There’s a difference between being compliant and planning for the future.  And here at Fortuna that difference is Rosie Forbes.  As Sustainability Manager, Rosie is tasked with making sure we live up to the ideals we’ve set for ourselves.  We want to be considered good custodians of the land.  Because it’s not ours.  It belongs to the next generation and those who follow.  We’re just looking after it and trying to do a good job while it’s in our possession.

It’s an important job, then.  Not too many roles can say their impact will be felt by Mother Nature, but Rosie can.  Luckily for us, it means Rosie arrives at work every day with a smile on her face, ready to tackle whatever challenges await.  “I genuinely don’t think I’ve been more motivated to go to work. The people here really make it”, says Rosie.  You’ll hear a lot of folk from Fortuna say much the same.  There must be some truth to it.

That there’s a Sustainably Manager role for a dairy farming company might come as a surprise to some.  Others might think it’s a cynical attempt to appease part of society.  The truth is the role has been around for a while and Fortuna has always been striving for a sustainable future.  David Dodunski was toiling away in the fields and working on environmental issues way before it became a hot topic in Parliament and in the newspapers.  This included thousands of kilometres of riparian planting before it was the thing to do, and innovating effluent solutions to make more effective use of natural nutrients. 

For Rosie, who grew up on a lifestyle block in Canterbury with the outdoors as her playground, sustainability was a part of life; growing vegetables, fixing and renovating, recycling, and minimising the families impact on the land. Then came Massey University for a degree in Agriculture & Animal Science, followed by a graduate role with Ravensdown.  

That role was based in Winton, so Rosie moved South.  Next came a consulting role, producing Environment Plans for farms.  “It was a tick box exercise for some clients and I doubt they even read the reports, if I’m honest” says Rosie.  It’s not a tick box exercise here though.  Which is why this role is perfect for Rosie.  

As Rosie states, “it’s future focused.  It’s not about environmental compliance, it’s about sustainability.”  The analogy used is this: to pass a medical test you might diet for a few weeks.  Then you return to bad habits the instant the medical is over.  The Fortuna approach is about training every week.  Not to pass a medical but to safeguard health 5 years from now.  And 20 years from now, and beyond.  After all, sustainability literally means the ‘ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time’.  So Rosie has plenty of work stacked up and ahead of her.  Luckily for us, she likes it.

“I love the variety of the job”, says Rosie.  “You’re on farm, supporting Managers with effluent management, riparian planting, nitrogen use, winter grazing plans, and much more.  Then there’s the bigger picture strategy, making sure what we do is not just good for farming but good for the role of farming in the environment and where the industry is heading”.

That’s a lot of work and a lot of responsibility.  For Rosie, the support she gets at Fortuna is key: “I’m allowed to make the role my own and let people know if I need anything.  Everyone is very encouraging and I’ve never had as many thank you emails, or ‘you’re doing a good job - I appreciate it’ “.  As any farmer knows, a simple nod is generally a sign of understated affection, so the emails are impressive.  

The job’s not done yet though.  Remember what we said about the definition of sustainability a few paragraphs back?  Rosie agrees too; “there’s great sustainability across the farms but we also have scope to do more and to get better.  We need to continually do better”.  To do that means encouraging more good people into farming.  As Rosie says “There’s much scope within Dairy, with different pathways to specialisation and some very cool jobs, like mine.”

We think you’re pretty cool too, Rosie.