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New Zealand’s food system is in a “shambles” state, with resilience across sectors facing major challenges, a leading scientist says.
Professor Alan Renwick from Aoraki Lincoln University in Tiwariwanaka said there was a growing need for a national food strategy to improve the country’s food resilience.
He said food systems needed to be resilient to shocks from international conflict or disasters and address issues of accessibility and health.
One example Renwick cites is the price shock during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said New Zealand was experiencing more severe and longer-lasting food price inflation than elsewhere at the time.
He said this was partly to do with a food system that was heavily dependent on imports and a concentrated agricultural system.
“To me, the idea of food system resilience is that even when we have these shocks, we can provide a good supply of food at a reasonable price to our people.”
He said New Zealand food inflation rises since 2021 This creates further challenges for the family.
“We need to understand how our food system and supply chain differs from other countries. Is it that there is too little competition in supermarkets? Is it that our export-focused primary production is damaging to our food supply?”
The national strategy will combine work in agriculture, environment and health to increase food resilience and prepare for periods of food scarcity and everyday life.
“My thinking about the national food strategy is that we take all sorts of factors into account when we make decisions about food.
“So instead of focusing on just one area when making decisions, we’re looking at the entire food system.”
New Zealand’s food production may need to diversify to build resilience – but this is challenging when farmers make decisions based on income, and incentives are needed, Renwick said.
“We tend to focus on efficiency and, to some extent, it’s a highly specialised monoculture production and very regionally focused. So if we can start to diversify our production across New Zealand, we’ll be better able to respond to these changes.”
Renwick said before developing a strategy, it was important to fully understand the issues facing the industry.
“We have a huge challenge with waste – up to a third of the food we produce is not consumed. This, combined with the high input costs of our food system, means we are using expensive resources to produce food that is thrown away.”
He said New Zealand’s productivity growth rate had been falling since 2000 and profitability in the primary sector was struggling.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that for every dollar New Zealand’s food system produces, there are 83 cents in hidden environmental costs, including greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions, water quality and scarcity. This figure does not take into account biodiversity loss.
Renwick said the government needed to take the lead on a national food strategy so that all sectors could work together.
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