> ## 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. # We Said We Were Worried About Pesticides. Then We Went Shopping. - URL: https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/we-said-we-were-worried-about-pesticides-then-we-went-shopping/ - Published: 2026-10-22T17:31:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T17:31:00.000Z - Description: 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. - Author: Luke Nicholas - Tags: pesticides, Food System, trust, food safety, organic, Health, regulation In 2007, 62% of New Zealanders told a [government survey](https://thepoultrysite.com/news/2007/11/survey-provides-insight-into-consumers-thinking?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) they were concerned about the use of pesticides to grow food. The survey was run by UMR Research for the old Food Safety Authority. Two years earlier, the figure was 63%. That's about as steady as public opinion gets. The [latest New Zealand food safety survey](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/62556/direct?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), run in late 2023 with 1,602 people, asked about it a different way. A third said pesticides on food often worried them. That put it seventh, behind price, food poisoning, the cost of healthy food, sugar, food waste and additives. Different method, different question, so it isn't a clean fall from 62%. A third of the country is still a lot of worried people. Meanwhile, most of us walk past the organic shelf every week. A [2016 conference paper from AUT](https://openrepository.aut.ac.nz/items/2b7c6173-54fa-491f-9885-abe8a4d20d9d?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) put it bluntly: New Zealand markets itself as 100% pure, while the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders eat food sprayed with or grown in chemicals. The paper's title, for what it's worth, is "Eating on the Fringe". So we said we were worried. Then we went shopping. ## The gap has a name Researchers call it the attitude-behaviour gap. A [study published in March 2026](https://metatoc.com/papers/120492-mind-the-gap-an-empirical-analysis-of-the-attitude-behaviour-gap-in-grocery-retailing?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) defines it as the mismatch between what consumers say they prefer and what they actually buy, and says it's especially strong for organic food. That study tracked German households from 2006 to 2022, around 11.1 million purchases. Price, a limited range and fewer specials all cut organic buying, even among people with positive attitudes towards it. Younger shoppers had warmer attitudes and bought less. An [earlier German study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7928379/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) using household purchase data found the gap much wider for organic meat, frozen food, cheese and sweets than for organic buying overall. About a quarter of its households said they preferred organic food. Only 4% spent more than a fifth of their food budget on it. Its authors also point out that most research on organic shoppers relies on what people say they buy, rather than what they do. Which is a polite way of saying we're unreliable witnesses to our own trolleys. I couldn't find a New Zealand study measuring the gap directly. The closest is a [2016 Lincoln University dissertation](https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/handle/10182/7783?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) that surveyed 97 shoppers in Christchurch. They ranked "no or minimal pesticides" among the most important benefits of organic food. The biggest thing stopping them buying it was price, followed by availability and choice. So the worry is real. Something sits between the worry and the checkout. Here's my read on what. ## 1\. Price wins most arguments The 2023 survey put price at the top of New Zealanders' food concerns. The Lincoln shoppers named it as their biggest barrier to buying organic. A risk you can't see loses to a number you can. ## 2\. There's no room left in our heads The 2023 survey asked people why they skipped basic food safety steps, such as cooking chicken until the juices run clear or washing their hands before eating. They said they were short on time, didn't realise they should, didn't think it was necessary, or forgot. That's food poisoning, the thing they ranked second. Households reporting a bout of it in the previous six months rose from 9% in 2020 to 15% in 2023. My read: if a risk that can flatten you within a day doesn't change the routine, a slow, invisible one has very little chance. Every shopper is already deciding about price, sugar, allergies, packaging and what the kids will actually eat. Pesticides join a long queue. ## 3\. We've been told it's fine New Zealand Food Safety's [latest residue report](https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/71499/direct?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz), published in March 2026, tested 300 samples for more than 500 chemicals each. Ten results came back over the legal limit, from six samples, all grown here. The report puts the conformance rate above 99.99% and says none of them posed a food safety risk. That's the headline people hear. The 2023 consumer survey found most New Zealanders felt confident the food here is safe to eat. The headline isn't new. In 2004, the old Food Safety Authority [announced the same thing](https://m.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0407/S00260.htm?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz): more than 99.99% of food met the rules. It isn't always the whole story either. This week, [documents released under the Official Information Act](https://www.freshplaza.com/africa/article/9883001/pesticide-residue-assessments-reveal-food-safety-risks-in-new-zealand/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) showed a 2022-23 silverbeet sample carrying an insecticide at 360 times its legal limit. Food Safety's own assessment said a health risk to children couldn't be ruled out. No recall was issued. Food Safety says a later assessment found no immediate or ongoing risk. My read: when the regulator says there's nothing to worry about, most people take it at its word and stop thinking about it. ## 4\. We trust the people who grow it In the 2023 survey, consumers trusted farmers and growers more than anyone else for food safety competence, openness and care. Most people said they trust that New Zealand has food safety rules. Fewer trusted that anyone was overseeing them. Even that trust is slipping. The share who mostly or completely trusted government agencies to have rules keeping food safe fell from 79% in 2020 to 69% in 2023\. I've written before about [where that trust went](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/trust-fell-some-new-zealanders-took-their-food-back/) when it left. We assume someone is watching. We're less sure anyone is. ## 5\. You can't see it Nothing on a packet of apples tells you what was sprayed on them. The official reports don't show much more. A [2025 paper by New Zealand researchers](https://www.journal.nzpps.org/index.php/nzpp/article/download/11791/11635?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) in New Zealand Plant Protection notes that the residue programmes only report pesticides found above their legal limit, rather than every residue detected. Legal residues, however common, don't make the report. MPI's programme also rotates through five to seven food groups a year. In the 2024 to 2025 round, that meant two samples of watercress for the whole country. Both were over the limit. I went through [what else that report found](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/australia-tested-its-supermarket-fruit-and-veg-who-tests-ours/) last week. It's hard to worry about something nobody shows you. ## 6\. There are no numbers to argue with The most recent national estimate of how much pesticide New Zealand uses is more than 20 years old. [Figures from it](https://nzjforestryscience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/1179-5395-43-17/tables/6?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) put the total at roughly 3,500 tonnes of active ingredient a year. In February 2026, the Environmental Protection Authority told an [official information request](https://fyi.org.nz/request/33339/response/138301/attach/html/4/ENQ%2050223%20W5H3Q1%20Scott%20OIA%201.pdf.html?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) it does not currently collect information on how much is used each year. The 2025 paper says the public isn't aware of how scarce the data is. It also says, flatly, that pesticide use is not a major public concern. My read: those two things feed each other. You can't build a campaign around a number that doesn't exist. ## 7\. Worry gets filed under fringe In 2004, the Food Safety Authority's chief called the "cocktail effect" of mixed residues a myth, and described one campaign group's claims as unfounded fear-mongering. In 2022, the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science published a piece by Jacqueline Rowarth titled "[#3 Glyphosate – science and scaremongering](https://agscience.org.nz/3-glyphosate-science-and-scaremongering/?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz)". My read: once a concern is framed as scaremongering, ordinary shoppers keep their distance from it, even when they quietly share it. Nobody wants to be the person at the barbecue asking about chlorpyrifos. ## What might close the gap Data, mostly. From 1 January 2026, importers and manufacturers of agrichemicals have had to [report the quantities](https://gazette.govt.nz/notice/id/2024-sl2786?ref=organicfoodtogether.nz) they bring in or make each year, measured in kilograms of active ingredient. The first reports, covering 2025, were due by 31 May 2026. My read of the notice is that it lets the EPA collate, analyse and report on what it collects. I can't see anything that requires the EPA to publish it. As of mid-October 2026, I couldn't find anything published from it. If the EPA does publish it, New Zealanders get their first real number in 20 years. And numbers have a way of moving people that surveys don't. We already know one thing they might show. A Massey study found New Zealand children carried more of one pesticide marker than children in the US, and the researchers pointed to food. I went through it [earlier this month](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/change-the-food-and-the-pesticides-in-your-urine-change-too/), along with the studies where changing the food changed the urine within days. Six in ten of us had the worry in 2007\. In 2023, a third still said it often bothered them. What we're short of is a number. ## Before you go If this was useful, you can [sign up free](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/signup) to get new posts by email, or [leave a one-off tip](https://www.organicfoodtogether.nz/#/portal/support) to help keep the research going.