Our Trustees
The New Zealand Farm Environment Trust is governed a board of experienced agri-business professionals and community leaders who are passionate about the food and fibre sector.
Joanne van Polanen
Chair
The Trust plays an important pan-sector role which helps farmers and growers share and celebrate their successes, and nurtures future leaders in environmental management.
This is according to Joanne who has been Board Chair since 2017 following a long association with the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust.
As the science and understanding of agricultural impacts on the environment grows, Joanne has enjoyed seeing the willingness and enthusiasm of farmers and growers as they share practices and innovation for better environmental outcomes.
Joanne’s involvement with the Trust began in 2005 when she became a Judging Coordinator for the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA). She started the part-time role as a way of contributing to the wider Canterbury community and to give herself time out from dairy farming.
Her wealth of insights and experience led to her becoming Chair of the Canterbury Management Committee for seven years before she was elected to the Trust Board in 2010.
Dairy farming was always the chosen career for Joanne and husband John as they worked through the traditional progression of sharemilking to farm ownership.
Today they farm 658ha in the Ashburton District, comprising a dry stock farm and three dairy farms operating with sharemilkers, with two of their four children involved in their business.
Joanne and John look to organisations such as the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust to inspire and support the next generation to continue evolving farming practices that protect their environment and ensure generational sustainability.
Kate Taylor
Trustee
With a communications background and a firm belief in the Trust’s work, Kate Taylor brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to the Board.
Kate is a passionate supporter of rural New Zealand, fitting perfectly with the Trust’s mission to champion Aotearoa’s best farmers and growers.
In 2020, Kate stepped down from the East Coast BFEA regional committee after 10 years of service. Her governance journey has included positions within sporting and community organisations, and Young Farmers. She’s a Kellogg Rural Scholar, former Consumers Power Trust elected trustee and current district councillor.
Professionally, Kate is a rural journalist who has a deep rural network spanning both the North and South islands.
Warwick Catto
Trustee
Warwick has been part of the Ballance Farm Environment Awards national judging team since its inception in 2011 and brings a wealth of industry experience to the Board table.
He started working for Ballance Agri-Nutrients in 1989, starting as technical sales representative before moving to head office in Tauranga to manage science and agronomic matters.
A regular speaker at rural media events and field days, Warwick has been instrumental in the development of fertiliser industry policy for more almost 25 years. This includes the establishment of Fertmark, Spreadmark and the Fertiliser Code of Practice, and the development of Overseer.
His farming sector involvement includes a stint as President of New Zealand Grasslands Association, winning the New Zealand Young Farmer of the Year award, becoming a Commonwealth Scholar in 1998 and chairing the Southern Region Beef Council.
Warwick is a board member of FertResearch and co-chairs its technical committee. With a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) from Lincoln University, he has co-authored numerous scientific papers on fertiliser-related topics.
Terry Olsen
Trustee
As a long-term North Island dairy farmer and potato grower, Terry has first-hand
experience of the environmental challenges facing today’s New Zealand farmers and growers.
He believes these challenges are enormous for all primary producers, and have the potential to significantly change the face of vegetable growing at a local level.
Terry brings this insider’s perspective to the Trust Board table, following a long involvement with the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA) – first as an entrant and then as a member and Chair of the Horizons BFEA committee.
He is part of a family farming partnership that dates back to the 1970s, although his family’s connection with Opiki started in 1937.
Currently Chair of Tararua Growers Inc – a local vegetable growers’ association representing 50 members – Terry has also held leadership positions with both Potatoes New Zealand and Horticulture New Zealand.
As it strives to remain relevant in an ever-changing world, Tararua Growers has recently implemented two horticultural study scholarships to help people into the industry.
Brendon Cross
Trustee
Brendon Cross brings extensive farm experience to the Board table. He has a sheep and beef farm on the Otago Peninsula which he is sixth generation to farm.
Brendon’s vision is for farm sustainability. He would like to see a future in farming where the land and animals are well cared for and protected, whilst making farming a profitable business for future generations.
Brendon has strong values pertaining to land protection, his aim is to ensure his farm can afford to put money back into projects involved with this.
Brendon won the BFEA Otago Regional Supreme Award in 2016. He has continued his involvement with the Trust through his involvement with regional judging since 2017. In addition to this he has been the Chair of the Otago BFEA Committee for the last three years.
In 2009 he was a founding Trustee of the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Trust, a group set up working towards a pest free peninsula.
Fiona Young
Trustee
Fiona has worked in the resource management space for the past twenty five years, shifting from a policy and advocacy space into an operational role. She currently works for Environment Southland leading a team of people who are working directly with the farming community to engage, educate and generate positive environmental action on the ground.
Her strengths are in strategy and implementation, connection and working with people. With an extensive understanding of regional and national policy development and implementation, Fiona has a unique insight into the complex natural resource challenges facing New Zealand farmers and growers.
Fiona believes the Trust’s strong kaupapa and supporting values are fundamental to achieving its objectives. Her skillset specifically supports the Trust’s goal of highlighting Aotearoa farmers and growers as world leaders in the sustainable management of their natural resources.
Rex Edwin Anderson
Trustee
“Putauaki Te Maunga, Rangitaiki Te Awa, Mataatua Te Waka, Ngati Awa Te Iwi”
After thirty-one years as an award-winning chef followed by seven years of contract fencing and pest eradication on Mount Putauaki and the Tarawera Forest in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Rex Anderson has worn many hats over the years, but his current one – orchard kaumatua and kaitiaki – perhaps fits most comfortably.
Back home in Te Teko, as a shareholder in Māori Investments Ltd (MIL), Rex has overseen all operations at MIL’s Whiritoa Orchards since 2017 in his role as Property Manager/ Orchard Kaumatua and Kaitiaki. Whiritoa Orchards was named the Bay of Plenty Regional Supreme Winner at the 2022 Ballance Farm Environment Awards.
The diverse range of natural resource knowledge and skills Rex brings to the Trust are drawn from being raised on his ancestral land since birth. The valuable lessons learnt from his elders of when to hunt, the right lunar months for planting food, the correct conditions for fishing or when to eel are early tikanga lessons that have been the foundation of Rex’s environmental practices throughout his life.
Hoping to bring a fresh face of perspective through a Maori lens, Rex is excited about his tenure with the NZFET Trust Board.
Rick Mannering
Trustee
Since 1992 Rick has managed family companies in both New Zealand and Australia with his wife Shirley-Ann. These businesses included forestry, timber, manufacturing operations and a dairy farm in the Hunua Ecological District of Southern Auckland. Over the past 12 years the farming business has grown and now consists of two dairy farms supplying Hereford cross calves to a sheep and beef farm. This gives Rick an insight into some of the challenges and opportunities facing these three primary industry sectors.
Being the Supreme Winner for the Auckland Region in the 2022 Ballance Farm Environment Awards highlighted to Rick the fantastic work the Trust does. He found there were many benefits to entering the awards, one of which was standing back and looking at their farms, assessing what they had achieved and what future development is needed, while striving to a maintain a financially viable operation. Meeting other participants whose stories show the great work happening on farms all over New Zealand was inspirational.
Rick believes many farmers in New Zealand are doing extraordinary things in the environmental and sustainability space, and by championing their achievements through the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, not only does the Trust encourage them on their personal journey but also gives inspiration and encouragement to the wider farming community.
Karen Williams
Trustee
Karen farms a 450ha mixed cropping, beef, and lamb finishing property in the Wairarapa with her husband Mick. They are past Regional Supreme Winners for the Geater Wellington Region in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, and Karen is a graduate of the Agri-Women’s Development Trust’s ‘Escalator’ Programme. Karen received the Biosecurity Farmer of the Year Award in 2019 for her work on the pea weevil biosecurity incursion, and the couple won the Environmental and Sustainability Award at the 2022 NZ Arable Awards.
Karen currently works as the National Rural Propositions Manager at FMG where she brings a farmer and grower perspective to the Mutual. Karen is the former National Vice President and Arable Industry Chairperson for Federated Farmers NZ.
Karen has a Bachelor of Arts (Geography) degree and a Master of Resource Management from the University of Otago, and previously worked developing policy and plans for local authorities. Karen is driven to help farmers and the agricultural sector to better engage with government and key stakeholders to ensure rural communities remain strong, vibrant, economically viable and environmentally sustainable.
We are passionate about New Zealand agriculture and horticulture and celebrate what New Zealand farmers and growers are achieving. The New Zealand Farm Environment Trust and Ballance Farm Environment Awards are built on the dedication of our nationwide army of volunteers who support our drive towards positive change in environmental practices.