> ## 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. # Trust Fell. Some New Zealanders Took Their Food Back. - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/trust-fell-some-new-zealanders-took-their-food-back/ - Published: 2026-09-25T18:31:57.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-25T18:31:56.000Z - Description: Trust in news, government and supermarkets has taken a beating since 2020, and the packet won't tell you what's in it either. Trust didn't vanish; it shrank to people we can see. That's the grower at the stall, the farm gate, and the back garden. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: Food System, trust, Ultra-processed food, UPF, Farmers Markets, Local Food, food labelling A marketing PhD completed at the University of Auckland this month set out to understand why people pay more for organic food. The researcher's most interesting finding sat at the far end of her sample. Some participants had stopped choosing between two supermarket shelves. They were [trying to reduce their dependence on the food market altogether](https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2026/09/24/university-auckland-phd-marketing-graduate.html?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Some grew their own. Others bought only from people and communities they trusted. She'd expected a study about price. She got one about trust. That word has had a rough few years in this country. ## The numbers Start with the news. In 2020, about 53% of New Zealanders said they trusted most news most of the time. By 2025 it was 32%. It rose to 37% in 2026, the first rise in six years, and still well below where it started. Put the other way, nearly two in three New Zealanders won't say they trust the news ([AUT Trust in News 2026](https://www.jmadresearch.com/%5Ffiles/ugd/a95e86%5Fb1937c0c5f82498088e43cbb5552215d.pdf?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). Then government. The Royal Commission into the COVID-19 response reported its second phase in March 2026\. It found New Zealand went into the pandemic with deep reserves of public trust. As the response went on, trust in government and support for it began to fall, as fatigue and resentment grew and workplace vaccine mandates arrived in the second half of 2021\. Its own conclusion on those mandates: some came in too slowly, some lasted too long, and some went too far ([Royal Commission, Phase Two summary](https://www.covid19lessons.royalcommission.nz/reports-lessons-learned/main-report-phase-2/introduction/summary-of-the-report?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). The report also says the decline in trust can't be blamed solely on COVID or the response. Fair enough. It still happened, and the Commission recommends the government put an agency in charge of monitoring trust and social cohesion, which tells you how far it fell. Then the supermarkets. Consumer NZ's tracker found that since June 2021, no industry here has lost trust as fast as the supermarkets ([Consumer NZ, 2024](https://www.consumer.org.nz/shopping/supermarkets/why-has-trust-in-supermarkets-fallen?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). The Commerce Commission's March 2022 market study, which found a duopoly earning around $1 million a day in excess profit, was one of the main drivers. As of June 2026, only 35% of people have high trust in supermarket pricing and promotions ([Consumer NZ, June 2026](https://www.consumer.org.nz/about-us/media-releases/new-zealanders-stretched-by-food-costs-want-tougher-action-on-supermarket-pricing?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). And then what's in the packet. A study published in March 2026 tracked 34 years of New Zealand food imports by how processed they were. Imports of ultra-processed food and drink rose from 15.7 kg per person in 1990 to 103.8 kg in 2023\. The sharpest growth was in the stuff nobody buys directly: industrial sweeteners, modified oils, flavourings, emulsifiers and thickeners, the inputs a factory uses. About 28 kg per person of those came into the country in 2023\. Nobody eats 28 kg of emulsifier. They arrive in milligram quantities in the products on the shelf, which is what makes the number worth staring at ([Garton et al., Globalization and Health](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12992-026-01203-1?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). I went through that study in March, and the part that stayed with me was that [we're importing the system, not just the snacks](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/new-zealand-isnt-just-importing-more-ultra-processed-food-were-importing-the-system-that-makes-it-normal/). The same authors make a point that sits at the centre of all this. The Health Star Rating system is voluntary and says nothing about whether a food is ultra-processed. Many of those imported additives, they write, would appear on an ingredient list as "natural flavours", which they call misleading. So: the label doesn't tell you, the regulator doesn't require it, and the Minister's advice when the GM labelling rule was loosened was to [just buy organic](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/new-zealand-keeps-asking-about-food-labelling-it-keeps-getting-the-same-answer/) or go looking for producers who choose to say what they don't use. Find someone you trust. That's the system's own answer. Everybody in the country is standing in that environment. This piece is about the ones who did something about it. ## Where trust goes when it leaves It doesn't disappear. It shrinks to a smaller circle. The 2026 Acumen Edelman Trust Barometer found 76% of New Zealanders are hesitant or unwilling to trust someone whose values or background differ from their own. People are retreating into familiar circles for information and reassurance, the report says ([Acumen, 2026](https://acumennz.com/acumen-edelman-trust-barometer/acumen-edelman-trust-barometer-2026/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). The news survey shows the same move in miniature. Asked where they'd go to check a story they suspected was false, 22% said somebody they know and trust personally. Food works the same way. When you stop trusting the label, you start looking for a face. ## What the face looks like A farmers' market is built on it. Farmers' Markets New Zealand's rule for an authentic market is that the person selling the food grew, caught or made it. By its own estimate there are about 26 member markets, more than 1,000 small food businesses and upwards of 50,000 customers a week ([FMNZ, March 2026](https://www.farmersmarkets.org.nz/blog/post/165623/national-farmers-market-week-2026/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). [Where was this grown, was it sprayed, when was it picked](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/farmers-markets-one-of-the-simplest-ways-to-find-real-food-in-new-zealand/): questions that get an answer at a stall and almost never at a shelf. A veg box or CSA puts a grower's name on your doorstep, and [some of those growers are certified while others aren't](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-guide-to-organic-vegetable-box-schemes-and-csas-in-new-zealand/). In Cambridge, [Wholly Cow](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-farm-hosting-new-zealands-soil-festival-kills-its-own-animals-almost-nobody-does/) raises, kills and butchers its own beef and lamb and sells it only in the local community. It isn't certified organic. What its own website sells instead is the relationship: [re-connecting you with your food and your farmers](https://www.whollycow.co.nz/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz). Even the organic law bends this way at the small end. From 31 March 2028, sellers with under $10,000 a year of organic sales won't need approval or an independent audit, though they still have to meet the standard and keep records. Below that line, [the system trusts the person](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-10-000-line-that-decides-which-organic-growers-get-checked/). Then there's the garden. In the first lockdown, New Zealand seed suppliers ran out of popular lines ([Auckland Botanic Gardens](https://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz/whats-on/news/the-great-gardening-boom/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)). That rush was about whether food would be on the shelf rather than whether to believe the packet. But a lot of people came out of it knowing they could grow some of their own. The auditor is now you. Standards vary. ## Why this grows I think it keeps growing, and that's a view rather than a finding. Nobody has measured the link between low trust in institutions and buying direct, so take it as an argument. Here's why I'd back it. Every mechanism the food system offers for reassurance runs through an institution that a lot of people have stopped believing: a regulator that won't require the label, a voluntary rating that skips the question, a manufacturer that calls an industrial additive a natural flavour, a supermarket pair that the Commerce Commission found were taking a million a day more than they should. Then there's the line on the back of the pack. "Made from local and imported ingredients." It's permitted under the country of origin rules, it requires no proportions, and it is equally true whether the product is 1% local or 99%. A parliamentary committee found in 2023 that it could mislead people about the roughly 60% of New Zealand pork that's imported. In September this year the government [confirmed nothing will change](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/the-government-was-asked-to-fix-the-bacon-label-it-just-said-no/). Six words that clear the legal bar and tell you nothing at all. None of that is repaired by a better ad campaign. What people are rebuilding instead doesn't look like trust in institutions at all. It looks like trust in people they can see: the grower at the stall, or the neighbour with too many courgettes. That kind of trust needs no regulator, and it doesn't scale. Which may be exactly the point. The certificate was built so strangers could trust each other's food. More and more people are trying to stop being strangers. --- **Before you go** If this was useful, [sign up free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup) and I'll send the next one. If you want to chip in, [there's a tip jar](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support).