A former president of Federated Farmers is putting her hand up to become leader of the World Farmers' Organisation.
Katie Milne is seeking to become leader of the World Farmers' Organisation. Photo: Sharon Brettkelly
Katie Milne, who farms on the West Coast is a board member of the Rome-based advocacy group.
She is contesting the presidency and is up against two other candidates - one from Canada and the other France.
''I had been asked from multiple farmers different parts of the globe to seriously consider putting my hat in the ring, so that gave me the extra push to say, why not, why shouldn't I have a crack.
''They obviously see I have something to offer in the way that I can present the problems that farmers face and what some of the solutions might be to some of the major, wicked problems that the world faces around food and food production.''
Milne said her background in livestock farming will be of benefit.
''We have a lot of pressure on livestock farming at the moment world-wide from others who think that we should just go plant-based in order to help climate change.
"The diversity that our farming systems, our food production systems need to have in my mind is very clear. You can move stock around if there is an issue and you can't shift crops and if we go down a mono culture path in our food production system of just having a huge reliance on crops, we put everyone at risk.''
Milne said the WFO has a lot of influence.
''They are getting to the right tables to talk about food systems, climate change, climate smart agriculture. A whole range of things.
''It's important that the farming voice is there so that the whole picture gets thought about when people are designing and thinking about where agriculture needs to go in the future.''
Milne said if she was successful it would help the profile of New Zealand.
She said to campaign for the position she needs to talk to farming groups around the world which are the equivalent of Federated Farmers.
A vote on the position will be taken at the World Farmers' Organisation's general assembly being held in Budapest 7-10 June.