The 2026 AGM was held online on Saturday 26 September 2026. Thank you to everyone who registered, attended and voted. Registration and voting are now closed. The results will be published shortly.

We welcome all financial and honorary life members. The meeting is conducted according to our constitution.

Key dates (statutory)

27 June 2026 — Call for nominations and remits opens (90 days)
17 August 2026 — Nominations close (40 days). Nomination process here.
28 August 2026 — AGM notice, agenda, and audited accounts and nominee information distributed (28 days)
12 September 2026 — Member motions close (14 days). Email any to info@organicnz.org.nz
26 September 2026 — AGM held

Documents

Note: This content is only available to logged in members

Register

Registration for the 2026 AGM has closed.

Agenda (summary)

Welcome and general business
Confirmation of facilitator, minute taker, returning officer
Acceptance of agenda
Apologies
Confirmation of 2025 AGM minutes
National Council election / confirmation
Motions:
- Approve audited accounts
- Accept chairperson’s report
- Approve continuation of auditor
- Remits – if any
Auckland branch report
General business and close of formal part of the AGM
Guest speaker: National Council member and flower grower Rebecka Keeling from Slow Blooms, talking about starting the journey towards organic certification through OrganicFarmNZ (OFNZ) on her new banana farm.

2026 Election of National Council

National Council usually consists of no fewer than seven Council Members, with each councillor elected for a two-year term.

Of the current councillors, Asha Andersen and Rebecka Keeling continue the second year of their terms. Their biographies can be read here.

The nomination period has now closed. However nominations can be received from the floor of the AGM, and the National Council can co-opt members during the year, so further nominations or recommendations at the meeting are welcome. The following nominations have been received:

Charles Hyland, nominated by Asha Andersen, seconded by Di Maxwell
Richard Wallis, nominated by Asha Andersen, seconded by Tracey Nieuwelaar

NOTE: Di Maxwell has withdrawn her nomination.

Candidate Details

Charles Hyland

Charles Hyland is the current Chair of the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, a BioGro NZ board member, and founder of Farmetrics, an Auckland-based soil health and land stewardship consultancy. He is Cornell-trained in crop and soil sciences and has more than 25 years’ experience across soil health, organic and regenerative systems, water quality, environmental monitoring and applied primary-industry science.

Charles is standing again for National Council to continue strengthening Soil & Health’s role as an independent voice for healthy soils, organic integrity, GE-free production, ecological resilience and evidence-based public policy. Over the next term, he would like to help build Organic NZ into a stronger digital platform for education, investigation, long-form written articles, interviews, podcasts, videos, member stories and public engagement.

He also aims to continue to support a healthy, constructive and well-governed relationship between Soil & Health and BioGro, so that Soil & Health can help protect the integrity, credibility and future relevance of certified organics in Aotearoa.

Richard Wallis

In New Zealand’s current farming model, repeated nitrogen fertiliser applications provoke ongoing flushes in long-lived perennial ryegrass pastures. This is profitable so long as the price for milk solids exceeds the cost of purchasing and applying the fertiliser. It is obvious that if you phase out nitrogen fertiliser from this simplistic model, there will be a massive and disastrous drop in productivity.

My goal is to encourage farmers and policymakers to look deeper into whether there is another way to farm—a way that does not rely on nitrate fertiliser for productivity. I propose doing this by substituting multispecies pastures in place of monocultures, and cultivating a diverse, functional soil microbiome in place of nitrate fertiliser. This is an alternative approach known to increase productivity and long-term sustainability by significantly increasing soil carbon structure year on year for the foreseeable future.

Voting for National Council Members

While we have fewer candidates (two) than vacancies (five), we still encourage you to vote. This ensures a strong mandate and support from our members for these volunteers.

The National Council also has the ability to co-opt members onto National Council or for specific projects.