> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Month in Food: October 2026 - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-month-in-food-october-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-30T22:09:06.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T22:09:33.000Z - Author: Luke Nicholas Thirty-one pieces, and the month we turned the pack over. October ran on two things. Five MPs sat down with the organic sector, one at a time, and answered the same seven questions. And a run of pieces went looking for what is actually on the food, and what the label leaves off. Everything published, grouped by theme, all the links in one place. ## Five MPs, seven questions OANZ put the same seven questions to every party, then interviewed five MPs on Zoom. [ACT's Andrew Hoggard](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/act-wont-fund-organics-andrew-hoggard-explained-why/) went first and explained ACT's blank column: too many questionnaires, and most answers would have been crosses anyway. ACT won't fund organics or keep an organics minister. He closed by saying his grandfather was one of the leading lights of Soil & Health in the 1960s. [The Greens ticked all seven boxes](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/seven-ticks-hardly-any-mentions-the-greens-on-organics/), so OANZ opened by asking Steve Abel why the word organic barely appears in Green policy. His answer was "editor efficiency". On the call, most of what he said was about what's wrong with conventional farming and GE. [NZ First's Mark Patterson](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/six-ticks-one-dash-and-a-10pm-argument-nz-first-on-organics/) said his party was still arguing with Hoggard about the ACVM bill at 10pm on the Tuesday before the vote. NZ First ticked six of the seven. Its written answer to the seventh promises to prefer New Zealand-grown organic food in schools and hospitals. That's the one marked with a dash. [Daniel Eb](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/not-the-best-platform-for-you-the-opportunity-party-on-organics/) ended his interview by telling organic voters the Opportunity Party probably isn't their best option. Asked for a confession, he said he probably doesn't buy organic enough. [Mike Butterick](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-worlds-only-organics-minister-on-why-national-has-no-organics-policy/) is the world's only organics minister, and his party told OANZ it has no specific policy for growing organics. Government builds the framework, he said, and after that the market is the market. Asked whether farm policy should be treated as public health policy, he was the only one of the four MPs asked who didn't say yes. Gene technology took up most of the audience questions. [Not GM, Unless You Buy Organic](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/not-gm-unless-you-buy-organic/) took Fenton Hazelwood's question to the checkout. Our EPA decided in 2018 that plants and animals treated with gene-silencing dsRNA aren't GM. MPI's organic notice of 10 August bans gene silencing outright. Victoria University researchers have been trialling a gene-silencing varroa treatment in New Zealand hives since 2022, so the two rulebooks could meet in a single hive. Then England wrote down a number. [Its new Organic Action Plan](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/england-organic-action-plan-10-percent-new-zealand/) sets an ambition of 10% organic farmland by 2036, up from about 3.4%. New Zealand is at 0.6%. England's shoppers want more organic food than its farms grow. Ours is the mirror image: of a $1.18 billion sector, $606.7 million went overseas. ## What's on the food Between 2015 and 2017, [501 New Zealand children gave urine samples](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/change-the-food-and-the-pesticides-in-your-urine-change-too/) to a Massey University team. They carried 2.2 to 7.3 times more of one pesticide marker than children in countries such as the US, Spain and Thailand. The researchers' best guess for the source was food. The awkward finding is in there too: eating organic fruit made no measurable difference to the children's levels. Across the Tasman, [a charity sent supermarket produce to a lab](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/australia-tested-its-supermarket-fruit-and-veg-who-tests-ours/) and found fipronil on a Perth capsicum. Here, only the government tests, 300 samples a year. Its latest report found fipronil on New Zealand spinach. Glyphosate isn't on this year's testing list. [Twice, MPI's survey found the same insecticide on New Zealand silverbeet](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/same-vegetable-same-pesticide-seven-years-later-a-different-answer/). In 2017 its public report called the first sample a feasible food safety risk. The second, from 2022-23, came to 232% of the safe one-day dose for children in MPI's own risk assessment. The public report said there were no food safety risks. By the time MPI reached the grower, the silverbeet had been sold. Part of MPI's answer was washing, so [I went through its newest Total Diet Study](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/which-pesticides-are-on-nz-food-and-does-washing-get-them-off/). Of 352 samples, 154 still carried at least one residue after normal preparation. Bread was 15 of 16, because the grain insecticides end up in the flour. You can't rinse a loaf. In 2007, [62% of New Zealanders told a government survey](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/we-said-we-were-worried-about-pesticides-then-we-went-shopping/) they were concerned about pesticides on food. Most of us still walk past the organic shelf. The most recent national estimate of how much pesticide we use is more than 20 years old. Importers and manufacturers have had to report their quantities since 1 January 2026, and as of mid-October nothing from it had been published. ## Who wants it [Fonterra paid a record $14.13](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/fonterra-organic-milk-price-record-2026/) per kilo of milk solids for organic milk in 2025-26\. Conventional milk paid $9.69\. In one season the gap roughly doubled, while the ordinary price went backwards. Fonterra's own organic page calls the milk a precious commodity. It pays farmers to get there, too. [Fonterra's conversion incentive](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/who-pays-nz-farmers-to-go-regenerative-or-organic/) rose from 45 to 70 cents a kilo of milk solids on 1 June. Sheep farmers get a different offer. A fund launched by Kering, the group behind Gucci, is paying for regenerative training and monitoring across 50,000 hectares of South Island hill country, free to the farmer. I couldn't find anyone paying sheep farmers through an organic conversion. In 1975, [psychologists used a jar of cookies](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/organic-food-is-sold-out-you-werent-on-the-list/) to show that scarce things feel more desirable. They didn't taste any better. Organic food here is genuinely scarce, on 0.6% of our farmland. At Commonsense in Mt Eden, Peter Robson's strawberries sell out as soon as they arrive, at around $10 a punnet. Most people come to organic through [one fact](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/it-usually-starts-with-one-fact/), and the commonest is a baby at home. [Baby food bears it out](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/before-you-buy-organic-baby-food-turn-the-pouch-over/). In 2020, baby products were 2.7% of supermarket sales and 8.1% of organic sales. Only Organic, which says it was the first certified organic baby food here, is made by the West Auckland family company behind PALM corned beef. At one Pak'nSave on 3 October, most Only Organic pouches were cheaper than most of the non-organic Wattie's ones. [An American survey](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/are-new-zealands-organic-farmers-ready-for-gen-z/) found 69% of Gen Z say buying organic food is important. Seventy percent of Gen Z parents said having children made them more conscious of ingredients. It was commissioned by an organic bread brand, and it asked Americans, not us. ## Turn it over Fenton Hazelwood's eight-part series, [The Back of the Pack](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/fenton-hazelwood-back-of-the-pack/), is five pieces in. A grower was offered 60 cents a head for iceberg lettuce and hoed the crop back into the ground. A few days later Fenton found iceberg at $2 a head in two supermarkets. Foodstuffs North Island changed how it records goods delivered straight to stores, and its 2023 revenue was restated from $4.30 billion to $8.46 billion. Every margin worked out on revenue halved, and nothing about the business had changed. In August I couldn't find out who made my Alter Eco bar. [A Bennetto bar answered it](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/alter-eco-bennetto-same-swiss-chocolate-maker/). Both are made by Halba, the chocolate division of the Swiss retailer Coop. The first clue was a batch code in the same format on both boxes. Halba takes its name from its two founders, Hallheimer and Baer. Bennetto is still New Zealand owned, and on a plain dark bar at Commonsense it's $2 cheaper. Along the way I found my memory had merged a Mangawhai chocolatier and a Devonport one into a single shop. [If your dried beans won't soften](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/heat-treated-beans-new-zealand/), it's probably not you. Australian beans are heated at 85°C for 15 hours before they're allowed in, so they can't sprout. No rule says the packet has to tell you. The test is to try growing one: a treated bean won't sprout. There's a box of papadums in my pantry [certified by OneCert](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/europe-rejected-four-indian-organic-certifiers-is-new-zealand-checking-its-imports/), one of four certifiers Europe stopped accepting for Indian products in October 2022\. New Zealand's 2023 organic law gives MPI the same power. It doesn't switch on until 31 March 2028\. Our trade deal with India came into force on 20 October, and the two governments have given themselves about a year to decide whether India's organic system measures up. ## People, places and a few famous farmers Harry Mowbray [helped his son build a model hot-air balloon](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/harry-mowbray-helped-build-zurus-first-balloon-ask-him-about-soil/) that became Zuru's first product. He runs a certified organic dairy farm south of Tokoroa. In 2018 he estimated the Healthy Rivers plan had cut about $3 million off its value, because its low nitrogen leaching figure made it harder to sell. His fix for getting more farmers into organics: "Just pay us more." Jenny Lux has grown organic vegetables in Ngongotahā for nine years. [On The Land's feature on her market garden](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/rotorua-organic-market-garden-jenny-lux/) asks whether that can make a living. Ben Bayly's Ahi got a Michelin star in June. [On the From the Soil Up podcast](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/a-michelin-starred-chef-would-rather-hear-about-the-farmers-breakfast/) he says he'd rather hear what the farmer had for breakfast. A Westland cranberry grower sold out after its episode of his TV series aired. The one organic grower he names, Greenfern asparagus near Cambridge, is certified by BioGro. In December 1994, [more than 800 organic delegates came to Lincoln](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-mayor-who-wanted-christchurch-to-be-the-worlds-first-organic-garden-city/) for IFOAM's world conference. Mayor Vicki Buck told the opening she hoped Christchurch could become the world's first organic Garden City. Prince Charles was invited to open it, and sent a message instead. The council never declared it. By 2017 its parks teams were spraying a BioGro-certified pine oil weedkiller, and residents complained about the smell. [We counted every medal](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/most-awarded-organic-wines-new-zealand/) certified organic New Zealand wines won at the big shows from 2022 to 2026: 973 of them. Greystone Chardonnay is the most awarded, with Wine of the Show at the Organic Wine Awards three years running. Quartz Reef has won Champion Sparkling five years in a row. [The Organic Farm Butchery piece](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-organic-farm-butchery-what-it-actually-is/) has been rewritten with the butchery's history and the nine farms that supply it. The oldest certificate among them dates to January 1986\. The meat loses its certified status at the abattoir, which is why the pack says grown on certified organic farms. And the famous ones. When Sting and Trudie Styler moved into [their Tuscan estate](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/sting-il-palagio-organic-farm-tuscany/), there were no birds. Its olive oil won a top Italian award in a year the estate made just 100 litres. [Woody Harrelson](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/woody-harrelson-organic-farming/) was arrested in 1996 for planting four hemp seeds in Kentucky, and acquitted. He narrated [Kiss the Ground](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/kiss-the-ground-documentary-summary/), which streams here on Prime Video. The climate claims are the part to read carefully. ## Where to go next [You can now pay for this](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/you-can-now-pay-for-this-you-still-dont-have-to/). You still don't have to. Everything stays free to read. [The numbers page](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-numbers/) counts every post and word as it goes. If you are new here, [Start Here](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/start-here/) is the shortest route in. [The Guides](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/guides/) collects the topic hubs, [What To Buy](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/what-to-buy/) is the practical version, and [the Map](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/places/) has the shops and growers. Coming up: the election on 7 November, and Fenton's last three pieces in November. Every edition of The Month in Food is [here](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/tag/the-month-in-food/). ## Before you go If you want these in your inbox, [sign up free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup). If the work is useful and you would rather not sign up for anything, you can [leave a tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support).