beef
What Is a New Zealand Cow Given in Its Lifetime?
Nobody is hiding what your beef was given. Nobody is telling you either. I went looking for the record and found a form that only asks about right now.
beef
Why Is Beef Mince So Expensive in New Zealand?
I stood in front of the mince cabinet and photographed the shelf tags. The cheapest was $21.99 a kilo. The most expensive was $33.98. Both were mince.
organic
The 1941 gardening club that owns New Zealand's organic logo
The BioGro sticker on your kiwifruit traces back to a compost club started in 1941. Here is what that organisation publishes now, and whether joining is worth it.
the month in food
The Month in Food: July 2026
Seventeen days, seventeen pieces, then a plane. July was the month the cheese question finally cracked open, the month bacon and milk kept pointing at the same gap between how an animal lived and what it ate, and the month I wrote down who I am before telling anyone else what to buy.
organic
Why Do People Choose Organic Food?
Why do people choose organic food? Sprays, GM feed, soil biology, animal welfare, and the trust underneath it all. An honest run through every reason people pay more, including the weak ones that don't survive the evidence, and what the premium over free range actually buys you in New Zealand.
honey
Niue Honey and the Last Clean Bees in the Pacific
New Zealand sent Italian bees to Niue in the 1960s. Then varroa arrived here and tore through our hives. On the Rock, 2,400km away, the bees stayed clean. Their honey tastes of caramel and malt, comes certified organic in a rum bottle, and carries Peter Gordon's name.
bread
The real cost of a loaf of bread
Non-organic bread flour in New Zealand has been fortified with folic acid since 2023. So I bought a mill. Then I worked out what a home loaf actually costs against the supermarket, and the answer surprised me.
honey
Honey isn't just honey
A jar of honey is a sample of the land around the hive. Here is how organic honey really differs from regular, from glyphosate drift and varroa miticides to BPA in the jar, what the organic stamp can and can't promise, and the certified NZ honey you can buy direct today.
cheese
The Cheese Decision: Calf Rennet and Conventional Milk, or Lab Rennet and Organic?
I went looking for cheese set the old way, with calf rennet, and walked into a trap. At the supermarket the traditional enzyme comes with conventional milk, and the clean organic milk comes with the lab one. Which sent me past the rennet entirely, to what's in the milk.
coffee
The organic coffee that doesn't always say organic
Almost every cup New Zealand drinks is imported, grown under exactly the conditions a new pesticide report describes. So who here roasts organic? Here's the directory, cross-checked against the certifiers' own records: fully certified roasters, single-blend ones, and where to buy them.
beef
Regenerative beef isn't organic beef
Buying beef straight from the farmer, rated by "regenerative tier." Useful idea — but the tier tells you about the soil and grass, not the inputs in your meat. Here's the difference, and where to find certified-organic beef direct.
olive oil
The Olive Oil Scandal and What It Means in New Zealand
The world buys more "Italian" extra virgin than Italy could grow. Most scare stats mash three different problems into one. Here's what's actually going on with olive oil — and why New Zealand's testing rules quietly sidestep most of it.
