> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Who Pays NZ Farmers to Go Regenerative, or Organic? - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/who-pays-nz-farmers-to-go-regenerative-or-organic/ - Published: 2026-10-19T17:31:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-19T17:31:01.000Z - Description: Fifty thousand hectares of South Island hill country, three years of training and monitoring, and the farmer pays nothing. The money traces back to Gucci's owner. I went looking for the organic version of that offer. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: Food System, lamb, wool, regenerative, organic certification, meat, Fonterra, Chanel, MPI Fifty thousand hectares of South Island hill country. Three years of training, advice and ecological monitoring. Cost to the farmer: nothing. That's the offer from [From Soil to Wool](https://www.thewholestory.co.nz/soiltowool/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), a project run by The Whole Story, a Central Otago B Corp, with the US-based Savory Institute. It runs from 2026 to 2028 and wants sheep farmers in Otago and Canterbury. This week it was looking for its final few. The money comes from the Regenerative Fund for Nature. Kering [launched it in 2021](https://www.just-style.com/news/kering-names-first-regenerative-fund-for-nature-grantees/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) with Conservation International, to move a million hectares of cotton, wool, cashmere and leather supply chains to regenerative practices within five years. Kering's sustainability chief tied it to the group's goal of a net positive impact on biodiversity by 2025\. Kering is the group behind [Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga](https://www.thefashionlaw.com/kering-reports-21-8-billion-in-2022-revenue-despite-difficulties-for-gucci-balenciaga/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Inditex [joined the fund in 2023](https://fashionunited.de/nachrichten/business/regenerative-landwirtschaft-fur-die-modebranche-kering-und-inditex-erweitern-globalen-fonds/2025080762904?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), and by August 2025 it covered more than 1.1 million hectares in eight countries. So a fashion house's biodiversity target is now being worked out, in part, on Otago and Canterbury sheep farms. ## What the farmers sign up for Farmers move to Holistic Planned Grazing, which shifts stock around according to how fast the pasture is growing. They record stock movements, turn up to field days, and let the project team monitor their land every year using Ecological Outcome Verification, Savory's system for measuring soil, ground cover, biodiversity and water. They also need to hold, or work towards, NZFAP and the Responsible Wool Standard. The project describes itself as outcomes-based, not practice-based. It measures what changes on the land rather than setting rules about what goes on it. The project page doesn't mention fertiliser or sprays. That's the odd bit. The fund's [2023 call for applications](https://www2.fundsforngos.org/latest-funds-for-ngos/call-for-applications-regenerative-fund-for-nature/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), which listed New Zealand as eligible, set out five regenerative principles. One of them was "reducing and eliminating the use of synthetic agrochemicals." The New Zealand project page sets no such rule. The payoff is a market. Verified farms can sell through Land to Market, Savory's sourcing programme, which connects them to textile, apparel and food brands that want traceable supply. ## The government got there first Subsidised regenerative verification isn't new here. In 2022, [MPI put $142,480](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/new-project-to-help-farmers-gain-regenerative-agriculture-certification/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) into a $356,200 project with Atkins Ranch to grow the number of lamb farmers verified under the same Land to Market programme. Stuart Ellingham, one of the first Hawke's Bay farmers through the pilot, told MPI that meeting the requirements meant tweaking a few things, such as not doing full tillage cultivation. That was a small line in a bigger budget. MPI's 2022 report [Regenerating Aotearoa](https://mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/52975/direct?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) described 11 regenerative research projects with a total investment of $54.74 million. The largest, Whenua Haumanu, received $17.58 million of MPI money over seven years. Its industry partners include the Fertiliser Association of NZ, Ravensdown and Ballance Agri-Nutrients. ## And organic? Organic has rules about inputs. [MPI's own explainer](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/organic-food?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) says organic production doesn't use most human-made fertilisers and pesticides, growth hormones, or genetic modification. Getting there takes time, and the farmer pays. BioGro says livestock and dairy certification takes [a minimum of three years](https://www.biogro.co.nz/organic-dairy-livestock-certification?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) of compliance with its standards, with full organic status in year four. The farmer pays at the application stage and again at the management plan stage. BioGro no longer publishes its fees; its [rates page](https://www.biogro.co.nz/biogro-certification-rates?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) asks producers to get in touch for a quote. The government did once pay for organic conversion advice. A $2.1 million Organic Advisory Programme, agreed between the Greens and the previous government, [ended on 30 June 2009](https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0906/S00692.htm?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) after three years. It paid for 150 on-farm consultations, and OANZ, which ran it, said two-thirds of those farmers were in conversion to certified organic by the time it ended. In 2021, MPI gave [$212,500 to OANZ](https://www.oanz.org/press-releases/oanz-announces-funding-for-organic-sector-strategy?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) towards a three-year organic sector strategy. That money went to a strategy, not to farmers. In August this year, OANZ came back from two days of meetings in Wellington with a [blunt message](https://www.oanz.org/new-blog/organic-manifesto-goes-to-parliamentsector-calls-for-policy-amp-investment?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz): not one party had a specific policy for growing organics. Support for organic transition was one of the seven questions it put to every party. Certified organic land covers 0.6% of New Zealand's productive land, [according to IFOAM](https://ifoam.bio/news/ifoam-organics-international-celebrates-new-zealands?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). England, by comparison, [now has a target of 10%](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/england-organic-action-plan-10-percent-new-zealand/). ## The exception is milk There is one place in New Zealand where a farmer gets paid to go organic. It's the dairy shed. [Fonterra](https://nzfarmsource.co.nz/advice-and-support/enrich/organic-conversion-incentives-set-to-increase.html?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) pays a conversion incentive on top of the normal milk price while farms spend about three years converting. On 1 June 2026 that rose from 45 to 70 cents per kilogram of milksolids. Once a farm is certified for markets such as New Zealand, China and Europe, a utilisation incentive is added, now 25 cents. The reason is demand. Fonterra says the Organic Milk Price has averaged a $2.07 premium over the standard milk price since 2016/17, and the last three years are on track to average more than $3.00\. It is now recruiting South Island farmers so it can start processing organic milk at Stirling from the 2028/29 season. Fonterra isn't doing this out of kindness. Its own article says the organic programme covers its own cost and adds to the co-op's wider earnings. Customers overseas want the milk badly enough to pay for the conversion. ## Where the lamb goes The same thing drives the regenerative side. The buyer pays because the buyer wants the story. Atkins Ranch, the company behind that MPI-backed lamb project, has all its retail partnerships in the US and has been a main lamb supplier to Whole Foods since the 1990s, [according to AgFunderNews](https://agfundernews.com/at-atkins-ranch-raising-lambs-with-regenerative-tactics-puts-more-cash-back-into-farmers-pockets?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). When I [went looking for organic lamb](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/new-zealand-sells-the-world-its-lamb-try-buying-an-organic-one-here/) earlier this year, the certified organic kind was mostly sold farm-direct, and there wasn't a recognisable organic lamb brand in the big supermarket chillers. ## Where the organic wool money went One fashion house has put money into organic wool here. In April, Chanel [bought into Lammermoor Station](https://www.odt.co.nz/business/ooh-la-la-chanel-buys-stake-in-central-otago-farm-gd9g8z00?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), New Zealand's largest organic farm and its only certified organic fine wool producer. Chanel plans to take it to Regenerative Organic Certification, which [uses organic certification as its baseline](https://rodaleinstitute.org/regenerative-organic-certification/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). I [wrote about the deal](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/chanel-buys-into-nzs-largest-organic-farm/) when it was announced. The Elliot family converted Lammermoor to organic in 2002\. Chanel arrived 24 years later. ## So who pays? For regenerative wool, a luxury fashion fund. For regenerative lamb, an exporter selling into American supermarkets, with some help from MPI. For organic milk, Fonterra, because its customers want it. For organic wool, a fashion house will buy in once the work is done. For the years of conversion, I couldn't find anyone paying sheep farmers. If you know of a meat company or wool buyer doing it, I'd like to hear about it. Fifty thousand hectares of free help is on offer in the South Island this week. I couldn't find the organic version of that offer. --- **Before you go** If this was useful, you can [sign up free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup) to get the next one in your inbox, or [leave a one-off tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support) to help keep the research going.