Many generations, same earth and sky

Profile of Biofarm, a Manawatu organic family farm with a long history who recently recieved the cloak of Hau Parakore, an indigenous verification

Hua Parakore is the indigenous verification and validation system for mahinga kai (food and product manufacture), initiated and driven by Te Waka Kai Ora (National Māori Organics Authority of Aotearoa) – MAI Journal. 

Cathy Tait-Jamieson of BioFarm explains, “Hua Parakore verification wants to know about our management decisions, e.g. why we’ve closed up a certain area of native bush, or planted those eucalypts. It asks, What is the significance of the river to your farm, and how have ancestors influenced how you farm today? It keeps the story of how and why we’re farming alive and relevant, which I think is more important for future generations than the ticked box scenarios of other organic certifiers.”

BioFarm yoghurt’s only other ingredients, besides milk and cultures, are South Island and Coromandel organic honeys, and apple syrup sourced from organically grown apples in Hawkes Bay. Hua Parakore wants to understand the relationship BioFarm has with suppliers, and how much they know about their supplier practices with their bees and orchards. It acknowledges and applies value to relationships between producers and customers and the people who support production. It values social sustainability.

BioFarm yoghurt was the first organic product sold in NZ supermarkets. BioGro was the only organic certifier in 1986 when BioFarm began production, but they’ve since adopted AsureQuality certification because Asure performs both mandatory MPI evaluations for farm and factory, so all their certification is under the same organisation.

“Organic standards are far more prescriptive today,” says Cathy, “because standards are set internationally, and have moved from what consumers want from their food, or how a farmer manages his farm, to being more about what is acceptable from a bureaucratic standpoint.

“For example, there might be a very small window of opportunity when the planets, moon, weather and contractor availability all line up in favour of sowing a feed crop essential to maintaining healthy cows, but if the only seed available is non-organic,  then we can’t go ahead. The certifier first requires proof that we have attempted to find organic seed before they will consider giving permission for non-organic seed to be sowed. Administrative requirements such as this detract from the art of farming and they take away our freedom to make decisions quickly when necessary.”

Cathy and Jamie took over the family farm in 1977 and for the first five years were serious conventional farmers who sprayed weeds and drenched animals. It was a town supply farm which fortuitously milked year round thus enabling BioFarm to keep the market happy all year once it began production.

In 1982 a friend who had studied biodynamic gardening arrived, and combined with Jamie’s study of Rudolf Steiner philosophies and Anthroposophy, the couple became aware of a different culture. They learned supermarkets in Germany were selling commercially grown spray-free and organic food.

By then they’d started a family.

“We’d observed first-hand how food was grown by our horticulturalist neighbours and decided we didn’t want to feed ourselves vegetables grown with high amounts of artificial fertilisers and sprays,” says Cathy. “Socially, economically and environmentally, going organic seemed like a good idea.

“We also needed to improve our income in order to retain ownership of the family farm. Since our main product was organic milk, we asked a local dairy company to make yoghurt using our milk. It was runny. We were told that most thick yoghurts were made using milk powder (listed as milk solids in the ingredients). Organic milk powder wasn’t available in 1986, so we scrapped the pottles we’d designed, bottled the yoghurt instead, and began selling it on supermarket shelves. A few weeks after launching we received a request for acidophilus yoghurt. That turned out to be natural yoghurt with extra bacteria which wouldn’t alter the flavour or consistency, so within a few weeks we were selling two yoghurt varieties, natural and acidophilus.

BioFarm’s sales grew with the acidophilus yoghurt, then the largest growth category in the yoghurt sector, but in 1998 Monsanto made the statement in NZ that if people didn’t want to eat GE foods, their only option was to eat organic.

“Our sales tripled over six months and swung from acidophilus to organic. It took nearly three years to catch up with the administration,” says Cathy. The reason people were buying BioFarm yoghurt changed from wanting a probiotic to wanting something GE-free and organic.

The Tait-Jamiesons use their own cow’s milk which is transported in a tank on the back of a trailer to their on-farm processing plant, a converted cowshed.  Occasionally their own milk is supplemented from local certified organic dairy farms. The plant processes between 2000 and 4000 litres a day.

“We’re proud of our additive-free yoghurt. It’s pure food. New yoghurts coming onto the market with corn syrup which is high fructose, and milk powder which is high lactose, frustrate us, because this non-healthy food is packaged as a health food, so many NZrs think they’re making healthy choices. New Zealanders aren’t particularly aware of what’s in their food”.

The family farm is bordered by the Manawatu River on three boundaries, and is just over 500 acres. Most is in pasture, but there are plenty of established native bush areas (totara, matai, kahikatea), and other areas planted in eucalyptus and poplar for shade, wind and flood protection, as well as biodiversity. Eucalyptus have been planted to take up excess nutrients near the cow shed.

Traditional organic farming utilises the same methods as Maori farming. “Harvesting and planting is in accordance with the cosmos,” says Cathy. “It can’t be written down as a way to do things because it’s always a moving target dependent on conditions. The time for harvest and the time for sowing follow the seasons. Matariki marks the finishing of harvest and new beginnings such as tree planting and soil preparation. All traditional farming is the same because it works with the same one earth, one sky. Maori have our own stories about that, as do all traditional cultures, which are more about sustainability. Nothing stays the same though; we use tractors these days, but the fundamental knowledge is there for the taking, for everyone.”

 

 

Celebrating 2014 International Year of Family Farming

Biofarm exemplifies the concept of Family Farming.

For them, family isn’t only bloodline. It’s also community – the extended Biofarm whanau.

The Tait-Jamieson’s block has been worked by Jamie’s grandfather, and later, his father, since 1940.  Cathy and Jamie’s four children were home educated in the farm schoolhouse until they were 8-10 years old, so each has an innate understanding of seasonal farming activities and the processing businesses. One daughter helps with farm management/administration, and both sons work the farm in different capacities.  Tait-Jamieson grandchildren visit regularly.  Cathy’s sister is their full-time office administrator and many nieces, nephews, and teenage children in the community, have earned their university education with on-farm holiday jobs. Most of their 12 staff have been with Biofarm for 15+ years and have involved their own families in the opportunity for employment and training.

Work and training opportunities abound on the 207ha farm, in the factory, and increasingly in administration.  All the people who assist in the day-to-day running of the operation are friends and family. Biofarm also works with other families who are suppliers, and their seven distributors are each small family operators.  Now that’s social sustainability!

 

 First published in Organic NZ,  magazine of the Soil & Health Assoc.

https://organicnz.org.nz

©Theresa Sjoquist