The Country
  • The Country home
  • Latest news
  • Audio & podcasts
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life
  • Listen on iHeart radio

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Coast & Country News
  • Opinion
  • Dairy farming
  • Sheep & beef farming
  • Horticulture
  • Animal health
  • Rural business
  • Rural technology
  • Rural life

Media

  • Podcasts
  • Video

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whāngarei
  • Dargaville
  • Auckland
  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Hamilton
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Te Kuiti
  • Taumurunui
  • Taupō
  • Gisborne
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Whanganui
  • Palmerston North
  • Levin
  • Paraparaumu
  • Masterton
  • Wellington
  • Motueka
  • Nelson
  • Blenheim
  • Westport
  • Reefton
  • Kaikōura
  • Greymouth
  • Hokitika
  • Christchurch
  • Ashburton
  • Timaru
  • Wānaka
  • Oamaru
  • Queenstown
  • Dunedin
  • Gore
  • Invercargill

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / The Country

Lindy Nelson: Why we need a national food strategy

The Country
4 Jun, 2020 09:30 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Photo / File

Photo / File

Lindy Nelson says now is the time to come together to form a national food strategy and shape the future of New Zealand.

Belonging is a fundamental human need. When this need is not met, it is hard to feel a sense of purpose. Right now, farmers and food producers are starting to feel they belong again; they have a clear sense of purpose – to feed the nation and deliver economic stability.

The things that have threatened to divide urban and rural New Zealand – water, environment, reaching Carbon Zero – have faded for the time being as we have developed a more intimate awareness of our interdependence.

Food is vital for sustaining life. During the past few weeks, we have begun to realise just how much it shapes our sense of self, family and community and forms part of our cultural identity.

For the first time ever, some of us have experienced food insecurity due to loss of income and jobs; we have a heightened awareness of how much it shapes and defines everything we do.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Farmers have understood and have flexed and adapted to retain and grow export markets. They have also responded to food-insecure New Zealanders in many ways, from supplying foodbanks directly to local initiatives like new charity Meat the Need, which links produce directly to consumers experiencing hardship.

A platform for conversations

This sense of being needed, of trust being built, of being together on a mission, has provided a platform for vital conversations about our future.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Conversations about, for example, how we work together to secure the food future we all want for our country, so that when we hit 2050 and we are experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, we will have achieved a food-secure nation.

Those conversations must be shaped by our shared values and our culture and must be able to deliver a national strategy that all New Zealanders understand, buy into and get behind.

Timing is everything; momentum can't be lost. It's somewhat ironic that 75 years ago we did exactly this at a time when we were emerging from war, death, loss of homes and jobs, fear, pain and food insecurity.

In New Zealand, returned soldiers were given balloted land to rebuild their lives, and were taught to farm. New Zealand had a food strategy; we knew what to produce and we had faith in farming to build prosperity for the nation. And it did.

Discover more

Are regenerative and organic farming really that climate-friendly?

26 May 01:00 AM

The good, the bad and the ugly: Shane Jones lets fly again

29 May 01:45 AM

Dr Doug Edmeades: N fertiliser cap ignores basic science

02 Jun 01:15 AM

Feds: Winter grazing – look beyond the one-off photographs

03 Jun 09:00 PM

Threat will either divide or unite people – climate threat has divided us, Covid-19 has united us. Can we use this sense of belonging – of being one – to provide solutions for our future?

Lindy Nelson. Photo / Supplied
Lindy Nelson. Photo / Supplied

What should the strategy deliver?

What should a national food strategy deliver for us? Firstly, it should deal with food security, which is defined as the right of every New Zealander to have readily available, nutritionally adequate, safe and personally acceptable food.

This is as opposed to food insecurity: insufficient food, a limited diet, and anxiety about supply – relying on makeshift coping strategies such as foodbanks

The strategy should deliver the need for food to be produced within systems that are not only sustainable but also enhance and restore Papatūānuku (Mother Earth), water and carbon. It can't be separated from health, education, immigration, employment – these are all interlinked – but it must be removed from politics.

It needs a collaborative and open approach to engaging all those with an interest in shaping it. And in order for it to be truly effective, we must set aside our self-interests and biases.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The need for a citizens' assembly

Over the past eight months, I have been researching who is doing this well internationally, where they have got to and what processes they are using.

The process that resonates strongly with me is the idea of a citizens' assembly that allows for participatory democracy, reflects the body of people who will be affected by its outcomes, and allows for cross-party collaboration. This takes policymaking beyond the interference of political agendas,

Covid-19 delivered panic buying of flour, pasta, and toilet paper in a country that is a producer and exporter of those products. Imagine what food insecurity through unaddressed climate change impacts will do.

Can we use this experience, this sense of belonging, to come together now as one tribe, a team of five million with one purpose to shape the future of the nation? I think we can, and we must.

- Lindy Nelson holds the insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to agriculture and women.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from The Country

The Country

'What residents deserve': Water trial treatment plant to be set up in Marton

13 Jul 05:15 PM
The Country

‘A win-win’: Forestry company gifts venison to food bank

13 Jul 05:00 PM
The Country

‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

12 Jul 05:59 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from The Country

'What residents deserve': Water trial treatment plant to be set up in Marton

'What residents deserve': Water trial treatment plant to be set up in Marton

13 Jul 05:15 PM

The new system will not be fully operational in time for spring and summer.

‘A win-win’: Forestry company gifts venison to food bank

‘A win-win’: Forestry company gifts venison to food bank

13 Jul 05:00 PM
‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

‘Still there’: Removal of logging machine sent tumbling over cliff proving tricky

12 Jul 05:59 PM
The great 'goat menace' of 1949

The great 'goat menace' of 1949

12 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP