Greg has also been involved in a significant tree planting program that coincided with the Air New Zealand Environment Trust wanting to plant trees to
\n offset some of their aircraft emissions. This enabled them to bring their environmental footprint back down to earth - by planting 85,000 trees, the
\n vast majority being natives.<\/p>\n
Greg Hart, his wife Rachel and family live beside a 30 hectare lake - (80 acres) on 1500 acres or 650 - hectares - which Greg says is an average size farm
\n in the Hawkes Bay region for 1 and a bit person to run …<\/p>\n
Their lake was where tuna or eeling took place by early Maori - plus waka or canoes have been found sunken in the lake too. These link back to Maori families,
\n that Greg has connections to.<\/p>\n
His farm is a mixture of beautiful rolling hills and some flat land and some steeper hill country with about 30 acres of remnants of native bush which
\n he has been recently adding to.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about an unfolding journey of working with the land experimenting with new and unconventional methods to bring balance to the ecology and yet
\n be able to have the soil sustain them with high quality nutrient dense organic food. A life that he wife Rachel and his children absolutely love.<\/p>\n
He has a web page called \u2018Restoring Paradise\u2019 - where 1,000 years ago his area would have been in perfect balance …<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about working with the land, not extracting maximum yield - experiencing family, joy, people visiting and sharing.<\/p>\n
Greg has been involved in a significant tree planting program that coincided with the Air New Zealand Environment Trust wanting to plant trees to offset
\n some of its aircraft emissions and bring its environmental footprint back down to earth - by planting 85,000 trees, the vast majority being natives.
\n The plan was to restore ecosystems and regenerating native forests.<\/p>\n
To also become a working model of a sustainable regenerating agricultural system and have an open farm where visitors are encouraged to come and reconnect
\n to nature and see where and how their food grows and comes from.<\/p>\n
Because at present, NZ\u2019s ecological systems, particularly due to dairy farming are becoming more out of balance.<\/p>\n
A big driver for Greg is about sustainable food systems and food milage based on oil, and all the fossil fuels consumed in growing food. Grain imports
\n coming from overseas to feed the pigs and chickens has a large ecological footprint. <\/p>\n
In Greg\u2019s estimation even his hens are not really sustainable either due to lack of granular food - with less organic wheat being grown in NZ.<\/p>\n
Greg\u2019s looking at more perennial crops so as to stop the continued cycle of growingeach and every year, with more labour and fuel consumption disturbing
\n the soil, the soil microbes, greater erosion etc.<\/p>\n
He has noticed that his pigs are doing quite a lot of damage to the soil on his farm and he has concerns about lack of soil cover and that with recent
\n rains - can wash away this precious soil into drains and away. etc.<\/p>\n
The present focus is on regenerative agriculture - it is somewhat like organics and an ecological approach to sustainable land management - like building
\n up soil carbon and humus in the soil. This is by reducing our carbon emissions due to the way this particular system sequesters Co2 out of the atmosphere
\n and locking it down in the soil, as the soil is the biggest sink of carbon - it\u2019s naturally built into the \u2018earth system\u2019.<\/p>\n
So regenerative agriculture takes and locks down carbon and makes the soil more fertile resilient and also capable of producing more nutrient dense food.<\/p>\n
Darren Doherty<\/a>, a Permaculture practitioner teacher from Australia states: if the 5 billion Regenerative Agriculture increase biodiversity - whereas the present Neo-Liberal system is still cutting down forests to expand industrial agriculture This brings up water quality and with quality humus this acts as a natural water filter and the need to keep the soil after heavy rains from washing into Greg uses a holistic grazing system and again \u2018 holistic thinking\u2019 is embedded throughout the methods that he is using right across his farm as he endeavours The use of industrial fertilisers and chemicals are harming the soil biology - especially over the long term - when he wants the soil and planet to be One of his farming heroes is American Joel Salitin - PolyFace Farm<\/a> - Time magazine Being innovative, Greg has created some small micro units - where someone can milk the cows and rear some calves and make an income from that. <\/p>\n He is also direct marketing meat from the farm with home kills - and he has people with beehives - doing honey etc - and he sees there are incredible opportunities Having a portable saw mill is advantageous - he uses after cutting down his own trees into timber - which he used to clad his lodge that sleeps 17 people The Lodge can be used for reunions, events, workshops, presentation etc and many families and groups come to hang out in nature and reconnect with themselves Even Corporate groups to breathe deeply again and chill out. It\u2019s especially handy around education about earth systems etc, and of the necessity for people That there is so much more that can be done to work with the land but Greg emphasises that it is about people working together and deriving more meaning The interview covers Pure Hawkes Bay - http:\/\/purehawkesbay.org\/ - that is wanting GE free status for the region and has a lot of local Council support Greg's farm is an all grass system - no crops like turnips, swedes, maize and potatoes - as he wants to keep the tractor in the shed and see if he can Alan Savoury<\/a> originally out of Zimbabwe observed the grazing animals of Africa from buffalo and Whilst following hoofed animals break down most of the stalks which are composed of mainly carbon and are pushed down into the dung, into the soil that These African areas and great plains in America have some of the deepest richest soils that we have on our planet. That the richness of the soil allows Grass is basically a carbon pump, the leaves are solar panels - plants are one of the most effective ways of sequestering co2 out of the atmosphere and Greg is doing the same with his cattle using electric fences and moving the cattle everyday - and the rotational moving around the farm has the grass regenerating Back to Joe Salitin and a carbonaceous diaper - dung + leaves and stalks + urine builds up and covers your soil. Caring for it. Listen to the interview.<\/p>\n Note that pastoral agriculture is still the backbone of the NZ economy - but is is based on importing mega amounts of fertiliser for agriculture a lot Will we have a crimp in fossil fuels in the future? If so Greg is prepared to work as if there could be one.<\/p>\n Greg has learnt from courses in Biological Agriculture - (Listen to 4 interviews by Graeme Sait, as well as Arden Anderson, Christine Jones on GreenplanetFM.com) Greg then talks about environmental web sites that are saying if we want to save the planet we have to give up meat. Saying that he does not see any vegetarian Where instead an integrated perennial polycultural system where you have food producing trees nutrient cycling trees and animals also working through the Greg talks about vegetarianism and a meat diet - (listen) re rice and pasta wheat not grown in NZ same for pulses are all imported. These use up food miles. Mark Shepard - \u2018Restoration Agriculture<\/a>\u2019 Nut trees in NZ, Greg says is a grand idea reducing our need for a lot of annual soil cultivation. Walnuts, Almonds, and Hazelnuts have potential in this Universities are not doing deep soil science - studying nature - but instead are looking at chemical band aids and trying to force feed the plant whilst Many scientists are also spending so much of their time writing submissions for funding that they are spending a great deal of their time endeavouring Today\u2019s industrial farming has only one big winner, and they are the large agro combines and corporations. Whilst the farmer in so many instances is chemicalising Sam Lang - Nuffield<\/a> 2016 scholar traveling the world staying with Greg looking at sustainable Covering his crowd funding program with \u2018million metre streams\u2019 -https:\/\/millionmetres.org.nz\/ - planting around his lake on his property. <\/p>\n Diversity of nature and a diversity of people who end up visiting - it\u2019s the friendships and relationships and the warmth of connection - he loves sharing People can also become \u2018a friend of the farm\u2019 with an annual membership and people can - using that money plant trees with Greg's vision of \u2018Fields of He has just had a visit from the Grand Chancellor James Cook hotel in Wellington and this keen group have turned up 5 years in a row and each year they We also have to get away from this scarcity mindset - to one of abundance <\/p>\n This is only a portion of this very interesting interview. - Tim<\/p>\n These 2 recent videos which include Mangarara - The Family Farm and Greg's philosophies. \"Restoring Paradise\"<\/a> and \"Regenerators\"<\/a> <\/p>\n
\n hectares of agricultural soils around our planet were to increase their soil carbon content by 1.6% it would take out 100 parts per million of co2
\n out of the atmosphere - which is quite doable - this locking it back down in the soil. We could drop c02 content from 400 parts per million to 300
\n parts per million and it would really benefit our global food production.<\/p>\n
\n - Greg is heading in the opposite direction and setting aside the less productive food growing areas and planting trees and restoring ecosystems and
\n he is noticing the incredible increase in insects and bird life and nature is growing back into restoring itself with natural cycles starting to kick
\n back in.<\/p>\nWater Quality<\/h3>\n
\n water courses, rivers and out to sea - affecting fishing beds etc.<\/p>\nHolistic Thinking<\/h3>\n
\n to intuitively read what nature requires to rebalance itself and build up the soil carbon with its trillions of microbes - the microflora - especially
\n bacteria and fungi - the 'workhorses' of our planetary ecology. <\/p>\n
\n thriving from day one.<\/p>\nGreg's Philosophy is \u2018do no harm.' <\/h3>\n
\n called him the most innovative farmer in the world and he is also a brilliant communicator - He is stacking enterprises on his land - by looking and
\n mimicking how nature generates food.<\/p>\nEmbedding Micro Enterprises across the Farm <\/h3>\n
\n on the land that he is stewarding and care taking. <\/p>\nHaving his own Lodging for Guests.<\/h3>\n
\n down on his lake side. <\/p>\n
\n at a deeper level. <\/p>\n
\n to understand the transition to regenerative agriculture. <\/p>\nDeepening Our Connection<\/h3>\n
\n at the same time. <\/p>\n
\n whilst the Federated Farmers from the opposite perspective are arguing against it and the conscious people of the region!!!<\/p>\n
\n live without disturbing the soil as much as possible.<\/p>\nWhich leads again back to Holistic Grazing<\/h3>\n
\n zebra and to the bison of the American plains and with near on millions of animals in these herds - these animals live on a very long seasonal rotation
\n and continually move along eating the tops of grass a lot of it tall and defecating and urinating at the same time. <\/p>\n
\n over time this has built up a deep rich organic soil rich in soils microbes. <\/p>\n
\n great numbers of animals to be fed over millennia and the animals just kept moving - hence these areas are incredibly rich in grass, soil and deeply
\n rooted plants and grass life. It\u2019s turning sunlight into food for grazing animals. It\u2019s also like composting on the soil surface.<\/p>\n
\n pulsing it down into the ground.<\/p>\n
\n very fast and healthily. Because they are not eating every blade of grass percentage of leaves and stalks are still being ground into the soil along
\n with dung and urine - the grass springs back into life quickly after …<\/p>\n
\n of it phosphate from North Africa and Greg says that all the energy in mining it and trucking or railing it to ports - shipping to NZ then trucking
\n to where it is processed then trucking it out to the rural regions and putting it in an aerial top dressing lane has huge costs as well as an ecological
\n footprint skyrocketing.<\/p>\n
\n as well as organics and biodynamics and he finds that this holistic grazing management using these natural cycles has so many benefits.<\/p>\nUtilising Grazing and Tree Cropping Together<\/h3>\n
\n eco systems in the world - yet animals are part of this nutrient cycling - and he is focusing on growing food producing trees on his farm - to get
\n away from cultivating annual crops for our food. <\/p>\n
\n system - grazing under the trees etc.<\/p>\n
\n Meat is local.<\/p>\n
\n - that all our energy and cultivation is going into annual crops - rice, wheat, soy and corn - it\u2019s so energy intensive every year - that the soils
\n get ploughed up and the sun bakes and bleaches soil organisms in the heat and then rains can come and wash the soil away - it is disastrous at many
\n levels - there is no sustainability in this, especially when you add chemical sprays and fuel use.<\/p>\n
\n country. <\/p>\nUniversities - the need for natural soil science.<\/h3>\n
\n in many cases destroying the microorganisms that are pivotal to feeding the plant. <\/p>\n
\n to dream up ways so as to be financially viable. The commercial expediency of the Neo Liberal winner takes all approach to business - is devastating
\n true scientific research in NZ. <\/p>\n
\n his farm, depleting nature and selling unhealthy produce onto the market.<\/p>\n
\n systems and to get financial support to do these studies finds that finance is quite difficult to obtain in the current commercial environment - especially
\n researching a green option. <\/p>\n
\n with people a farming experience. <\/p>\n
\n Food. https:\/\/www.mangarara.co.nz\/product\/friend-the-farm\/friend-of-the-farm-subscription<\/a>
\n \n<\/p>\n
\n grow another row of food trees on his farm - and this is what happens when you are receptive to work with the NZ public. In the future Greg says that
\n there will be so much food that visitors will take it away and surpluses given to charities …<\/p>\n