Hugh Jellie
Hugh is the Founder of Ata Regenerative; he is a veterinarian with specialist interest in farm production systems, reproduction and ruminant nutrition. Ata Regenerative has been created to facilitate transformational change in agriculture in NZ to systems which deliver greater health and resilience to farmers, rural communities, environments people and animals.
Hugh has worked principally in the dairy industry for the past 35 years. Through his work in many countries he has observed that current farming methods are exploitative of the farm animals, the environment and the local rural communities, which have suffered as a result. Food nutrient capacity has collapse to the point it is no longer able to support health.
He strives to improve resilience at farm level through regenerative agriculture, improved welfare and husbandry standards and the development of the skills and capability on farm to support this. He is also passionate about improving the resilience of rural communities and indigenous landowners fostered by greater self-reliance through this skills development. He has worked with a number of indigenous groups including Maori and Moriori on farm improvement and land use change.
Ata Regenerative has been established as the ‘Savory Hub’ in NZ to further the understanding of Holistic and Regenerative Management. Hugh has trained in and successfully established Ecological Outcome Verification and the Land to Market programme in NZ with over 500,000ha involved.
Regen to Market is an extension of this initiative giving it a NZ focus connecting the healthy produce from farms involved in the EOV programme in NZ to consumers who care about their health and where their food comes from.
Hugh has also established Farmers Footprint NZ as a forum to tell farmers stories to raise the profile, perception, and adoption of regenerative agriculture principles in food and fibre production. Farmer’s Footprint NZ will give voice, value, and validation to food and fibre producers who have adopted regenerative principles of production and support their effort in making their landscape ecosystem a better place.
NZ is at a tipping point, agriculture as we have practiced it for the last decades has no long term future and must change to protect our environments, our people, communities, the welfare of farmers and their animals; in so doing this aligns with global consumer wants and helps protect our economy.
To change we need a new way of thinking, Hugh is creating a framework of new thinkers to help deliver on different outcomes through regenerative design.