Building Sustainable & Profitable Farm Systems

Phil McKenzie is the principal consultant at Change for Good Consulting. Originally from a farm in Southland, Phil has lived and worked in agriculture in many regions throughout NZ and overseas. An experienced and proud alumnus of Pāmu Farms of NZ (formerly Landcorp). Phil designed, launched and embeded new technology and systems, most recently as GM Environment. He has spent his career to date helping farmers build sustainable and profitable farm systems, and believes the opportunities in agriculture have never been greater.

You can listen here to a story from Phil to his relationship to the land, and his philosophy for what comes next for farming.

Phil’s focus is on working with farmers to meet their needs, helping design systems that work for them, their customers and stakeholders and that are profitable and sustainable.

Recognising Strengths through Shared Ideas

A key approach is recognising the strengths we have as organisations and communities, and building on those strengths. All change – whether environment or ag-tech – benefits from a wide input from others to gather ideas, which is why we like to work with groups of farmers and those that support them. Ideas and opportunities are sparked from other ideas within the group and solutions become more defined and scalable to make a meaningful change when a group works together.

Empathy and Education

Practical and trusted to resolve complex issues and with deep experience of farm systems, Phil has a real empathy for farmers and the communities they are part of, and the food they produce. Phil is a graduate of both Lincoln and Massey Universities and the University of Queensland.

Career profile:

  • Principal Consultant, Change for Good Consulting, 2017- current
  • Manager Farm Performance, Deer Industry NZ, 2020-2023
  • Environment Project Manager, Deer Industry NZ, 2018-2020
  • GM Environment, Pāmu Farms of NZ, Wellington 2013-2017
  • National Manager Technology & Property, Landcorp, Wellington 2011-2013
  • Consultant, Agriculture Scoping Investigation to Africa, Ministry Foreign Affairs & Trade, 2013
  • National Manager Marketing & Procurement, Landcorp, Wellington 1999-2013
  • National Marketing Operations Manager, Landcorp, Rotorua 1995-1999
  • Livestock Specialist, North East Thailand Foundation (with VSA New Zealand) 1993-1995
  • Field Officer and Business Manager, Lands & Survey and Landcorp, Wellington & Whangarei 1981-1993

Working Values

Personal Accountability, Collaboration, Respect, Discretion, Honesty, Resilience, Dependability, Principled Leadership

Passions

Family, Change for Good, Environment and Agriculture, Health Safety & Wellbeing, Sustainable Growth, Technology

Global Values – Local implementation

Even local initiatives roll up to have a global impact. We only have one world, and Change for Good supports the United Nation’s Sustainable development goals.

We focus on how some of these 17 goals to transform the world can link to our partner’s projects, targeting value creation linked to specific goals.