Opinion: Affordable, quality food needn't be a luxury

All families should be able to afford food, argues Dr Jess Berenston-Shaw. Photo/123rf

Opinion

The clinking dew-covered bottles hit my legs as I struggled back from our letterbox hauling the now full bottles of milk. The night before I had carefully posted 10c inside each one before leaving them by the front gate.

Coasting around the supermarket clinging to the front of the trolley, and a 1kg block of tasty cheese sailed past me and into the trolley, as it did every week.

A long drive over the Rimutakas to the Wairarapa meat works left me bored and sick while waiting for half a sheep's worth of butchered lamb to be stuffed into the boot.

Digging for Pipi along the beach and delivering a satisfyingly full bucket to mum along with a demand for sympathy for the toe reddened by a nasty crab bite.

Like many of us, my memories of childhood are firmly tethered to food, food that was inexpensive and easy to get, because in the 1970s and 80s in New Zealand I was growing up in the land of milk and honey.

New Zealand has of course changed dramatically since the 1980's. Markets are deregulated, GST is 15 per cent, international trade agreements set local costs and we are a huge player in the global dairy market. People in government told us that the price impacts of these changes would be offset by greater wealth, higher wages, and a better quality of life for all Kiwi families. They were right about the increased prices and the greater wealth but not about the better quality of life for all.

Instead healthy food has become out of reach for ordinary New Zealanders. New data from the Household Economic Survey* by Statistics New Zealand tells us that in the land of plenty, those on low incomes are spending up to 59 per cent of their income on food, this compares to middle income households spending 23 per cent and New Zealand's highest income household spending only 12 per cent of their income on food in 2016.

The trend across time is particularly concerning, with increasing costs in the previous four years particularly for the lowest income households. Most importantly it is fresh fruit, vegetables where families have to spend the most.

Heartbreaking stories from those working with struggling families continue: breastfeeding mothers going without food to feed their other children, people spending all day travelling between Winz and foodbanks just to get permission for a second food parcel. Children being shamed for having 'unhealthy' food in their lunch boxes when it is the cheapest available. Last month a man on Lambton Quay quietly asked me to buy him a hot drink and something to eat.

While officials and government ministers tell people to 'choose healthy food', the reality is that to do so may involve sinking a family financially. That is no choice at all.

Housing costs have grown exponentially and wages have not kept up, notably incomes have grown most for the already well off, while jobs for those on lower incomes have become more precarious. While 40 per cent of parents on our lowest incomes work it is not enough and too many New Zealand families are being subjected to unrelenting financial pressures. Affordable, good quality food is becoming a luxury for those without high incomes.

New Zealand is literally the land of milk and honey. Affordable, quality food can be an option for all if people in government make decisions that show they take their responsibly for children's wellbeing very seriously.

What sort of policies can people in central and local government choose to make it easier for families to access quality food? Choosing a better balance between the needs of children and families and the business activities of global food giants is a start and there are many policies that can help us manage the influence of global and local food giants over our food costs, quality and availability. These are policies that will indirectly assist families with food.

More directly there is something very significant leaders in government can choose to do. They can trust those families who are struggling under massive pressures created by circumstances outside their control. They can choose to stop the mean-spirited benefit conditions, exceptions and red tape that puts a barrier between a families and the support they need.

Importantly, people in government can choose to recognise the power of providing sufficient financial support for families with children. The regular cash payment we deliver to older people keeps many out of poverty, helps them to pursue their own goals and enables self-respect during what can be a vulnerable time in their lives.

The responsibly of people in government is to ensure the newer (as well as the older) generation has a trampoline to bounce off not just a safety net to fall through. We need a return to a family benefit and ensure the basics, like healthy food, are well within all families' reach again.

It is time to put the right resources in the food baskets of families who want to do best for their children.

*The Household Economic Survey is a population representative survey carried out on a representative sample of New Zealand households every three years.

• Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw is a science researcher at the Morgan Foundation public policy think-tank. She agitates for evidence-based policy