‘NZ farmers resist environmental reform’?” Ross said.
“Think about what that will do to our marketing message.”
Instead, he invited them to reimagine the protest as a celebration, where New Zealand farmers take to the streets in support of environmental reform.
“Imagine which will sell more red meat from NZ?” he asked.
Ross sold 42 Below Vodka for $138 million in 2006 to Bacardi and later went on to develop Ecoya candle company and Trilogy skincare.
Along with family, he has co-owned Hawea station since 2018, with supply arrangements for Merino wool with the likes of Allbirds and Icebreaker.
While refraining from straying too far into a debate with delegates on the protest, Ross says the red meat sector has been waiting decades to break out of the commodity cycle and climate change presented that opportunity.
He maintained the human response to climate change would be the single biggest event in recorded history.
“Rather than defending the problem, this is the time to attack it. This is the biggest opportunity in NZ agriculture since refrigeration arrived 140 years ago; NZ has a unique competitive advantage here,” he said.
He encouraged NZ farmers to use the upcoming Glasgow climate change conference in November as the world stage to advance this country’s efforts to be seen as a world-leading low-carbon producer of high-quality, nutrient-dense protein.
Buoyed by the Beef + Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) report that highlighted the major carbon offsetting already happening on NZ drystock farms, Ross says NZ was well ahead of competing agricultural countries, but that was not enough and it needed to be pushed harder.
International demand for food and fibre was not going to abate despite climate change, but suppliers’ appetite for low and zero carbon (LZC) sources of both would only grow.
“Allbirds founder Tim Brown has said carbon is their North Star and that company is now valued at over $2 billion. It is a lighthouse brand, one to set the fashion for all sectors,” he said.
Ross recounted his own efforts to make Lake Hawea carbon zero and how the property’s 2500 tonne of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated each year, largely through methane emissions from 10,000 sheep and 250 head of cattle, was offset with 5500t a year of sequestered carbon.
This was largely thanks to regenerating bush in gullies and sidlings and efforts to plant about 15,000 native trees on the property.
They applied for the zero-carbon status though Toitu, a certified emissions assessment company.
“We now use that number to market our wool – and now with our meat,” he said.
He says it was encouraging to see the farm producing surplus carbon and if enough farms could do so, then they could help soak up carbon from areas in the supply chain that are net carbon emitters.
He encouraged farmers to “know their numbers”. He started with the B+LNZ’s online carbon calculator, then recruited some consultants to ground-proof those figures.
“Under He Waka Eke Noa, 25% of farmers have to have their figures known by this year and 100% by the end of next. It is a bit daunting, but once you get into it, it’s not too difficult,” he said.
Taking action has included more plantings and taking on some regenerative practices utilising more mixed pastures for the Merinos, which are browsing animals by nature.
“We are also watching the Australian trials using red seaweed, said to reduce methane by 98%,” he said.
Acknowledging his marketing background, Ross says that regardless, “telling the story” has never been easier using social media platforms.
He says “storyteller” was another skill farmers have to add to their CV, including – among others – carpenter, vet, agronomist and mechanic.
“Yes, we are facing a huge number of challenges in farming, but to be fair, every business is,” he said.
