Cost of living crisis: Opinion - growing fruits and vegetables can help with food bills

Growing your own food can be rewarding if you stick with it, writes Jo Raphael. Photo / File

OPINION

I don’t have a particularly green thumb.

Any house plants I have owned have had to fend for themselves, watered only when I remember, with only their parched crackling leaves alerting me to their distress.

Some make it. Some don’t.

I have left behind me a botanical trail of neglect and shame.

But every so often, a burst of energy and inspiration sends me off to the local garden supply store where I will buy potting mix and a few tomato plants.

They may bear fruit - and that’s an exciting moment, every gardener will know.

However, more often than not, life moves on and they end up being dry brown sticks, standing forlornly in their pots. No amount of watering will revive them.

We reported last week that the cost of living crisis had inspired locals to turn to their own backyards to feed their families.

The price of fruit and vegetables has skyrocketed over the past year, increasing by 12 per cent in the year to February - the most since 1989 - with the likes of 1kg of tomatoes costing $10.14 this year compared to $4.68 in February 2022.

The March 2023 food price index was released yesterday. In year-on-year data, food prices were 12.1 per cent higher last month than in March 2022.

Te Rangikaheke Kiripatea co-founded Kai Rotorua in 2016 with the aim of teaching locals to grow and use food crops.

He has an insightful philosophy when it comes to māra kai (gardening for food) from which he says there are so many benefits.

“I think if we start engaging and encouraging people, it’s such an enriching use of our time. This is our kaupapa for Kai Rotorua — reconnecting us with Papatūānuku [the land].

“We’ve lost our way when it comes to growing our food; many of us have become disconnected from our environment,” he says.

In the Western Bay, Paora Tuanau, the māra kai facilitator for Poutiri Wellness Centre, says people across the Western Bay of Plenty have been “screaming out for help” to feed their families.

One of the families Tuanau helped had at least 40 people living at the property due to the rising cost of living, he said.

“That’s how they have to live now because everything’s so expensive. They’ve done an awesome community garden on their property in the ground. It’s just perfect for them.”

There is a lot of suffering in our communities but it’s good to know there are people out there ready to help people willing to learn to help themselves.

The cost-of-living crisis is a good reason to look at growing more of our own produce.