[Music]
I'm Katherine McCartin I'm a researcher
an academic that Maisie University New
Zealand witness a computer scientist
alongside my husband I also run a sheep
and beef farm in the central North
Island New Zealand is often described as
two farms sitting side-by-side at the
bottom of the Pacific Ocean
we have imaginative ly named these two
farms the North Island and the South
Island what we do here is grow food we
produce milk lamb beef apples kiwi fruit
wine honey and a few other things and we
export at least 90% of the food that we
produce it's directly the thing we've
been really good at is producing
pasture-based 100% grass-fed animal
protein we're the world's most efficient
producers of meat and milk in terms of
methane produced per liter of milk or
kilo of meat we can get a kilo of lamb
to London with fewer greenhouse gas
emissions than the Welsh can and for the
past 30 years we've been doing without
any government subsidies
none at all how do we do that we have
some physical advantages a temperate
climate fertile soils and biosecurity
isolation and we have some cultural
advantages relatively well-educated
farmers who are innovative and adaptable
but the main thing that makes New
Zealand different from most other
countries is that we embrace land-use
change not for us the idea of growing
grapes on the same piece of land using
the same traditional systems for
centuries we're quick adopters of new
ideas in the past the drivers of
land-use change of often mean financial
we've gone out into the world to frame
premium markets and adapted to sell them
what they want we've had the kiwifruit
boom the apple boom the bull beef boom
the dairy boom a recent honey boom and
the past 25 years there's been a big
change in land use towards dairy cattle
the sheep flock has nearly halved in
that time the amount of New Zealand non
produced has not really decreased way
fewer sheep are producing way more lambs
the same head
the same has happened in our airport
industry we grow the same number of
apples on half the land that we need 30
years ago we grow New Zealand bread
varieties and high-density apple
orchards using clever pruning methods
we've changed the way we grow Lambs and
apples based on practically tested good
science from now on the main driver of
land-use change is going to be
prediction of our environment and
reduction of our greenhouse gas
emissions there are two main issues
facing New Zealand farmers we need to
reduce our impacts on fresh water
quality and we need to lower our methane
emissions from livestock New Zealand law
has recently changed to mandate that we
do this these Ellyn farmers embrace
these challenges we have a vested
interest and prefers preserving our
environment but we're starting from a
high baseline if we measure our
greenhouse gas emissions per unit of
production we are already the world's
most efficient agricultural producers if
we compare our water quality with that
of other countries we're still well
ahead of the pack we're top of the class
striving to move from an a to an A+
while much of the rest of the world
languages on a sea so what can we do we
must take the initiative and diversify
yet again and new products and practices
that are kinder to a New Zealand
environment and we are if I look just
within 10 kilometres of where I love I
can come up with two very good examples
of changing land use away from an
oil-based farming to low-impact
plant-based farming Donnan conceded
Tweeddale are beekeepers now planting
1,500 hectares of land that was
previously a sheep farm and especially
selected strains of manuka a plant
native to new zealand that grows
naturally the rain was produced manuka
honey with very high levels of
methylglyoxal the planting the land back
into natural vegetation dramatically
reducing the greenhouse gas emissions
associated with this land and at the
same time creating a habitat for native
birds and improving water quality the
manuka honey will be sold at a premium
price to companies manufacturing medical
bandages with their product used on most
hospitals around the world
dan and Jackie Cochran are New Zealand's
fair
commercial growers of quinoa the grow
quinoa in conjunction with the whole
country
free-range sheep and beef greens disc
system rotating cropping and graze and
helps with weed control
they don't use any herbicides pesticides
or fungicide sprays on the quinoa plants
they use about 15% of the fertilizer
inputs required by European growers and
straight cropping systems and they get
great results that's because of the
higher soil carbon in other words
healthier soil
there's achieved under their permanent
pasture and grazing systems wholesale
change is not the answer for New Zealand
agriculture we're still the world's most
efficient producers of meat and milk we
know we can grow safe high quality foods
of all sorts now for the sake of our
environment we need to get the mix right