Hawkes Bay Future Farming Trust Logo Design

Vision - To make Hawke's Bay farming the pride of our entire community.

Mission - Promote, inspire and celebrate profitable farming systems that enrich the environment and the community.

  • Represent the Hawkes Bay/Te Matau-a Maui region, farming, Iwi and the community.
  • Represent all farming sectors e.g. no plants, animals, trees, food, etc.
  • Incorporates the name Hawke’s Bay Future Farming in English and Te Reo.

Logo Inspiration

  • The logo uses the shape of Hawke’s Bay e.g. the curve of Hawkes’s Bay, Mahia, Cape Kidnappers, the diversity of the land/farming, the 3 main rivers and the sea.
  • Green represents the colour of nature and our farms. Blue represents the colour of water and the sky.
  • The shape of Hawke’s Bay represents a Koru. A Koru represents new life, growth, rebirth and a deep connection to the earth.
  • The shape of Hawke’s Bay also represents Te Matau-a-Māui, the fishhook of Māu the Māori god who fished up the North Island of New Zealand. According to legend, the hook instantly transformed into the coastline of Hawke Bay, which viewed from above still looks like the fishhook.

Ahu Whenua – Hikina Taiao is about capturing profitable farming systems whilst uplifting our environment. Both outputs/outcomes have positive community effect.

Hiki as a verb means to lift-up, to raise. The passive is Hikina meaning lifted-up or causative action:

Te Matau a Māui Ahu Whenua - Hikina Taiao – Pieri Munro HBRC

Projects undertaken or supported by the Trust

Projects undertaken or supported by the Trust will be guided by these considerations:

  1. Projects able to measure outcomes are critical. Key to our purpose is providing an evidence base for farmers/growers that allows various approaches to demonstrate their effectiveness at delivering across a full range of inter-connected criteria – profitability, productivity, soil health, environmental betterment, biodiversity, animal welfare, efficient water and energy use, social welfare (including mental health, use of human resources), climate resilience … even more nutritious, tastier food!
  2. The Trust aims to identify and celebrate Hawke’s Bay’s best practitioners, developing and promoting relevant case studies. In the longer term, a Trust-sponsored ‘certification’ might be developed that reflects a holistic, HB-branded approach for recognizing, promoting and adding-value to the accomplishments of HB’s best performers.
  3. On-farm improvements of all kinds and scale should be encompassed – from stock exclusion to tree planting to full systems change. The key expectation of all practices the Trust encourages is that they restore or regenerate financial, natural and social capital.
  4. The Trust is interested in all sectors – pastoral, horticulture, viticulture, forestry, including ‘emerging’ prospects (from hops to hemp).
  5. Trust projects will focus on what happens on the land, inside the farm gate. Other players are addressing the rest of the value chain. That said, we agree that consumer expectations will ultimately drive what is acceptable and we should monitor relevant trends/developments.
  6. The Trust's project portfolio should include a mix of ‘quick to market’ and longer-term projects, as well as both smaller and larger-scale projects.
  7. The Trust will actively support, accelerate and promote catchment groups, complementing and expanding upon such efforts on the part of HBRC and sector groups.
  8. Educational projects that reach beyond our core audience of farmers and growers will be part of the Trust programme. We aim to increase public/consumer support for the sector, and specifically want to interest and involve youth in farming.
  9. At some stage, the Trust will engage in grant-making, with scale, process and criteria to be developed.
  10. The Trust will collaborate with like-minded organisations and initiatives, including iwi, and actively fundraise to carry out its objectives.

Problem

Society today is challenging the environmental cost and impact of producing food. Public concerns include the degradation and loss of our soil and water resources, food safety and soil nutrition, animal welfare and agriculture’s contribution to climate change.

A failure to respond to these issues at scale will guarantee a loss of confidence in NZ’s food sector by both the community at large and individual consumers, leading to increased regulatory intervention and consumers migrating to alternative food producers and products. Farming needs to address these public concerns while also contending with on farm production, compliance and cost issues that impact on business viability.

Response

Food producers will respond, we believe, by embracing practises or systems that lower food’s environmental footprint, and in fact restore soil health, landscape function and water quality, while improving on-farm resilience, productivity and profitability.

The Future Farming Initiative aims to help farmers find those solutions and ensure they are persistently presented with the best available and relevant options for navigating this changing and more demanding environment.

Mission

Our ambition is to make Hawke’s Bay’s farming the pride of our entire community. To shine a light on our region’s existing and emerging expertise and create a local hub of knowledge, research, education and opportunity for profitable and resilient farming that ensures the health of the region’s soil and water, communities and farmers into the future.

Ongoing success will be indicated by measurable improvement in farm performance (environmentally and financially), enthusiastic acceptance of our food products by domestic and overseas consumers, and the pride our community demonstrates for its farming sector.