Coming Full Circle: Trees, Grandad and the future of our farms, with Pāmu CEO Mark Leslie

by Mark Leslie, Chief Executive, Pāmu

I want to start by asking a little bit about you. I know you grew up on a farm and your career has been constantly close to the land, which makes where you are now (as CEO of Pāmu) very logical. But is that what's driven your mindset about climate and nature?

Yes, absolutely.  Being close to the land, you see just how much climate impacts on nature, farms and people. Whether it's as a dairy exporter or a livestock farmer or a processor you see the next level of that consequence. We very clearly are getting the message back from consumers and customers that the environmental requirements are very important to their brands.

For me, it’s the complete circle having grown up on a farm and now working for Pāmu. I often share with the team one of my earliest memories is being out with my grandfather planting trees. He was ahead of his time planting out the waterways with trees.

Do you remember what he was planting?

He was always one for natives, so he was planting native trees. That goes back nearly 50 years.

And then when I look at climate and nature today, I view it from a holistic perspective. In terms of what we do at Pāmu, when we're retiring areas or planting, there are so many benefits from it, whether it's reduced erosion, increasing biodiversity, or providing shade and shelter for animals. In Australia and Europe, you're starting to see biodiversity credits, which is putting a real value on protecting nature. So that's acknowledging the work people are doing to create a valuable asset but at the same time making the world a better place.

What you've just said makes me think of something else. Thinking about going into Europe and markets like that. Did you have a chance to look at our ESG report Protecting New Zealand's Competitive Advantage, which came out at the end of April [showing that 80% of our exports by value are going to jurisdictions with reporting requirements mandated or proposed]?  Was there any surprise in that for you?

Yes, I’ve read the report and in terms of my background at Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms and still having close contacts on the frontiers I’m very aware that biodiversity, climate and animal welfare are areas of great interest.

The challenge I see in the Aotearoa context is we do end up very much in a New Zealand-centric conversation, versus discussing what consumers and customers are talking about in the rest of the world. We've always been an exporting country and if that's going to continue, we're going to have to evolve and meet those reporting requirements.

I’m interested in the background you have [on your Teams call] of four people on horseback with heading dogs around them, you were telling me it was taken during Cyclone Gabrielle when farm teams had to go back to horse power because other forms of transport were cut off.  What was that like and what did it make you think about these issues of mitigation for climate change versus adaptation?

We had 24 farms across the motu that were damaged. Seven of our East Coast farms were severely impacted. I flew in by helicopter a couple of days after with emergency supplies for our teams that were cut off. Seeing the damage from above was a reality check.

In saying that we were already underway with our first climate-related disclosure report. We were also, before that time, doing 30-year-plus projections of what the climate would look like on our farms. One of the benefits we have is most of those farms have weather records for long periods. We've leveraged that to come up with some models for our properties around what the future environment could look like.

We are thinking about rebuilding post-cyclone differently.  Where should we put bridges and fence lines?  And for some areas, the recovery means retiring areas back into native plantings and forestry.

On the mitigation side of it, one of the benefits we have at Pāmu, with our scale, is that we've got a geographic mix of farms and a large population of animals across species.  We're looking at how to breed lower-methane-producing beef or accelerating the work that's going on around breeding low-methane sheep.
Building on the adaptation, in areas where it will be warmer or there will be more extreme weather events. We’re also looking at what sheep of the future look like. They need to be more heat tolerant for one.

What could that mean in terms of biotechnology or modern genetic technologies?  Do you have a view?

We need to be holistic about what our customers and consumers want and what New Zealanders are comfortable with, as well as understanding where the rest of the world is moving. The world has moved a long way in the past few years and there is a real risk we’re getting left behind.
A starting point for the conversation is understanding what these tools are and how they could make a real difference in supporting climate change mitigation or controlling pests – some that everyone wants.

Thank you Mark. Is there anything else you want to add?

With Pāmu I have the privilege of running 110 farms right across the motu. Our purpose is around enriching our land and our people, but the key piece is being good at what we do. If we can share our experiences with the wider primary sector, we’ll all be better off.

We strive to improve on what we are doing every day. We've got to stay focused on being profitable but also have the space to try new approaches that will meet the needs of all New Zealanders, customers and consumers. This is how we’ll enhance the future of agriculture for generations of New Zealanders to come.

 We also know we can’t do it by ourselves so working with like-minded partners is important. Collaboration is key.