food system infrastructure
The Strait of Hormuz and your butter
When the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed in March, it didn't just disrupt oil. A third of the world's fertiliser trade moved through that channel. NZ farming is feeling it.
New Zealand food system
Three Months In. Here's What I've Been Finding.
It started with one exceptional strawberry. Three months later: fragile processing capacity, hidden supply chains, and quiet resilience in NZ's food system.
organic growing
Where do you go to learn how organic food actually grows?
There are now several places in New Zealand where you can learn how organic food actually works. Not just which label to choose, but the underlying practice — soil health, seed saving, what it takes to run a small market garden.
Organic Food NZ
The Organic Food Is Out There. Finding It Is the Hard Part.
I started by turning over a butter packet. I ended up discovering a patchwork of farms, collectives, butcheries, and stores quietly trying to solve one of organic food's most stubborn problems — how do you get good food from a small farm to the people who actually want it?
Huckleberry Farms
Huckleberry Farms: Thirty Years of Organic Dreaming in New Zealand
For thirty years, Huckleberry Farms was the beating heart of organic food retail in Auckland. From a single Greenlane store in 1994 to twelve locations across the North Island, it built something the supermarket duopoly could never replicate. In June 2024, it was gone.
New Zealand food system
You Wouldn’t Buy Your Dinner From Temu
New Zealanders assume the frozen vegetables in the supermarket are still mostly local and trustworthy. But as local processing disappears, that choice is quietly being made for us.
New Zealand food system
New Zealand Is Not Just Losing Factories. It Is Losing the Ability to Feed Itself Properly
Frozen vegetable processing is shrinking in New Zealand because the whole chain is under margin pressure at once. Growers are squeezed, processors are squeezed, households are squeezed, and supermarkets still hold enormous power. Imports do not solve that. They simply mask the damage.
New Zealand food system
The Quiet Collapse Behind New Zealand’s Frozen Vegetables
McCain’s Hastings closure and Wattie’s frozen vegetable retreat put at risk local processing capacity tied to roughly 86,000 tonnes of vegetables a year, enough for all five daily vegetable servings for around 589,000 people.
Ultra-processed food
New Zealand Isn’t Just Importing More Ultra-Processed Food. We’re Importing the System That Makes It Normal
A new study found ultra-processed foods rose from 8.7% of New Zealand’s food and beverage imports in 1990 to 21.8% in 2023. That is not just a diet story. It is a food-system story.
Health
Why Do Pills Feel Affordable, But Real Food Feels Expensive?
We will buy pills, powders, and “health” products, then say better food is too expensive. A friendly question: have we been sold the add-on while neglecting the foundation?
Local Food
Food Secure North Canterbury: Real Local Food Connection in Action
Food Secure North Canterbury is a grounded local food resource that helps make the regional food system more visible, practical, and connected. With an interactive map, community projects, and practical programmes, it offers a useful example of local food connection in action.
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Organic Farming New Zealand
[WEBINAR] Transitioning to Organic: Lessons From the Paddock
Three farmers. One clear message: organic transition isn't about swapping products, it's about rebuilding your whole farming system. And for most of them, the numbers got better.
