Green MP Teanau Tuiono: Clear, trusted, national organic standards are crucial for consumer confidence

Organic farming has an important role to play to support a food system that’s good for people and the planet, says Green MP Teanau Tuiono (right). Photo / Supplied

OPINION

As the old guy in the cheese ads used to say, “good things take time”, and this has taken longer than most.

Following decades of work alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards thanks to the passing on March 30 of of the Organic Products and Production Bill.

It was on the first day Parliament sat this millennium that Jeanette Fitzsimons stood in the House and challenged the Government to “achieve a high-value-added economy by becoming a centre of excellence in organic growing and in the science that underpins it”.

That was more than 23 years ago. It’s a change that hasn’t been without struggle to achieve.

Winning people over, like good cheese, takes time. It was more than 10 years ago now that Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) launched its first report on the economic potential of the sector.

Organic Farm NZ, Te Waka Kai Ora and many others, too many to mention here, have also played their part. Along with the work of former Green MPs Sue Kedgley, Steffan Browning and Gareth Hughes, alongside those of us now here, including James Shaw and Eugenie Sage.

It does, at its heart, a relatively simple thing: it will enable the implementation of organic standards for Aotearoa New Zealand. Clear, trusted, national organic standards are crucial for giving people confidence in the products they are buying.

But that thing has the potential to do much for the prominence and success of organic — and now, of course, regenerative organic — production in Aotearoa.

OANZ’s sector strategy released last year sees the potential to add $4.7 billion in “better growth” to our economy by 2030. And its strategy identifies this act as a key tool in formalising and maintaining organic trade arrangements.

And in turn, by incentivising cleaner, better forms of farming, growing the organic sector has the potential to do much for the health of the things we truly value in Aotearoa — our waterways, our land, our climate. Our people.

Organic farming has an important role to play to support a food system that enhances soil and water quality, helping transition Aotearoa to a thriving and sustainable agricultural sector that’s good for people and the planet.

Of course, there is more to do. In Aotearoa we need to take a range of actions to change the way we farm, to reduce environmental impacts and cut pollution. We have known that for a long time, and there remains a long road ahead. Cue old guy from the cheese ad.

– Teanau Tuiono is a Green list MP based in Palmerston North.