The founders of 42 Below Vodka, Justine and Geoff Ross are a controversial pair within the farming world. 

In 2017, the pair sold their company and bought a farm, aiming to change the model and confront the climate crisis, establishing Australasia’s only climate positive farm. 

Geoff told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that despite the controversy, most of what they saw and felt was positive. 

“We got huge numbers of messages of support from pretty much every agricultural company in the country,” he said. 

“A huge number of farmers wanting to visit and exchange knowledge.”  

Their South Island farm is 6,500 hectares, holding 10,000 merino sheep and 280 angus beef cattle. 

“We were naïve,” Justine told Hosking with a laugh. 

“Although we come from farming backgrounds, we’d never, we don’t know anything about sheep and beef farming.” 

The pair fell in love with the property, realising that it provided the opportunity for them to pursue their goal in farming in a climate positive way. 

“We emit two-and-a-half thousand tons of greenhouse equivalent and we sequester, we remove five-and-a-half thousand tons.”  

Justine and Geoff detail their experiences in their new book “Meet You At The Main Divide.” 

“If you read the book,” Justine told Hosking. “You will see that there was a bumpy road.” 

“It hasn’t been easy.” 

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