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The Agricultural Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) is an unincorporated joint venture between the Agribusiness Group, Lincoln University, and the University of Otago. ARGOS has a mandate to examine the environmental, social and economic sustainability of New Zealand farming systems.
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Publication Open Access The impact of neoliberalism on New Zealand farmers: Changing what it means to be a 'good farmer'(Australasia-Pacific Extension Network (APEN), 2013) Hunt, Lesley M.; Rosin, Christopher; Campbell, H.; Fairweather, John R.A recent part of the transdisciplinary study of New Zealand farming carried out by social scientists from the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) was a retrospective interview of all ARGOS sheep/beef, dairy and high country farmers and kiwifruit orchardists. In this interview their responses to 'shocks' over the past forty years was explored in order to examine farmer resilience and pathways to sustainability. What was apparent was how the 'good farming' model followed by New Zealand farmers and orchardists had expanded to include the notion that it was culturally acceptable to think of farming as a business. This change, which could be attributed to the influence of the environment of neoliberalism in the policies of the New Zealand government since the 1980s, allowed farmers and orchardists to think of themselves and their role in new ways that provided unexpectedand exciting possibilities for the resilience and sustainability of the agricultural and horticultural sectors in New Zealand. This paper describes some of the unexpected consequences of Government policy, showing how long it can take for policy to result in identity change and how closely identity is linked to practice.Publication Open Access Sustainability Trends in Key Overseas Markets to New Zealand and the KPI identification database(ARGOS, 2013-06-28) Saunders, Caroline M.; Guenther, Meike; Driver, TimThis report examines trends in consumer concerns regarding sustainability in key overseas markets for New Zealand. These trends affect what consumers buy and the premiums they will pay. The implications of these for New Zealand are explored in this report. The report also extends to other issues that may have potential to impact on our exports. This report is part of a series of research reports1 concerning these issues. Each report focuses on slightly different issues. This report concentrates on consumer attitudes towards sustainability attributes such as carbon emissions, biodiversity and animal welfare in traditional export markets to New Zealand including the UK, Japan, the US but also in emerging export markets such as China and India. In addition, a database reporting on key performance measures included in key market assurance and good practice schemes, as well as regulatory frameworks, was developed in this report.Publication Open Access Carrying on farming: how New Zealand’s sheep/beef farmers continue to farm(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2013-12) Hunt, Lesley M.Presentation covers: pathways to sustainability – analysis of transdisciplinary data, 5 pathways followed by farmers, overall strategies of ‘survival’, and 'what is a sustainable landscape?'Publication Open Access The impact of neoliberalism on New Zealand farmers: changing what it means to be a ‘good farmer'(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2013-08) Hunt, Lesley M.; Rosin, C.; Campbell, H.; Fairweather, John R.Presentation covers: Agricultural reform - New Zealand government policy - neo-liberalism, ARGOS – source of evidence, farming as a business – evidence of change, and unexpected consequences.Publication Open Access He Whenua Whakatipu: a draft sustainable development framework for Ngai Tahu landholders(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2005-02) Reid, JohnThis paper outlines a draft sustainable development framework for Ngai Tahulandholders. The notion of sustainable development, by its very nature, isproblematic. This is because there are so many criteria by which the development orgrowth of an entity through time can be assessed. For example there are multipleperspectives from various academic disciplines to be taken into account, as well asthose embedded within traditional values and knowledge at a flax-roots level. Thispaper attempts to take account of this complexity through the development of asustainable development planning process, which attempts to formulate courses ofaction that are well-informed by specialists from various academic disciplines, as wellas by knowledge from within flax-roots Maori communities.Initially this paper provides a literature review regarding current Maori sustainablelanduse research within Aotearoa, in the attempt to encapsulate the ‘complexity’ ofthe issue at hand. Although this body of research provides important insightsregarding the sustainable development of Maori land, it has a number of limitations,which are critically highlighted within this paper. From this literature review thesustainable development planning processes is developed. Further a conceptualsustainable land development model is offered, which provides a ‘yardstick’ fromwhich sustainable landuse can be monitored. This model however must be considereda work in progress open to continuous and ongoing revision.The overall purpose of this sustainable development framework is threefold. First it isa basis from which Maori landholders, including private, corporate and communal,can plan the development of their whenua. Second it is a basis from whichlandholders can derive, maintain and enhance cultural benefits from their whenua,from social, economic and environmental perspectives. Third, it is a foundation fromwhich a monitoring framework can be developed to assess the performance of landmanagement practices across a range of indices, including; social, economic,ecological and cultural criteria.Publication Open Access Social research compendium: key questions on social dimensions of agricultural sustainability(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2004) Campbell, H.; Fairweather, John R.; Hunt, Lesley M.; McLeod, C.; Rosin, C.Following on from the Social Research Rationale, this document takes the rationalean important step further by developing a list of key research topics (and specificissues) that form a comprehensive list of research items that the Social Objectiveconsider to be of interest.Three general instructions are useful before going further into this document.1) A comprehensive list of research topics is necessarily big. Like Objective 4, thegeneral research process for Objective 5 is to start broad and use the first two years ofdata gathering to refine the topics down to a more focused set of issues and foci.2) The topics are positioned to answer five very broad questions about our ARGOSfarms:• Who are they?Describe the sociological characteristics of the participating farmers, householdsand enterprises.• What do they think?What is the positioning (or key ideas) of our participants in terms of a list of coreconcepts in the project?• What is their capacity to act?Even if people think a particular way, or want to do some things, individuals arenonetheless constrained in many ways. Social scientists consider this key issue tobe central to any analysis: their capacity to act.• What changes over the period of the project (and in retrospect)?Both looking back in time, and through the period of the project, what are the keydimensions of change in the farms?• What are the key influences on these changes?What the key processes and ‘sites of action’ that influence farm activity, andwhich can assist us in understanding how more pro-active intervention to achievechange might be undertaken?3) What gaps are left?This document contributes to getting all the different researchers around the SocialObjective clearly aligned and coordinated in framing up and delivering the next phaseof research. It also helps to very clearly define the interests and foci of the socialresearch for the other participants in ARGOS. However, maybe its most importanttask is to provide an opportunity for discussion around those points of interest thatObjective 5 shares with the other Objectives, as well as where there are significantgaps as yet unaddressed by the project.Publication Open Access Environmental monitoring and research for improved resilience on ARGOS farms(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2005-06) Moller, Henrik; Wearing, Alex; Pearson, Andrea; Perley, Chris; Steven, David; Blackwell, Grant; Reid, Jeff; Johnson, MarionThis report outlines a rationale for proposed environmental monitoring on 136 farms participatingin the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) project. A transdisciplinaryresearch team of around 20 researchers, including sociologists, economists, farm managementexperts and ecologists will assess the sustainability and socio-ecological resilience of farms andorchards participating in organic, Integrated Management (IM), conventional farming systemsand Maori farming systems. The farming sectors represented range from (i) high-input:highoutputagriculture for dairy and kiwifruit production (mainly in North Island New Zealand),through (ii) medium-input:medium-output sheep and beef farming on the plains or rolling low hillcountry of South Island, to (iii) very low-input-low-output sheep/beef farming in the South IslandHigh Country. A parallel study of Maori land use and sustainable development amongst NgaiTahu Runanga will include a variety of other farming approaches. A meta-analysis over all farmsectors and farming systems will attempt to identify key drivers of change and barriers toimproved resilience. Researchers will monitor social, economic and environmental changes onfarms over the next 20 to 30 years as part of an ‘independent assessor’ role, but they will alsoseek to help the participating farmers improve the sustainability and resilience of their enterpriseby acting as ‘involved assistors’. This report identifies fundamental approaches and ecologicalprocesses to be researched mainly from an ecological point of view. Subsequent discussionsamongst the whole ARGOS team are likely to adjust the priorities to get the maximumadvantage from our expert sociological, economic, farm management and Maori colleagues.Publication Open Access The New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard: Unified monitoring and learning for sustainable agriculture in New Zealand(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2012-04) Manhire, J.; Moller, H.; Barber, A.; Saunders, Caroline M.; MacLeod, C.; Rosin, C.; Lucock, D.; Post, Elizabeth A.; Ombler, F.; Campbell, H.; Benge, J.; Reid, J.; Hunt, Lesley M.; Hansen, P.; Carey, Peter; Rotarangi, S.; Ford, S.; Barr, T.The New Zealand Sustainability Dashboard project will develop a sustainability assessment and reporting tool in partnership with five primary industry sectors in New Zealand. Internationally recognised frameworks and their key generic sustainability performance indicators (KPIs) will be co-opted to ensure that overseas consumers can benchmark and verify the sustainability credentials of New Zealand exported products. We will also design New Zealand and sector-specific KPIs to guide farmers and local consumers to best practices of special relevance to New Zealand society, ecology and land care. Monitoring protocols will be described, where possible for the farmers themselves to rapidly score their own performance across economic, social and environmental dimensions of food and fibre production. A multifunctional web application will be created that facilitates uploading of regular monitoring results and instantly summarises and reports back trends to the growers, to industry representatives, and to agriculture regulators and policy makers at regional and national government levels. Tests of the accuracy and statistical reliability of the KPIs will be coupled with ongoing research on how much the farmers use the tool, whether it changes their actions and beliefs for more sustainable agriculture, and whether stakeholders at all levels of global food systems trust and regularly use the tool.The Dashboard will be more than just a compliance and eco-verification tool – it will also provides a hub for learning to become more sustainable. It will create an information ‘clearinghouse’ for linking past data sources and at least five existing decision-support software applications so that growers can discover optimal choices for improved farming practice,should the Dashboard alert them that their KPIs are approaching amber of red alert thresholds. We will also design and test two new decision-support packages; one enabling farmers to calculate their energy and carbon footprint and how it can best be reduced; and a whole-farm ‘What if’ decision-support package that explores how investment in improving one sustainability KPI (eg. application of nitrogen fertilizer) affects another (eg. farm profit). The Sustainability Dashboard will also include customisation capabilities for use in product traceability; for undertaking surveys of users; for estimating the value placed on different aspects of sustainability by growers, industry representatives, regulators and consumers; for comparing Māori and other communities’ values in sustainability assessments; and for identifying market opportunities and constraints. The Dashboard web application will be designed so it can be quickly integrated into an industry’s/sector’s existing IT platform and infrastructure and this will facilitate rapid uptake. Some host industries may force growers to use the Sustainability Dashboard as part of their existing Market Assurance scheme.Publication Open Access The social practice of sustainable agriculture under audit discipline: initial insights from the ARGOS project in New Zealand(Elsevier, 2011) Campbell, H; Rosin, Christopher; Hunt, LM; Fairweather, JROne of the most interesting recent developments in global agri‐food systems has been the rapid emergence and elaboration of market audit systems claiming environmental qualities or sustainability. In New Zealand, as a strongly export‐oriented, high‐value food producer, these environmental market audit systems have emerged as an important pathway for producers to potentially move towards more sustainable production. There have, however, been only sporadic and fractured attempts to study the emerging social practice of sustainable agriculture – particularly in terms of the emergence of new audit disciplines in farming. The ARGOS project in New Zealand was established in 2003 as a longitudinal matched panel study of over 100 farms and orchards using different market audit systems (e.g., organic, integrated or GLOBALG.A.P.). This article reports on the results of social research into the social practice of sustainable agriculture in farm households within the ARGOS projects between 2003‐2009. Results drawn from multiple social research instruments deployed over six years provide an unparalleled level of empirical data on the social practice of sustainable agriculture under audit disciplines. Using 12 criteria identified in prior literature as contributing a significant social dynamic around sustainable agriculture practices in other contexts, the analysis demonstrated that 9 of these 12 dimensions did demonstrate differences in social practices emerging between (or co‐constituting) organic, integrated, or conventional audit disciplines. These differences clustered into three main areas: 1) social and learning/knowledge networks and expertise, 2) key elements of farmer subjectivity – particularly in relation to subjective positioning towards the environment and nature, and 3) the role and importance of environmental dynamics within farm management practices and systems. The findings of the project provide a strong challenge to some older framings of the social practice of sustainable agriculture: particularly those that rely on paradigm‐driven evaluation of social motivations, strong determinism of sustainable practice driven by coherent farmer identity, or deploying overly categorical interpretations of what it means to be ‘organic’ or ‘conventional’. The complex patterning of the ARGOS data can only be understood if the social practice of organic, integrated or (even more loosely) conventional production is understood as being co‐produced by four dynamics: subjectivity/identity, audit disciplines, industry cultures/structure and time. This reframing of how we might research the social practice of sustainable agriculture opens up important new opportunities for understanding the emergence and impact of new audit disciplines in agriculture.Publication Open Access Social dimensions of sustainable agriculture: a rationale for social research in ARGOS(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2004-11) Campbell, H.; Fairweather, John R.; Hunt, Lesley M.; McLeod, C.; Rosin, C.As the rationale for the social research objective within ARGOS, this documentprovides a preliminary discussion of the theoretical and methodological approachbeing taken by the social researchers in the project. As such, it articulates the ‘socialcorner’ of the research and details the approaches and issues that we consider centralto a social scientific analysis of agricultural sustainability.Publication Open Access Research rationale for the economic objective, ARGOS(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2005-02) Saunders, Caroline M.; Emanuelsson, M.The primary interest of an economist is the allocation of scarce resources to satisfy infinite“wants”, and several theories on how this can be done has been developed. The mostprominent and well known of these theories are Marxism and the neo-classical approach.The dominating theme in the post war economics has been financial growth and until the1960’s, environmental concerns were of secondary importance. From then and onwards, agrowing awareness of the social and environmental costs of financial growth has fuelled anongoing debate and contributed to approaches in economics that explicitly recognises socialand environmental aspects of the economic context.Also these “new” theories differ in the way they propose society should go about allocatingour scarce resources to different uses. However, in our opinion, they share a commonobjective, i.e. to maximize societies welfare, with welfare very broadly defined, definitelyincluding such things as clean air and nice views as well as financial aspects.Publication Open Access Sustainability trends in emerging markets: market drivers for sustainable consumption in China and India(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2011-12) Driver, Tim; Saunders, Caroline M.; Guenther, Meike"New Zealand relies heavily on export markets for economic success. There is thus value in ensuring that New Zealand producers are aware of any likely and important trends on the global food market that may assist in maximising export value. One such trend is the recent market demand for sustainability credentials in food products, particularly in Western markets. This has been reflected at both a government and industry/retailer level as policy and legislation have been adjusted or enhanced to suit potential shifts in consumer demand for sustainability attributes in food products. In recent times, New Zealand exporters have sought alternative markets to increase returns for their products. Currently, two major potential markets identified for New Zealand export success are inherent in two of the world’s fastest-growing economies – China and India. There is also some indication that similar demands for sustainability credentials in food products may be developing amongst affluent consumers in these markets. One of the key outputs of this research is to assist NZ companies make informed decisions on possible pathways for entering these emerging markets.Publication Open Access Management and production features of ARGOS farms and differences between production systems(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2009-06) Benge, Jayson; Lucock, Dave; Manhire, Jon; Emanuelsson, MartinFarm and Orchard Management, in ARGOS, is studied from a management systems approach with three main areas of study; economic, social and the environment. Economics includes production (both financial and non-financial) through to socio economics of production systems. Social studies the ‘people’ implications of the systems, motivational drivers, life cycles, whilst the environment objective looks at the impact/implications of the farming system on the environment. Boundaries of the three objectives overlap, leading to overarching research that is a transdisciplinary study of farming systems. It was recognised that generic descriptors, of the farms under study, need to be supplied to the three objectives and this led to a fourth ‘sub’ objective, the farm/orchard management objective. The role of the management objective includes collecting physical and managerial style data and, where suitable, the preliminary analysis of this data. The main purpose of this synthesis report is to provide an overview of the type of management and production data that have been collected and key differences between production systems (also referred to as ‘panels’) within each sector. For kiwifruit and dairy, data up to the 2007/08 season is reported.Publication Open Access Interspecific interaction and habitat use by Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) on sheep and beef farms, South Island, New Zealand(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2005-07) Green, Marcia; O'Neil, Erin; Wright, Joanna; Blackwell, Grant; Moller, HenrikAustralian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) were introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s from their native Australia. They are regarded as a threat to native biodiversity due to their conspicuous attacks on native birds and some sheep/beef farmers actively control them by trapping, poisoning or shooting. However there is little evidence that magpies are seriously affecting other birds on New Zealand sheep and beef farms. We conducted distance sampling surveys of bird abundance across 12 ‘clusters’ of sheep and beef farms between 17 November 2004 and 31 January 2005 to test whether magpies affect the abundance, conspicuousness and habitat use of other birds. Clusters were spread between Marlborough and Southland in eastern South Island, New Zealand. Each had a ‘conventional’ farm (no accreditation scheme), a certified organic farm, and an ‘Integrated Management’ (IM) farm. The farms within each cluster were within 25 km of each other and approximately matched for altitude, rainfall and soil type. The study aimed to: (1) determine whether the presence of many magpies interferes with the conspicuousness and therefore the abundance estimations of other species; (2) test whether magpies reduce the abundance or even cause the localized extinction of some other species on farms or alter their habitat use within the farms; (3) advise sheep/beef farmers whether control of magpies is a worthwhile investment for biodiversity conservation on farms; (4) determine whether magpie abundance varies between conventional, organic, or integrated management farms; (5) describe the variation in magpies numbers and their habitat use, and (6) consider whether magpies should be a priority focal species for ongoing ecological monitoring of ARGOS farms.Publication Open Access Bird community composition and relative abundance in production and natural habitats of New Zealand(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2005-06) Blackwell, Grant; O'Neill, Erin; Buzzi, Francesca; Clarke, Dean; Dearlove, Tracey; Green, Marcia; Moller, Henrik; Rate, Stephen; Wright, JoannaBiodiversity conservation in New Zealand has so far mainly focused on the one-third of the land that lies within public reserves such as national parks. This reflects a preservation rather than conservation orientation that targets mainly indigenous or native species in natural habitats and has no place for extractive use of natural resources. Only 6% of public conservation land lies in the productive and warmer lowland areas (below 500m) where biodiversity naturally flourishes. Conservation management has recently begun to focus on the other two-thirds of New Zealand’s land outside public reserves, especially the lowland production landscapes. These lowland areas are highly valued for agricultural production but could also become areas where introduced and native biodiversity could flourish if managed appropriately. Many farmers seek a role as environmental stewards and are searching for ways to sustain a profitable and productive off-take of food and fibre while still maintaining or enhancing biodiversity and ecological processes on their land. Both introduced and native species play important ecological and social roles in production landscapes. Economic benefits stem from species such as nitrogen fixing plants, insect pollinators, earthworms and other soil invertebrates that increase soil structure and fertility, and insects, spiders and birds that control pasture and crop pests. Many farmers also are very pleased to see tui, wood pigeons, and fantails in farmland, or whitebait and eels in farm streams. Overseas food market chains and their customers are increasingly wishing to be assured that the food and fibre they buy from New Zealand farms has been produced in an ecologically sustainable way that supports other plants and animals in the farm landscape as well as the ‘agricultural biodiversity’ that directly assists production. This report on bird abundance and communities composition on farms is an early example of many forthcoming reports by the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) that concern farm environment. ARGOS seeks to support farmers, agricultural industry managers, national and regional policy makers, kaitiaki (Māori environmental guardians) and wider New Zealand society to find practical ways of enhancing biodiversity in production landscapes.Publication Open Access Cleaner streams and improved stream health on North Island dairy and South Island sheep/beef farms(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2006-06) Blackwell, Grant; Haggerty, Mark; Burns, Suzanne; Davidson, Louise; Gnanalingam, Gaia; Moller, HenrikPublication Open Access The ARGOS New Zealand Farm Sustainability Survey(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2012-09) Guenther, Meike; O'Neill, Patrick; Marquet, Michelle; Hunt, Lesley M.The core of the ARGOS research design is a longitudinal panel study of New Zealand farms (including orchards in the case of the kiwifruit sector). The research aims to get a better understanding of farmer perspectives on sustainability to increase knowledge of current farming practices and opinions and assist policy development to improve the New Zealand farming sector and the wider economy.Publication Open Access High country farming in New Zealand: exploration of the pathways to sustainability revealed through responses to external and internal drivers derived from the ARGOS retrospective interviews(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2011-08) Hunt, Lesley M.; van den Dungen, S.; Rosin, C.Publication Open Access Resilience in retrospective: analysis of response to shocks and stress in the New Zealand kiwifruit and sheep and beef sectors(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2012) Rosin,, C; Dwiartama,, A; Hunt, Lesley; van den Dungen,, SSustainability forms a key concept within the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) project. Since the project was initiated in 2004, however, sustainability has been exposed to increasing scrutiny as an operational concept in the assessment and promotion of improved social and environmental outcomes in agriculture production. This report, thus, involves the further elaboration of two alternative approaches to sustainable practice: resilience theory, a concept given initial application in the work of the ARGOS environmental objective (Maegli et al 2007); and the capitals approach to assessing sustainable practice, which has been addressed by the economic objective (Saunders et al 2010). Here the focus is on the narratives of change told by the farmers and orchardists participating in the project. For the purposes of this report, resilience theory is used to provide means to frame processes of change. In particular, the analysis examines the capacity of the farmers and orchardists to develop successful strategies in response shocks and stress relating to economic, environmental or social events. The expectation is that such events have the potential to disrupt existing patterns and relationships (or the system) of production leading either to the consolidation of management practice along similar lines or the complete reorganization of the system with subsequent impacts on the economic, environmental and social outcomes. In addition, the relationship between the capitals approach to sustainability and resilience perspectives provides a vehicle for examining the role that the economic, environmental and social context plays in enabling or constraining the capacity to respond to shock.Publication Open Access The agriculture research group on sustainability programme: a longitudinal and transdisciplinary study of agricultural sustainability in New Zealand(Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability, 2012-02) Campbell, H.; Fairweather, John R.; Manhire, J.; Saunders, Caroline M.; Moller, H.; Reid, J.; Benge, J.; Blackwell, G.; Carey, Peter; Emanuelsson, M.; Greer, Glen; Hunt, Lesley M.; Lucock, D.; Rosin, C.; Norton, D.; MacLeod, C.; Knight, B.This report provides an overview of the key design features of the Agriculture Research Group on Sustainability (ARGOS) programme. This ongoing long-term research project started in 2003, involving a group of around 20 social scientists, ecologists, economists, and farm management experts in New Zealand. The overarching mission of ARGOS is to understand the enablers and barriers to the sustainability and resilience of agriculture, so as to enhance New Zealand’s economic, social and environmental wellbeing. To achieve this mission, the ARGOS team has designed and implemented a well-replicated and long-term programme of longitudinal research on more than 100 whole working farms, across different agricultural sectors, comparing a wide range of variables between three different farming systems: conventional, integrated management (IM) and organic. The first funded phase of this research programme has taken a systems and transdisciplinary approach, with an emphasis on statistical rigour and standardisation of methods, structured around the basic null hypothesis that there are no differences between the three farming systems. The primary focus of this approach is to examine the efficacy of alternative quality assurance (QA) schemes in delivering sustainable outcomes. This working paper seeks to inform potential collaborators and other interested parties about the way the ARGOS research programme has been structured, and to describe the rationale for this design. To this end, the report first documents the formation of the ARGOS group and the development of the aims and basic features of the design of the first funded phase of the research programme. The process of selection of agricultural sectors and individual farms within those sectors is described, along with the rationale behind this selection process. We then describe the key objectives of the research programme, and the way these were approached by research teams from different disciplines. The importance of transdisciplinarity is then discussed, providing insight into the associated benefits and pitfalls, and the lessons that were learned in the process of designing and implementing a transdisciplinary research programme. Finally, we discuss a number of issues surrounding the key features of our study design, evaluating their respective benefits and costs, and describe the future research directions suggested by the findings of the first phase of the programme.
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