chicken
Standing in the chicken aisle: barn-raised, free-range, organic — three different lives, three different prices, same blue badge. What does SPCA Certified actually certify, how does it compare internationally, and why does the SPCA endorse a higher standard it doesn't require?
eggs
Two shops, zero eggs, and the seasonal reason behind it — then a carton of Good Farms "100% Free Range" I'd never noticed, and what happened when I tried to check the claim. A look at daylight, laying hens, and the gap between a label and the proof behind it.
meat
New Zealand has five times as many sheep as people, and sells its lamb to the world. So I assumed organic lamb would be easy to find here. It wasn't. Here's what I found when I went looking — and the missing piece that explains it.
dairy
I bought a block of Mainland Organic Cheese this week. Then I turned it over and actually read the back. Non-animal rennet, in a certified organic cheese. Is that legit? The answer turned out to be more interesting than I expected.
Organic Food
In 1985, a British prince converted his farm to organic. People called him a complete idiot. Forty years later, he's the King — and the farm is still going.
the month in food
A monthly recap of everything published — the egg investigation, the Long Drift series, the chicken trilogy, the Real Food Map launch, and a plantation that turns thirty. Plus a quick orientation if it's your first visit.
pork
Sixty percent of pork in New Zealand is imported. Over eighty percent of bacon and ham. So who's growing the rest? The answer is fifty-eight farms — fewer than the country has Pak'nSave stores. Here's who they are, who makes the best bacon and ham from their pork, and where to buy it.
eggs
A friend told me she buys Otaika Valley free range eggs because she liked the pohutukawa flower on the label. She didn't know who owned the brand. Neither did I, in any real detail. So I went looking.
organic
If you buy organic in New Zealand, you've probably felt like you're on your own. Thin shelves, high prices, a fussy choice. But across Europe, governments have spent thirty years building the largest organic food economy on earth. Here's what they know — and why we haven't started the conversation.
food labelling
I went to the shop on a Wednesday at three, and the very first thing that was wacky to me was a chicken, all pink, wrapped in plastic and bright, that had bathed in some chlorine to keep it just right. A homage to a certain Wednesday book — and five wacky things hiding in plain sight.
I keep hearing about the Gene Technology Bill. Most people don't fully understand it. The documents are heavy. The language is technical. That's part of how this works — when something is hard to read, people zone out. So I tried to read it anyway. Here's what I found.
chicken
Bostock organic chicken costs around $200 more per person per year than the standard supermarket brands. That's about $3.85 a week — a takeaway coffee. Here's a side-by-side comparison of what your money is actually buying you, brand by brand and process by process.
