Much to learn from NZ regen ag approach

Churchill Fellowship award winner I-Lyn Loo said New Zealand's rise to the top was one of the surprise findings that came out of her research project, which investigated the drivers for regenerative agriculture and was finalised last month.

The objective of the research project was to incentivise the adoption of these practices in Australia.

The Western Australian Meat Industry Authority (WAMIA) acting chief executive travelled to 12 cities in New Zealand, USA, Netherlands and the UK over seven weeks late last year to conduct her research and speak with various industry, government and not-for-profit representatives involved in advancing regenerative agriculture.

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Following a few false starts due to travel restrictions induced by the pandemic, New Zealand was a late addition to the itinerary of Ms Loo, who decided to include the country in her research after discovering how active it was in the regenerative agriculture space.

"I think it's due to New Zealand being so export oriented that they tweaked on the regenerative agriculture trend quite quickly," Ms Loo said.

Across the four countries visited, she said the conversation and framework for advancing regenerative agriculture was the most mature in New Zealand, with governments, research institutions and industry all engaged in the conversation.

While there, the research and work of The New Zealand Merino Company (an organisation similar to Australian Wool Innovation) stood out as being particularly impressive to Ms Loo.

In 2006, the company established the ZQ index for their woolgrowers, who are required to meet specific fibre quality, animal welfare, care for the environment and social responsibility standards in order to achieve the certification.

More recently the company developed ZQRX certification - a more specific, regenerative agriculture index which helps farmers "work with nature to continuously improve human, animal and environmental outcomes", according to the company's website.

"New Zealand Merino integrates the full supply chain in regenerative agriculture, first by having people go onto their producers land to help them achieve their ZQ or ZQRX certification, then they utilise a data and technology platform on the other end of the supply chain to engage with high fashion companies like Kering, while also supporting those companies with their marketing messages," Ms Loo said.

In her report, she said the transition to regenerative agriculture in the EU was being strongly led by the government, with the EU's trading policy already having implications for Australia, as well as a strong impact internationally.

Ms Loo said this ambition to influence the global conversation on regenerative agriculture was captured in the EU's Farm to Fork Strategy and the European Green Deal.

"The EU-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement signed in July 2022 included commitments for both parties to work together to advance regenerative agriculture," Ms Loo said.

"It is likely the EU will propose a similar commitment in the current ongoing negotiations with Australia towards a bilateral free trade agreement."

Compare this to the USA, where she found the conversation around regenerative agriculture was instead being led by major corporations involved in the food and fibre and agriculture industries.

Ms Loo said vast amounts of capital had already been invested by these companies into advancing regenerative food systems, but there was also still an increasing number of investors out there ready to "land their money somewhere".

Having attended the Regenerative Food System Investments Forum in Denver, Colorado, as part of her research, Ms Loo encouraged any farmers looking to connect with potential investors or organisations to help fund their research or activities in regenerative agriculture to attend the conference.

"There is a staggering amount of money out there for regenerative agriculture, so Western Australians need to go out there and connect with these people to see if they are interested in funding some research trials in our State," Ms Loo said.

While the transition to any new farming system comes with its associated risks, she said through her many conversations on the topic, she found WA farmers, in particular, required more research and scientific proof to be provided in terms of the benefits of regenerative farming practices before they considered any significant changes to their businesses.

In terms of incentivising WA farmers to adopt regenerative farming practices, Ms Loo said the first and most significant step was having a solid definition of the term itself at a Federal level.

"At the State level, regional level and for each organisation or stakeholder, the definition might look a little bit different, but it should mostly be consistent," she said.

"The next step is then translating what regenerative agriculture actually means on the ground.

"The outcomes-based definition of regenerative agriculture is very consistent - it includes things like improvement in natural capital, improvement in farmer resiliency, financial resiliency and animal welfare where applicable.

"But because regenerative agriculture is place and context based, the hard bit is to then identify those cost effective practices at a local level and which practices farmers need to adopt on their own land to achieve the key outcomes of regenerative agriculture."

Ms Loo's report can be found on the 'fellow portal' of the Winston Churchill Trust website.