Meet Dr Hugh Jellie, a NZ veterinarian, with a passion for the planet and welfare of animals and humans. Dr Jellie talks about his interest in regenerative organisations, animal welfare and a healthy microbiome. He explains the importance of soil ecology and why changing our thinking to a symbiotic – living systems approach to how we grow our food is important.
Dr Jellie discusses plant-based nutrition, the health of the ecosystem, the complexity of nature and the unintended consequences of removing animals from the land. He talks about the Savory Institute and why we need a change in thinking around the role ruminants play in soil preservation, sequestering carbon, water retention and human health. He also discuss the serious implications of our use of glyphosate and the effects on human health.
Dr Jellie talks about the potential of regenerative agriculture to feed the world. Why we need to know where our food comes from – the consequences of glyphosate in our food chain, particularly in plant-based nutrition. He discusses the importance of eating local and eating seasonally to improve our health as well as that of the animals and planet. We need to be looking at our supply chains and where our food is coming from. He ends with saying “we all have choices to make every day”. I think it is to consider the consequences of our choices, not just now, but in the future. He also says “food is the medicine of the future”. Again, I whole-heartedly agree. Food is the most important drug we take every single day – we can choose healthful life giving food or toxic poison that destroys our health.
About Dr Hugh Jellie
Hugh is the Founder of Ata Regenerative; he is a veterinarian with specialist interest in dairy production systems, reproduction and ruminant nutrition. He is a member of the New Zealand Veterinary Association and a founder member of the New Zealand Association of Ruminant Nutritionists and its inaugural Chairman. He is currently working with the Savory Global Institute and has established the first ‘Savory Hub’ in NZ as a model of Holistic Management. He is the first accredited Field Professional for Savory Global in NZ and is establishing the first Ecological Outcome Verified farm sites which allow NZ products to become part of the global Land to Market programme.
Hugh has worked principally in the dairy industry for the past 30 years. Through his work in many countries he has observed that current farming methods are becoming increasingly exploitative of the farm animals, the environment and the local rural communities, which have suffered as a result.
He strives to improve productivity and performance 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 land owners through greater self-reliance through this skills development. He has worked with a number of Maori groups on farm improvement and land use change.
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 and animals. Ata has now partnered with the Savory Global Network and nRhythm to help achieve positive regenerative change for NZ. It is our collective view that 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 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 and some new minds, we are creating a framework of new thinkers to help deliver on different outcomes. We have also now partnered with the new ‘Centre for Excellence; Designing Future Productive Landscapes’ at Lincoln University.
