pesticides
In 2007, 62% of New Zealanders told a government survey they were concerned about pesticides on food. Most of us still walk past the organic shelf. Researchers call it the attitude-behaviour gap. Here's what sits between the worry and the checkout, and the one thing that might close it.
pesticides
MPI says washing takes about a quarter of the residue off silverbeet. Its newest tests found pesticides on nearly half the food samples, after normal preparation. Some wash off, some are inside the plant, and some are baked into the bread. Here's which is which, and what to do about it.
Baby Food
For a lot of people, a new baby is the reason they start buying organic. Only Organic says it was the first certified organic baby food here. Who's behind it, what the pouch actually tells you, and what the research says about why it might matter.
organic
Imagine organic food was rationed and you weren't on the list. A 1975 cookie experiment explains why that would make you want it more. Then the notice comes down, and the real numbers aren't far off.
Health
A Massey study found NZ children carried more of one pesticide marker than American kids, mostly from food. Studies that switched people to organic saw urine levels fall within days. What that does and doesn't prove, including the finding an organic site might skip.
organic
A new baby, a bad news story, a weird ingredient. Twelve real reasons people start buying organic, and how much of the evidence actually holds up.
organic
In 1976 a Lincoln lecturer who researched herbicides started an organic plot and borrowed a British name for it. Fifty years on, the Biological Husbandry Unit is still there, and it's throwing a free party.
organic
Buying organic isn't one decision, it's two jobs. Working out whether it's worth the money, then finding somewhere that sells it. Neither costs money exactly. Both cost hours. An economist in 1899 worked out why that's the part nobody counts.
organic
Three owners worked this ground south of Oamaru, and one grower stayed through all of them. The last company was wound up this year, and nobody can tell me whether the certification survived.
dairy
A tube of antibiotic into each quarter of the udder, every cow, every year. Most of them had no serious infection. Here's why it happened, and why it's getting much harder to do.
beef
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
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.
