Member Spotlight - Alison Bentley, Tikitere Farm

This season we were lucky to connect with Alison Bentley from Tikitere Farm . She produces hazelnuts and beef in Rotorua and has  spent the last year doing research into local food systems. Find out more about her work below, and if you're in the area, support her small business!

How did you get into farming?
Generational - as long as we can trace back my family has grown food. Initially it was feeding the family, then in my parents' generation different members of the family became farmers in business, industrial farmers by default. But my father chose to discontinue use of herbicide in his crop about 25 years ago.
Growing food for the family alongside commercial production is still strong within our family. Two of my daughters are supplementing their purchased food from potted gardens in their rental accommodations :)
I have diversified. I have a small beef farm and a small hazelnut orchard with commercial intent. Also I have two separate mixed fruit orchards, a subtropical corner (north-facing, southern sheltered slope micro climate) and a house vege garden.
I usually grow enough kumara to keep the family going for most of the year, one year I tried scaling up to sell kumara.

What do you like best about farming?
Working with nature - nature is truly amazing when you take notice!!

What do you find to be the hardest part?
1/ Consumers (or "eaters") are very disconnected with food - real produce food (not the processed substances often called food!).
I couldn't sell my kumara because they were "too big" - sure they were the size of small pumpkins, but everyone cuts a pumpkin ... so cut a kumara too ... apparently not!!
I hear people want food traceability, local, etc but because my beef is from a small seasonal farm I don't have continuous supply, the price is a little more, the butchery cuts are not exactly consistent etc ... so people stick with their supermarket habits - their actions are not where their words are!
The effort for me as a small producer, to educate / tell my story / market / my produce destroys the business equation.

2/ The status quo "food system". 
It's incredibly hard for growers of fresh produce to operate financially sustainable businesses unless they are producing on a scale acceptable by the supermarket supply chain.

The "system" is a commercially driven, dominating, engine.
New Zealand is so focused on food exports that our domestic food system has submerged in the wake. 

What kind of supports would you like to see for "small-scale" local food production?
1/ Fresh produce safety protocols that are relevant to locally grown, short supply chain frameworks - not the current large scale, export relevant regulations.
2/ Well designed, collaborative, seasonal, national, marketing campaigns educating consumers ("eaters") about fresh produce grown in "their local" community, including "Know Your Farmer" 

Can you share a bit about the research you recently completed?
I really enjoyed the recent research project I did - A Kellogg Rural Leaders Programme and Lincoln Post Grade certificate.
Interviewing growers was definitely a highlight, and a privilege that they shared aspects of their produce growing operations in detail.
Discovering that international academic literature on advancing agriculture practices aligns with current practices of NZ small growers was very insightful.
In all growers interviewed, no grower had any ambition to scale up.
The discussion that came forth about economies of scale and economies of scope, and diverse systems was really interesting.
Recently released New Zealand research into peri-urban design identifies characteristics of food growers in such zones - current practices of NZ small growers align with those characteristics. (Peri-urban zones are the transition between urban and rural, refer https://ourlandandwater.nz/news/rethinking-the-whenua-around-our-cities-could-help-turn-the-table-on-our-food-crisis/ )
Small growers (in NZ) do not have a united voice from which they can be seen and heard by general consumers ("eaters") in the status quo food situation.
Further investigations include:
There is a gap between "affordable food" and "sustainable growers" in the context of consumers' voices for affordable food and financially sustainable small grower businesses. 

What volume of produce is actually grown by small growers, and (how) can such production systems be duplicated ( with diversity) not scaled up, to have meaningful impact in improving NZ food security and resilient communities?
Read the full report here 

Do you have a favourite seasonal recipe you'd be willing to share?
AhhHaaa - I'm a freedom cook ... so I seldom follow recipes!!
However, I have made a Hazelnut kumara caramel tart. It's amazing!! Recipe linked.

Footnote: Eat New Zealand is "a platform which encourages and enables collaboration between all parts of our food system encouraging regeneration. We do this by building stronger, more resilient food communities, ..."

https://www.eatnewzealand.nz/about-us

Fast-Track Consenting Bill Submission Template

The Government has proposed a new Bill that has the undue power to override almost every environmental law that has been established in Aotearoa over the past four decades. This bill will give them the power to sneak destructive development projects in through the back. The Fast-track Approvals Bill is a Minister-controlled and obscenely undemocratic piece of legislation designed to give environmentally damaging projects the go-ahead with little or no consideration of the potential long-term environmental and social impacts. The Select Committee is calling for submissions from the public, and we have until 19 April to have our say.

As advocates for food sovereignty and security, we see this Bill as a further threat to the ability of Aotearoa to sustain food-secure communities into the future. It is clear that the aim of the Bill is to prioritise economic opportunities at any environmental cost, including further degradation of the natural resources that growers, food producers and all of us in Aotearoa depend upon, such as freshwater, healthy soils, access to land and a healthy atmosphere. We are also concerned about the limited capacity for tangata whenua and other affected authorities and experts to provide comment on projects destined for approval.

We understand that many of our members and followers will be as outraged and anxious as we are about this legislation, which the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is calling ‘constitutionally questionable’. We have prepared a template for you to use in preparing your own submissions, whether as individuals or from your organisation/small business. We have used the submission prepared by the EDS along with information from Greenpeace, Forest and Bird, the Ministry for the Environment, and NZ scientists to inform this short submission template. 

Please feel free to copy and paste, but remember that a submission is most impactful when it speaks to your own context and specific concerns. 

Further action:

• Sign the open letter from James Shaw

• Read the EDS submission for much more in-depth content and inspiration for your own submission. They have also released a submission template.

• Listen to the webinar on the EDS submission on the Fast-track Approvals Bill

Submission template

SUBMIT HERE

Submitter Details

Full name: [the name of your organisation, farm, business etc or your own name]
Address for service: [the registered address of your organisation, farm, business etc or your own address]
Contact: Name(s) of contact(s) - only necessary if you’re submitting on behalf of your organisation, farm, business etc.
Email: [contact email]

Introduction

1. [Your organisation, farm, business etc or name] thanks the Environment Select Committee for the opportunity to make a submission on the Fast-track Approvals Bill (Bill).

2. [Add a sentence about your organisation, farm, business etc or yourself here. What do you do? Where do you live? Any other context you’d like to add?]

3. [Name of your organisation, farm, business etc or ‘I’] strongly oppose(s) the Bill. It is clear that the aim of the Bill is to prioritise economic opportunities at any environmental cost, including the further degradation of natural resources that growers, food producers and all of us in Aotearoa depend upon for our livelihoods.

Why [Your organisation, farm, business etc or ‘I’]  oppose(s) the Bill

Here are our key points - feel free to expand upon these or list your own.

• To grow local, nutritious food for our communities, we rely upon a healthy environment. Both the global environment and te taiao (environment) of Aotearoa New Zealand are under extreme stress, with freshwater quality, biodiversity, solid health and the climate all on the decline. The Bill presents blatant and unacceptable disregard for these life-sustaining systems, with little to no consideration of environmental impact required. 

• The Bill is plainly not about speeding up the process. There may be some time savings, but by far the main impact of the Bill is to disempower the public and affected parties, and to bypass any meaningful testing of environmental effects.  

• The purpose of the Bill is completely one-sided - it only recognises regional and national benefits and not environmental effects, but it takes priority over all other considerations.

• The Bill provides only extremely limited opportunities for tangata whenua and other affected authorities and experts to provide comment on referral of projects to the fast-track pathway and then projects destined for approval. Ten working days is a completely insufficient and unreasonable time period for consultation with those who are allowed to have a say (for example, iwi authorities and local government) and there is little room for comment from groups, organisations, experts and others who will be affected by the decisions under consideration.

• The Bill provides development ministers with decision-making powers beyond those any politician should hold within parliament - it is anti-democratic and nonsensical. 

• The ministers are under no obligation to take advice from experts on the environmental impact of projects referred to the fast-track process, another mechanism restricting the opportunities for informed input.

• The Bill is inconsistent with Aotearoa New Zealand’s international obligations under the Paris Climate Change Agreement, which commits us to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the Convention on Biological Diversity which commits us to conserving biodiversity. There is no requirement for considering the potential emissions of projects, which we find unacceptable for any new legislation amidst a climate crisis. 

• Furthermore, the Bill explicitly refers to “development of natural resources, including ... petroleum”, paving the way for oil and gas exploration and extraction. 

• There are insufficient criteria to exclude projects that could be environmentally detrimental. Even projects that involve prohibited activities under the RMA -the most environmentally dangerous activities in sensitive locations - and mining in national parks and marine reserves are not excluded, and the Ministers can choose to approve them regardless of the Expert Panel’s recommendations.

• The intent to favour commercial interest over community and environmental wellbeing is clear in the purpose of the Bill. We believe this will be at the detriment of the natural environment and the health of our people.

• The Bill is also inconsistent with the government’s own stated goal of evidence-based decision making (s17F of your coalition agreement).

  Concluding points

• We submit that the Bill should not be passed. A robust and inclusive discussion about RMA reform is instead needed.

• We urge you to slow the pace of all environmental law reform (including repeal of both the Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 and Spatial Planning Act 2023; proposed changes to the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity 2023 (including ceasing implementation of new Significant Natural Areas); and replacing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020) to allow for proper democratic consultation and consider advice from environmental experts.

• We wish to be heard in support of our submission (you can add this if you would like to speak to the select committee kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face-to-face) at Parliament or via video conferencing)

Deer milk is not the future: How property impacts agroecological food production

by Olivia Oldham
PhD Candidate | Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Systems, University of Edinburgh

If you're reading this newsletter, I probably don't need to explain to you that the food system is not working—either for people or planet—and that agroecology and food sovereignty are alternatives worth striving for. While there are lots of things we could be doing to work towards those goals, one of the key elements we should be thinking about is land. And, because the rules of property structure, things like who gets access to land, how they are able to access it, and what they are able to do with it once they've got it, then we also need to be thinking about property.

What is property?

But what is property? You might think it means ownership, or 'the stuff I own'. And that would be fair enough—that's what most people mean when they talk about property. But for a lawyer, property means something a bit different. It means a relationship between people about a thing, not the thing itself. 

Sometimes, lawyers talk about that relationship being made up of a "bundle of rights". Think of it like a bundle of sticks. Each of those sticks represents a right. Keeping with property in land, those rights might include the right to keep others out; or the right to make decisions about what happens on the land; or even the right to alienate—that is, to sell or otherwise get rid of it. We might, if we were being particularly radical, even think about some of those sticks representing a responsibility, too. Maybe, the responsibility not to degrade ecosystems, or the responsibility to use the land for the common good (like in Brazil, where this responsibility is actually set out in the constitution).

So the idea of private ownership is actually a very particular bundle of rights that has become so common that we tend to just equate it with property, full stop. But, in fact, there are lots of different ways of putting that bundle together—and we'll get to that a bit later.

Private ownership: how good?

First, let's deal with private ownership, which is at the heart of our system of property and farming here in Aotearoa New Zealand. People like private ownership for a lot of reasons. The rights I mentioned earlier—keeping others out, making decisions, and alienation—mean that farmers who own their land can feel secure. No landlord can kick them off or tell them how to farm, and making long-term investments in farm infrastructure or ecosystems feels less risky. That right to sell, in particular, can be appealing because it allows the land to be used as leverage for a mortgage, or as an asset the farmer can cash out to fund their retirement or support their kids to buy their first farm, or whatever else they may want to do.

The problem is, these benefits of private ownership—while they can be great for individual farmers, and can be appealing for agroecological producers, too—can have negative impacts for the food system as a whole. They can actually end up undermining efforts to shift the food system towards agroecology and food sovereignty. Not to mention that, in Aotearoa New Zealand, the entire system of private ownership is built upon the dispossession of tangata whenua.

For starters, that autonomy that can be so good for the individual farmer, also means that landowners are free to farm in ways that degrade te taiao and that don't produce healthy, nutritious food for local, regional and national communities but instead pursue whatever goals the farmer wants—usually, profit.

"Ah," I hear you say, "but if it's a good farmer, who is growing agroecologically and wants to promote food sovereignty, then they don't care about profit! They are motivated by other things, like stewardship of ecosystems, respect for Papatūanuku, and care for the people they feed!"

And in some ways, you'd be right. Most agroecological farmers are driven by those things. My best friend is one of them, as are many others who I know and deeply respect. If I ever get myself out from behind a computer and into a field, I will be too. But the problem is, private property ownership creates a system where this is no longer about choices. 

At some point, if the farmer wants to keep farming, they are almost inevitably going to have to prioritise profit over some of their other goals, unless they (a) are very lucky; or (b) inherited their land or the money to buy it (which you could say is the same thing). Because that famous 'security' being a landowner gives you is only secure as long as you keep up with your mortgage repayments—that is, the cost of land. 

Alienability, the right to get rid, is so central to private ownership that some people have argued that, without this right, it isn't private ownership at all! But when you're behind on your mortgage repayments, that 'right' starts to look very much like a curse. 

Here's where it gets kind of complicated. 

We all know what happens when mortgage repayments aren't met—eventually, the bank will repossess the property, and sell it to someone else to get their investment back. Usually, the person who is able to afford that land is the person with the most money. This can lead to land concentration, where more and more land is owned by fewer and fewer people—but we're not going to focus on that today. Instead, we're going to focus on what determines the price of the land at the time that it's sold. First and foremost, land values are determined by how much money people think they can make off the land in the future—as rent, profit, or both. Those amounts are determined by what has been produced on the land in the past, as well as what the land might be able to be used for in the future—whether that's for a dairy conversion, planting pine forest, or subdividing it for a housing development. 

This has major consequences for agroecological farmers. Not only because, very often, it pushes them onto marginal land which might be less productive, less climactically favourable, or very far away from markets, or even prices them out of the market entirely; but perhaps even more importantly because it means that when those agroecological farmers do manage to buy the land, their mortgage repayments reflect what they could be making if they didn't prioritise their agroecological principles and instead farmed to maximise their yield—and their profit. They can do this by lowering their ecological and social standards (and the first thing they do, typically, is to 'self-exploit'—meaning that they work themselves to the bone and barely pay themselves (if at all)—to make the numbers add up. Because they so want to make it work). Or, they can do this by seeking out higher value markets, like organics—which partly explains why organic food often costs so much, and why lots of organic farmers in Aotearoa New Zealand are focused on exports, rather than domestic markets. Sometimes, they might turn to novel products—like kiwifruit once was, or the recent moves by Pāmu to develop deer milk, into a marketable product.

Farmers in most cases are, to use a fancy term, 'market dependent'—meaning they are forced, economically speaking, to sell what they produce on the market, in order to earn enough money to pay for the land. So, in the end, it often doesn't matter very much whether farmers want to farm agroecologically—the cost of land, which is a direct consequence of private ownership's central right of alienability (within a capitalist system), can force them to undermine those goals. 

We also shouldn't forget that these dynamics of private ownership are not just harmful to farmers and the food system—they are also central to the continued dispossession of tangata whenua, and the ongoing exclusion of Māori from access to and authority over their ancestral lands and territories. 

That seems bad…what do we do?

The good thing about seeing property as a bundle of rights (and responsibilities) is that we can repackage that bundle in different ways. One good idea that has been floating around for a very long time is the commons. Basically, the commons is a way of governing a resource (so, a property relation) that is neither public nor private, but collectively managed by a self-governing, well-defined community. And they have the potential to overcome some of those problems with private ownership.

You may have heard of the 'tragedy of the commons', or the idea that the commons can't work because humans are tragically but unavoidably selfish. This is a simple theory but unfortunately, it's simply incorrect. It has been repeatedly demonstrated—both by mainstream economists as well as by many traditional and Indigenous societies—that it is entirely possible for communities to effectively govern resources, given appropriate institutional design.

There are, around the world, a number of organisations building on the principles and ideas of the commons to develop new ways of understanding and putting into practice property rights and responsibilities that might be more enabling of agroecological, food sovereign food systems. For example, in the UK (where I work) there is the Ecological Land Cooperative, which holds land collectively and grants secure, lifetime leases to new entrant farmers at affordable rates, so long as they adhere to agroecological management provisions. The Agrarian Trust in the USA, and Kulturland in Germany do similar things. Another approach is the idea of public-commons partnerships, where the local council and a commons association made up of community members and different stakeholders co-own and co-govern local land. At a bigger scale, the Scottish Parliament has passed a number of land reform laws which give communities a right of first refusal on local land, and even has (some) money available to help them buy it. 

Here in Aotearoa, Village Agrarians is working to put issues around land access and, crucially, land ownership, on the agenda. Their land matching service works to reduce barriers to land access within the existing framework of property rights. More broadly they are working to develop greater awareness of the ways in which private ownership of land undermines agroecology, ultimately aiming to be part of developing alternative forms of ownership and stewardship.

Of course, any commoning initiatives here in Aotearoa New Zealand would have to be built upon an understanding that much of the land which could be 'commoned' was stolen from tangata whenua. This means that any work to begin 'commoning' land would need to centre movements and demands for land return, and ongoing conversations on constitutional transformation, such as the discussions and action stemming from the Matike Mai report. Land commoning would look different in Aotearoa New Zealand than in other parts of the world—and this is something to be embraced and addressed head on, with tangata whenua leading in any endeavour. This may look like a public-commons-iwi partnership, for instance. Or it may look like existing iwi owners holding farmland in trust for ecological stewardship by whānau or others. It may look like land reform that creates an iwi right to buy as well as, or instead of, a community right to buy. Or it may look like none of these—commoning may not even be the right framing. The key here is to centre Māori leadership, and for Pākehā and other tauiwi to be willing to ensure that any agenda for shifting property relations reflects Māori needs and desires.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think deer milk is the future. But the commons, as one possible foundation for a decolonial vision for a food sovereign, agroecological Aotearoa New Zealand, just might be. 

Pilot Internship Review

By Zoe Barbenel

Zoe manages Waewae Permaculture’s Otago Farmers Market Stall on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Come the end of semester two in November, an important race starts for students: the search for a good summer job. After having spent the previous year's summer in front of a computer doing research, I was especially excited to hear about Village Agrarians. I got in touch through a friend, MJ Grove, who Rebecca and Hollie had offered a position as a pilot internship research assistant. I was offered the same role and was placed at Waewae Permaculture over a few weeks in January. Waewae Permaculture was started in 2019 by Fiona Collings and Lian Redding and is situated near Osborne, just outside of Dunedin; there, they operate a market garden following regenerative and organic principles. I was welcomed with open arms and helped with the daily runnings of the farm, from weeding and preparing beds to seeding, harvesting and preparing products for sale at the farmers market. I learnt about soil, composting and the regenerative methods used by Lian and Fiona; of most interest to me, I got to see what running a market garden is like, and the amount of work (and reward!) that goes into it. In addition to my work at Waewae Permaculture, the Village Agrarian internship aims to facilitate workshops around the topic of small-scale and respectful production. In that context, I attended a cheese-making workshop where I was taught how to make halloumi, from milking the cow to preparing a delicious bite of food. Finally, the last part of my work was to discuss with Rebecca and Hollie and give feedback on the internship. It was a rewarding process to be part of, and I am excited to see initiatives like these being built - I look forward to seeing Village Agrarians grow!

New National Policy Statement for Protecting Highly Productive Land

By Leigh McKenzie

Central government recently brought in a new National Policy Statement under the Resource Management Act 1991 to protect Highly Productive Land. The purpose of this new policy is to protect high class soils for food and fibre production for the future as it is a non-renewable resource. The new policy is to direct new housing developments and subdivisions away from Highly Productive Land.

The subdivision of land for urban development and lifestyle blocks has been encroaching on and diminishing the usefulness of Highly Productive Land in New Zealand. Highly Productive Land in the new policy, refers to land with high class soils and suitable land-use zoning for primary production. The policy uses local council’s existing land-use zones, but the policy is to prevent future subdivision and housing developments in these precious areas of productive land. 

As an organisation promoting food production in tandem with protection of soils, this new National Policy Statement is intriguing. Will the new policy help our cause for sustainable food production? How might it affect small-scale market gardeners who we want to support? Does it allow for access to equitable housing, including options such as tiny homes? How does it fit with increasing pine plantations? This article strives to answer these questions.  

The Issue

Figure 1: Map of Highly Productive Land protected by the new National Policy Statement 2022. Source: Landcare Research (2022) ‘Baseline Highly Productive Land’, URL: https://ourenvironment.scinfo.org.nz/maps-and-tools/app/Land%20Capability/lri_luc_hpl, accessed 28/11/2022.

About 15% of land in Aotearoa New Zealand (3,830,000 hectares) is estimated to be highly productive. In the last 20 years, over 35,000 hectares of Highly Productive Land has been lost to urban or rural residential development, and the new Urban Development Policy (2020) encourages more. Furthermore, lifestyle blocks under 8 hectares occupy more than 170,000 hectares of Highly Productive Land. This National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land requires the country’s most productive land to be identified and managed to prevent inappropriate subdivision, use, and development. The policy came about following the Our Land (2018) report which analysed the pressures facing New Zealand’s most productive soils.

How It Works - Implementation

The policy is now part of the Resource Management Act 1991, which means that all local authorities have to take it into account when approving resource consent applications and writing their plans for how land in the district will be managed. For example, if you are wanting to subdivide an area identified as Highly Productive Land for housing, then you would have to apply to your local council for permission to do that through a resource consent. The local authority would see that your proposal would interfere with Highly Productive Land being used for primary production (production from agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, or forestry activities) and be unlikely to be approved. To gain approval, you would need to prove that your proposal is temporary or will not compromise the viability of using it for primary production. 

Local and Regional Authorities will have three years from 2022 to identify and map Highly Productive Land. They then have a further two years to update their district and regional plans to implement the policy.

Highly Productive Land protected by this policy

Highly Productive Land accounts for high class soils, and existing Land Use Classes which are how Councils have zoned their land, therefore identifying land that is available and suitable for primary production. 

In Otago, where I am writing, the new policy is expected to protect 3,080 hectares of Highly Productive Land with Land Use Class 1 (most versatile multiple-use land, minimal limitations, highly suitable for cropping, viticulture, berry fruit, pastoralism, tree crops, and forestry), 47,320 hectares of Highly Productive Land with Land Use Class 2 (very good multiple-use land, slight limitations, suitable for cropping, viticulture, berry fruit, pastoralism, tree crops, and forestry), and 343,300 hectares of Highly Productive Land with Land Use Class 3 (moderate limitations, restricting crop types and intensity of cultivation, suitable for cropping, viticulture, berry fruit, pastoralism, tree crops, and forestry). 

Impact on small-scale market gardeners

The policy directs that Highly Productive Land should be used for land-based primary production. Also for activities that address public health and safety, encourage indigenous biodiversity, or are small-scale or temporary and have no impact on the productive capacity of the land. This is great for small-scale market gardeners as it means less land that is good quality for growing on will be snatched up for housing subdivisions. However, if a small-scale grower wants to buy a smaller parcel of land, the land is less likely to be subdivisible. As long as the grower can prove the viability of the small parcel of land for primary production, then the subdivision would be allowed by this policy. 

One complication to consider is the implication for land access. This policy prioritises large sections of land which could make it less accessible, as it would come at a higher upfront cost due to the scale. This leads to the same questions in equitable land access for small-scale growers that our organisation wants to address. 

Implications for housing 

If you wish to subdivide your Highly Productive Land, or rezone it for urban development or rural lifestyle, you will need resource consent or undertake a plan change. In the case of subdivision, you will need to demonstrate that the productive capacity of the land will be retained, or that existing permanent or long-term restrictions on the land mean it is no longer viable for land-based primary production and therefore not fit for primary production. 

Since tiny houses are temporary/not permanent, it seems they may be allowed on Highly Productive Land under this policy. The policy also allows for supporting infrastructure for primary production such as sorting sheds. Good news for our small-scale growers!

However, there is an exemption in the policy where local councils are allowed to rezone Highly Productive Land for urban development if there is no other option possible for the objectives of the Urban Development Policy (2020) to be achieved, and if the benefits of using it for housing outweighs the long-term costs of losing the Highly Productive Land. 

This seems like a risky exemption to have in the policy, as the Urban Development policy is written to allow free building development on land, outwards and upwards. If a council can find that rezoning is the way to go, it might be easy for them to justify and therefore compromise the integrity and strength of this policy for protecting our precious soils. 

What about primary production practices that degrade soils?

There is increasing concern in New Zealand that productive land is being taken up for pine plantations. Village Agrarians supports all work to address climate change, but pine plantations are not an approach we endorse. The lack of biodiversity that these plantations are able to host is at odds with creating a sustainable future, not to mention the devastating impacts of clear-felling if the forests are eventually harvested. The downfalls of pine plantations makes this question worth investigating. 

This policy protects Highly Productive Land for land-based primary production. In the policy, land based primary production means production from agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, or

forestry activities that are reliant on the soil resource of the land. In other words, it does not really restrict the kind of primary production that Highly Productive Land can be used for, so it seems pine forestry will be allowed to resume on Highly Productive Land.

Although the policy does not restrict the use of Highly Productive Land for pine plantations or other primary production practices that deplete soils, it does have clauses that encourage indigenous biodiversity, and for councils to consider cumulative adverse effects of activities on Highly Productive Land. This may mean that other activities such as horticulture and indigenous biodiversity would be prioritised over more intensive primary production like pine plantations and conventional farms, but these practices that can deplete soils are not inhibited by the policy.

Conclusion

To conclude, this policy gives legal gravity to protecting our most productive land. It is great to see the government giving importance to and taking action to protect our precious soil resources for primary production. Giving this non-renewable resource legal recognition is a great step forward for sustainable land management. 

This new national policy means that highly productive land is protected for the future. However the policy could have consequences for equitable land access for small-scale growers by prioritising large sections of land, making it more expensive to access. This leads to the same challenges Village Agrarians has identified for achieving more equitable land access. 

The policy also has an exemption which allows Councils to rezone land for urban development if there is no alternative for providing sufficient housing. Housing has been pushed via the Urban Development Policy 2020 in order to address the housing crisis, which is critical, but we can’t afford housing at the cost of our non-renewable resources for food security. 

Pine plantations are still allowed on Highly Productive Land by the policy, but it does require councils to encourage indigenous biodiversity and consider cumulative effects of the activity that Highly Productive Land is used for. This may mean that other activities would be prioritised over pine plantations, but they are not inhibited by the policy. 

The policy doesn’t prevent Highly Productive Land from being used for practices such as monocultures or intensive grazing which would deplete the value of the soils it is intended to protect. We would like to see the policy go a step further and actually protect the soil by disallowing these activities on it, since they have already identified that it is valuable. 

Overall, this policy seems to be a positive outcome for protecting our soil resources. However, it comes with the caveat of potential issues for equitable land access, and urban development. If urban development can still be justified, it can go ahead. It also seems too permissive around the kinds of practices allowed on these valuable soils. The policy seems promising, but only time will tell whether it works to create meaningful positive change! 

Member Spotlight - The Organic College Market Garden

Fergus, Jamie, and Lydia in the newly established BHU market garden with their trusty chook crew members.

Canterbury-based BHU Organic College Market Garden is a space for growing, learning and connecting with community. This model small-scale market garden has been recently established to teach organic, agroecological farming methods via experiential education and they have recently taken on two interns. We caught up with head farmer, Jamie Tucker, and interns Lydia and Fergus.

How did you (Jamie) get into growing?

After a few too many episodes of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, I was inspired to become a vegetable farmer! Without much direction, I ended up studying viticulture (grape growing) and enology (winemaking) in the Finger Lakes, NY, USA. After almost a decade working in the wine industry in several countries, I decided it was finally time to return to the original dream, and left winemaking to pursue a Diploma in Organic Agri-crop Production, jointly delivered by the BHU & Lincoln University. I haven’t left the BHU since then!

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

I love growing tomatoes- the season long commitment to pruning & trellising reminds me of my days working among the vines, and the cyclical/seasonal nature of the care and nurturing they require.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

Whanaungatanga / The relationships we form with community members. We sell the majority of our veggies via subscription boxes, and I do most of the delivering, allowing the transaction to evolve into a relationship.

Can you tell us a bit about your new internship programme?

The Organic College Market Garden is a pilot project which aims to teach organic, agroecological farming methods via experiential education on a model small-scale market garden; participate in on-farm research to further promote organic, regenerative farming; and contribute to a thriving peer to peer agricultural extension network. The (paid) internship program was the main driver in establishing the OCMG - we wanted to provide an opportunity to bridge the gap between tertiary offerings, like the certificates The Organic College offers, and decision-making roles on farms. The role encapsulates lots of your typical farm-hand tasks like weeding and transplanting, but also includes plans for lessons in [real world] financial acumen and budgeting, crop planning, and marketing, etc.

This year we have two interns who are splitting the FTE role: Lydia and Fergus. Both are current students at The Organic College, and will join full time in December when classes are over. So far, they have been tasked with adopting thier own bed and deciding what to plant and why, when to plant it, and plans for irrigation, pest control, and harvest.

For the current interns, can you share why you were interested in this opportunity and what you hope to get from the experience?

Lydia - “Because it is an incredible one! The chance to continue learning with Jamie is pretty special. She is incredibly generous with her knowledge and time - I grabbed the chance to absorb all I can! I was also pretty keen to prolong my time at the BHU They've been an  inspiration for so many for 40+ years - I'm not ready to leave yet!

I hope to gain hands on experience in Agroecology, Regen Ag, sustainable human scale farming and minimal-till. Surely, this is the way forward! I hope to gain knowledge of the whole system (not just the parts I've been privy to as a Harvest Assistant on a large organic farm. OCMG has just begun - we're extra fortune to be part of the whole lifecycle of the farm, right from the very beginning.  I am also hoping for clarity. I'm new to this farming world - where do I fit in?”

Fergus - “Kia ora! I'm Fergus. I've been interested in growing food for a long while, but as a perennnial renter I haven't had the security to invest in a garden of my own. So for all the theory I've accumulated over the years, I've had very little practical experience -- the BHU provides both in spades.
The new internship in particular lets us novices be across all areas throughout the whole growing season -- this applies to the business and planning side of things as much as it involves getting hands dirty. Jamie is an incredible mentor, whose patience is matched by her enthusiasm, knowledge and tirelessness. And with the wider access to the expertise and resources at the BHU, there would be few similar opportunities to learn so much on the job. I'm just hoping my body and mind can keep up to take it all in!

Blue skies”

Are there ways that other people can get involved with what you're doing?

We offer weekly working bees, which currently run Thursdays from 12-3. 

With our limited resources, we also welcome community members with specific skills to donate time/skills i.e. marketing specialists, plumbers, professional grant writers, etc.
Another way to support our mahi is to share our work with the world!

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

I do absolutely zero recipe development myself, though I’m an avid cookbook reader/tester and food blog follower. This past year my go-to cookbook was Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden, and my most frequently visited online food spot was The Guardian Food section.

Here's a link to a recipe I'm sharing with our veggie box subscribers this week: https://cookieandkate.com/spring-carrot-radish-and-quinoa-salad-with-herbed-avocado/

Member Spotlight - Setha's Seeds

The Setha’s Seeds Team: Roddy, River Rose, Setha & Kiersten-Anna in their early spring garden!

The Setha’s Seeds team: Setha, Roddy, River Rose & Kiersten-Anna, live in the Hawkes Bay, near Tutira, in a bursting garden of all sorts of flowers and fruiting plants.

Setha and Roddy have been growing seeds and selling as Setha’s Seeds since 2013 in the long, hot summers that the Hawke’s Bay offers. They are well known for their beautiful yams, heritage potatoes and garlic, and over the years have gathered and propagated some real Aotearoa seed treasures.

You can find Setha’s Seeds on their website and in some great wee organic stores and grocers across the country. See where you can find Setha’s Seeds near you on our directory!

You can read more about Setha’s Seeds in a recently released book by Sophie Merkens: Grow/Wahine Finding Connection Through Food, and in a 2019 NZ Gardener article.

Setha’s Seeds has offered all of our Village Agrarians members a 5% discount off one seed order above $30. Setha has also shared with us a little about why they do what they do and a recipe for Kale Salad.

Thank you Setha’s Seeds!

How is Setha's Seeds different from other big brand seeds companies folks run into in large chain stores?

Our point of difference is that we grow all of our seeds offered on our website. This is an important distinction from our collection to other seed companies who often purchase in most of their seeds from the multinational seed market, which are grown overseas in climates very different from ours. All of our NZ heritage seeds, which are most of the seeds in our range, came to New Zealand with the early settlers arriving on boats and waka to start their new lives in a foreign land. Some came sown into hems of women’s skirts or in their trunks or suitcases. After all these years they have been kept alive by the gardeners of New Zealand. They are very well suited to this climate by now and you can now keep them alive in your garden for your children’s children to enjoy one day. We also have some open pollinated varieties that we have decided to include here because we like them so much. These varieties are not NZ heritage but we have been growing them for some time and find them to be important parts of our collection and wanted to make them available. All of our seeds will produce true to type and therefore the seeds can be saved.

What's your current favourite seed/plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

What a hard question! I have so many favourites it is hard to pick just one. This winter I fell in love with our Chinese Cabbage Chi Hi Li! It is such a delicious winter vegetable, very prolific, and even tasty when starting to go to seed! The stalks are delicious and sweet, never woody and the leaves offer great additions to stir-fries and ferments.

As for a flower, our Strawflower Swiss Giants, is becoming a favourite. They are so beautiful to behold, make great bouquet flowers as well as flowers to use in craft projects or dried arrangements. Kids seem to really love them for their vibrant colours for free play and making creations.

What do you like most about producing seeds?

Knowing where our seed and therefore food comes from and having confidence that we are helping our family and many other NZ families develop food security. 

Do you have offerings besides seeds that you want to share?

We have some live plant material like strawberry runners, seed potatoes, yams, seed garlic and multiplying onions available seasonally throughout the year. We also offer educational workshops at Setha’s Seeds as well as at other locations from time to time. We have created several booklets with important information about seed propagation and harvesting which are also available on our website.  And our gift vouchers make great gifts for your gardening friends and family!

(If you are interested in purchasing any strawberries, potatoes, yams, garlic, or multiplying onions from Setha’s Seeds, we recommend signing up for their newsletter as they sell out quickly and you will want to know when they become available! You can sign up to the newsletter on their website)

Setha’s Kale Salad

Method:

Combine the kale, onions, and petals

Add the dressing and toss – let sit for 20 min.

Just prior to serving toss in the toasted seeds and leave some for garnish on top 😊

Ingredients:

1 bunch finely chopped kale (I often use Red Russian; we sell the seed 😉)

A few Spring Onions chopped or red onion thinly sliced

Calendula flower petals

Toasted seeds (I use sesame and sunflower)

Dressing – 1/3 each of Olive Oil, Tamari (soy sauce), Cider Vinegar or Lemon juice.

Member Spotlight - Waewae Permaculture

Fiona and Lian of Waewae Permaculture are our second member spotlight. They live and grow food in Osborne, just outside of Dunedin where they are cultivating a huge variety of vegetables, some fruit, herbs, and keep a wee herd of alpaca to manage what grass hasn’t been turned into garden beds.

You can find Waewae’s produce seasonally at the Otago Farmers Market, through their vege box scheme, and now at a roadside stall at the Holy Cow, just outside of Port Chalmers. Find out more about all they offer in their directory and CSA listings.

Besides answering some questions about themselves to help us all get to know them better, Lian and Fiona have recently hosted our market Southland Market Garden Training Programme participants during a field trip to Dunedin, and Lian led a zoom workshop for that as well. We really appreciate their willingness to share their time and expertise!

How did you get into growing?

We were both home and community gardeners with only basic growing skills but Fiona wanted to grow on a small commercial scale. Fiona started working for John McCafferty, a local organic grower who encouraged her to develop her own gardens. Lian got on board after 1 year as the challenge needed 2 people!

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

Broccoli! We tried a new variety with great success, Summer Green F1 from Kings seeds. We planted it in Feb, and it produced great heads but since then has regrown large side shoots over and over all winter long and is still going strong. Nigel from Oamaru organics also gave us some advice on large brassica, that they do like to spread large roots and some cultivation is required if the soil is not perfect, so we planted it where we previously had dug potatoes for some nice loose soil.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

It helps us connect with the community in a rural area, as well as the wider community of growers and food lovers.

Do you have offerings besides vegetables that you want to share?

We run gardening workshops in spring, and also sell a few seeds we grow ourselves. We have 2 workshops for different skill levels this spring, you can take a look at https://openfoodnetwork.org.nz/waewae-permaculture/shop

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

Pan Pak Choi from The Otago Farmers Market Recipe Catalogue

Recipe by Amy Dougherty

Method

Wash and cut length ways the pak choi and cut red onions into quarters with the end left on halves, so they keep together. Heat garlic oil in a large fry and cook red onion first, then batches of pak choi. Place on a board.  To toast the sunflower seeds, use the same pan (just wipe out with a paper towel) add the sunflower seeds and then the olive salt. Toss over the heat until they start to turn golden, then sprinkle the seeds over the pak choi. 

Serve on a wooden board as a side or as a main. Grate over the fresh radish to garnish.  

 Ingredients

2 heads of pak choi 

2-3 Tbsp garlic infused olive oil or use plain

2 small red onions 

2-3 radishes 

1/4 cup sunflower seeds 

1 tsp olive salt or use plain

Member Spotlight - Tomtit Farm

Our first member spotlight is Tomtit Farm. The Tomtits, Brit and James, are located in Matangi, Hamilton and they are growing a beautiful array of produce, flowers, and healthy, happy soil! You can find out more about their offerings and how to support their work in their directory listing. They are also part of the Earthworkers programme and have recently been featured on a Farmers in the Field Episode where they talk about no-till techniques and cover cropping. Watch that here!

Tomtit Farm offers their produce through a CSA as well as a 24/7 road side fridge at the Front Paddock Cafe and they even offer delivery! Their CSA offerings include seasonal veges as well as add ons such as fresh baked bread, local eggs, and Last Jar preserves which features Tomtit Farm’s vegetables. It is so great to see the way they are connecting with and supporting other local food business, this is what building local food systems is all about!

Thanks Tomtits for supporting our work here at Village Agrarians, we love what you are doing up north and can’t wait to see what you get up to this season! We are very excited to have you as part of our community!

The Tomtits answered some questions from us about themselves, and shared with us a warming winter recipe featuring cauliflower! Learn more about them below:

How did you get into growing?

Hmmm good question, well I am a massive foodie and love anything that has to do with cooking and eating so I guess growing food is a nice compliment to this passion of mine. The growing journey started from finishing my studies in human nutrition and falling down a rabbit hole of academia where I was hungry for more impact at the community level where the idea of growing organic food came about. I quit my job and started volunteering at community gardens and wwoofing around NZ when the opportunity arose to have a go ourselves in the Waikato a few years ago now.

What's your current favorite plant/fruit/vegetable/flower etc to grow?

There are too many to choose from... coming into spring it would be rude not to mention the happiness dahlias and zinnias bring to our garden. Though this winter I have really enjoyed growing radicchio, the patterns and brightness they bring to the winter garden is amazing.

What do you like most about growing food for your community?

How we can inspire and provide the tools for our community to learn about seasonal produce that grow well for us here in the Waikato, we provide access to a huge variety of produce and exhibit climate mitigation focused growing. The kindness and joy we receive from our customers makes my day and the turn out we get at our community gardening workshops always blows me away.

Do you have offerings besides vegetables that you want to share?

We are just about to start our Spring Seasonal Harvest CSA in September, this is more than vegetables, this is a community between us the farmers, our members who enjoy our produce and the land that we grow the food on. We love offering the chance for our customers to stick with us for a whole season because we really get to know each other really well over this time and can really demonstrate seasonal produce and how it's produced. Our Seasonal Harvest Members become part of the Tomtit Farmily.

We are also growing flowers again this season and are bringing back the Tomtit Farm PYO flowers days.

Do you have a seasonal recipe you can share?

Yes this is one of my absolute winter favourites and it's so easy to whip up.

Whole roasted cauliflower with sesame flat bread, recipe below.

(you can find more amazing recipes from Tomtit Farm on their website)

Grower Spotlight - Eve Clarke of Forage Flowers

I believe that if we use our joy as a compass to guide our actions, the world will be a kinder and more beautiful place. 

Eve, the founder of Forage Flowers, gives us a brightly colored, and fragrant example of how following your joy is good for the world. Doing what she loves, Eve has started a small flower farm, growing beautiful, spray free flowers in West Auckland. 

“My favorite thing is giving people flowers,” she told me. Involved in horticulture and ecology work for years, Eve found in her days as an ecologist she was most inspired by collecting native flowers and arranging them in her kitchen. Even as a kid, she knew where all the freesias grew along the beach. She loved to pick them and offer them to her neighbors and people she passed on her walks. 

Now, Eve grows as many flowers as she can in her small 250 square meter garden, using dense and succession planting methods to ensure she always has blooms on the way (while still leaving plenty for the bees!). Starting Forage Flowers was not easy - Eve was building beds and learning to arrange and sell flowers all at once with the help of her husband, Sam. She was up into the wee hours of the morning every Friday night, preparing to sell flowers at The Shed Collective, a plant based market in West Auckland, on Saturdays during her first year of business in 2020. 

Through her experience, Eve has learned some concerning things about the floral industry that demonstrate how important it is to consider where our flowers come from. She explained to me that many flowers sold in New Zealand are imported from overseas, and there is no requirement that their country of origin be printed, as there is with food. Imported flowers are fumigated to kill all bugs, and are dipped in roundup (glyphosate) before they come to the country to prevent them from growing here. She learned this when she asked a florist about buying some chrysanthemums to use to start her own from cuttings. The sad news from the florist was: it won’t work due to all the chemicals they have been treated with! 

The lack of transparency in the floral industry makes it all the more important to buy locally grown, spray free flowers. Eve is happy that flower farms are becoming more popular in Aotearoa, and that flower collectives are starting around the country. The community of flower farmers is supportive and excited to share information to help make sustainable, quality flowers available here. 

Forage Flowers is growing too. “Once it’s not your hobby anymore, it gets a bit hard,” Eve told me. All summer last year, she kept picking and picking to keep the flowers coming, and people would contact her all week to order more flowers. Happily, Forage Flowers will have some more hands when they hire their first employee soon. It is important to Eve to do everything well, and by that standard she is also committed to paying employees a living wage. 

Along with expanding their team, Eve is hoping to expand the gardens. She is looking for opportunities for land sharing in West Auckland so that Forage will have room to grow. Landsharing is beneficial for all parties involved in that growers can access land without needing to purchase it, and the person sharing the land gets to enjoy the benefits of a grower stewarding a part of their land. Eve’s gardens are a dream for pollinators and humans alike, and anyone who shares land with Forage Flowers would be very lucky. We hope Eve finds a good opportunity to landshare soon, and that this type of relationship becomes more common and accessible for new growers.  

To summarize her work as a new flower farmer, Eve reflected to me: “You bring people joy with your job. It’s not often you get to do that.” 

If you live in the Auckland area, be sure to check out Forage Flowers and treat yourself to some of the joy Eve is growing this summer. She will continue to sell flowers at The Shed Collective, doing bouquet orders for special occasions and birthdays, and she is hoping to have a roadside stall up and running at the farm soon. You can see the latest from Forage Flowers on their Instagram or Facebook.

Written by Naomi Morgan
Photos by Eve Clarke

Summer Editorial – Land Use

Has the Covid-19 Pandemic ‘Sped Up’ Progress in Sustainable Agriculture? 

One of the main narratives that came after lockdown last year, was a grassroots push to ‘build back better’. Central Government took this on and pumped funding into green initiatives to boost the green economy. This is fantastic in New Zealand, however globally, it is hard to tell whether the pandemic has upped the pace of change, or whether it is being way-laid like other work since Covid-19 took the world by a storm. Also, does this apply to sustainable initiatives broadly, or has land use and agriculture has been a particular target.

To look into this more, we may be able to assess progress by looking at global commitments and Summits. Has sustainable agriculture been discussed as part of the solution since Covid highlighted food insecurity and inequity? 

This year, the UN Food Summit was held in New York in September. The UN’s Food Summit was a little low key in the media this year, it may have been a bit shadowed by the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow. By looking at the UN Food Summit, we may be able to assess whether work in this area is being accelerated in light of Covid-19, or whether it has been slowed due to the disruption. 

An impressive engagement process with stakeholders around the world was undertaken over the 18 months in advance, gathering ideas and research in order to inform solutions being created at the Summit. Given the work achieved in this engagement process, I would say Covid-19 has not significantly slowed down engagement work in this area. 

The Summit also focussed on ‘Prosperity’ as one of the three core areas for the Summit, identifying that agriculture has the potential to play a significant role in recovering from the pandemic, and the inequality in our food system that the pandemic has highlighted. Have a look at this page to find out more about how the UN Food Summit process was run for 2021. This also indicates that globally, Covid-19 has emphasised the need for action on the food system front.

• Prosperity, “Leading an inclusive and equitable recovery from COVID-19”: While representing a tenth of the global economy and supporting the livelihoods of over one billion people, food systems are a focus of inequality. They also hold the potential to be a powerful driver for the recovery. We need to double-down on our determination to ensure that all human beings can enjoy their fundamental human rights and prosperous and fulfilling lives and that economic, social, and technological progress occurs in harmony with nature.

To those engaged in the process, and in light of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vision of the 2030 Agenda is as relevant as ever. The urgency even greater.

Thirdly, the Summit identified ‘Action Tracks’ to be implemented following the Summit. Action Track 5, ‘Build Resilience to Vulnerabilities, Shocks and Stress’ specifically relates to action needed to respond to Covid 19 and prepare our food system for shocks such as pandemics. The Action Tracks also identified the need to address barriers to smallholder farmers and small-scale enterprises along the food value chain to improve environmental and social outcomes.

For these three reasons, I would say the Covid-19 global pandemic has not slowed down action in improving the current food system, or taken away from it, but rather highlighted the need to be urgent about changing it. 

However, identifying the need for the change to our food system in the Summit does not necessarily indicate real change on the ground. What were the solutions suggested? Does it include land sharing to address inequity in access to land-use? Land ownership has strongly been linked with wealth and power over history. How do we make sharing a more significant part of our economy so that we can redistribute resources and resolve inequity in land access? These days, sharing seems to be all about social media. How do we make sharing more normal in day-to-day life? This is where Village Agrarians come in. Start small, in our own region, by pairing those who would like to share their land, with those who are looking for land access. This feels like a huge win, so simple but not very commonly done. 

The UN Food Summit pulled together a long list of problems and actions. There are about 2,000 actions alone! And yes, land access has been identified as an issue causing inequity in our food system. The proposed solution is to improve local and domestic procurement processes to support local producers, and to enhance private-public partnerships to mobilise local finance to improve equity. When wanting to look further into the solution for improving land access and tenure, Solution 44: ‘Improve security of land tenure, land banking & community-based mechanisms on land rights & control over resources’, the sheet came up blank. If only Village Agrarians had been there, we would have loved to work this out with them, perhaps the work on this is still coming. 😊 You can explore the issues and solutions explored in the Summit on this page. 

Even if the solution has not quite been ironed out and put in place, it is heartening to know that it has been highlighted on a global platform as an issue that must be addressed, even in a global pandemic crisis, making it even more important to resolve.

Good News Story for Land Use -  A Grass Roots Victory

It’s always good to share great news. Australia has been heavy on the mining, but recently, a proposed mine was rejected in favour of protecting horticultural land. Kalbar Operations proposed an open cut mineral sands mine which would have had a footprint of 16.75 Km2. It would have operated for 8-15 years, and caused irreversible damage to a horticultural sector. The mine was proposed for an area in Eastern Gippsland which produces food for Victoria and New South Wales, known as one of Victoria’s most prosperous food bowls. 

A passionate grassroots group wrote submissions, banding together to fight the mining proposal, and won!

This may just be the turning of a tide. Rather than valuing an extracting, linear economy, government planning may just be changing to value long term land use, and seeing the benefits of horticulture in society.  

Community Spotlight - Grow Wanaka

At Village Agrarians, we were excited to learn about the work of Grow Wanaka, a new organization contributing to the growing community food system in Wanaka and the Lakes District. While their physical space is a small approximately 28 meter by 17 meter garden, their vision is far reaching. Their desire to create a vibrant educational hub where community members can learn, connect and grow drives the group's action. As Chairperson Chloe Rowe explains, once you have an idea, you just need to start and see how it goes. Preparing to enter their first growing season, this is exactly what Grow Wanaka is doing. 

“It’s crazy that people who need food can’t afford it, and there is so much empty space (to grow food)” Chloe said to me as she explained her personal motivation for her work with Grow Wanaka. After Covid Lockdown in 2020, some community members connected over the idea of starting a community garden as a way to produce nutritious food and bring community members together. While there are a few market gardens in the Wanaka area, the group saw a gap for a community garden that could divert organic waste from landfill to produce nutritious food for the community, so they took up the project. 

Their journey to find their small plot of land was not without roadblocks. In looking for suitable land, Grow Wanaka was surprised to find some community resistance from potential neighbouring properties. However, the support the group has found outweighs any objections they faced. They were approached by a private landholder who was open to their goals to build a community garden. With community support to go ahead, Grow Wanaka is making a conscious effort to leave the site better than they found it. They are in the process of designing and building a beautiful garden which will be lovingly cared for. 

They are aiming for a “template hopefully others will be able to recreate,” Chloe explained. And their vision is not just for producing food, but for creating a system which gives back to the earth. Currently, Grow Wanaka is setting up a vermicomposting collection program. This will divert food scraps from the landfill, and build healthy soil to grow nourishing food. They have both Iwi and district council support for the project, and are currently seeking consent from the regional council to get vermicomposting activities underway. Many local businesses and organizations have already provided great support for the project and they look forward to connecting and collaborating with many more throughout the process. 

Part of our ethics at Village Agrarians is a belief that equitable food systems include fair compensation for those working on the land and Chloe told me that Grow Wanaka share this vision. They hope that the vermicomposting program will be self-generating employment, charging businesses a fee for collecting scraps. The castings can then go into the garden, and the plants will go back to people. This circular system will simultaneously generate employment, reduce waste to the landfill, provide an education space for community members, and give back to the community in the form of fresh veggies.  

Because Grow Wanaka is not focusing on growing for the seasonal market, it gives them more flexibility and diversity in what crops they can grow. They are able to plant long growing crops such as pumpkins and broccoli, and experiment with methods such as the Three Sisters to grow beans, corn and squash together, creating a fun and relaxed growing and learning environment.  

In the future, to guarantee sustainability and longevity of the project, they would love to be able to employ a garden manager whose purpose is in keeping the garden managed and looked after, and who can focus on managing the volunteers and visitors to the space.

And who will eat the food that Grow Wanaka will produce? Ideally, whoever needs it. Right now, their vision is that food will be available to those who volunteer, and surplus will go back to the community. Grow Wanaka will be partnering with Food For Love, the Community Food Hub and the Foodbank to distribute produce and increase food resilience in the area. 

When I asked Chloe about her personal interest in growing food she replied, “hands in the dirt is my solace. Put me in the dirt, I’m happy.” As Grow Wanaka enters its first growing season, we hope more people can experience the joy of putting their hands in the dirt and contribute to this little garden making a big change. 

Because Grow Wanaka is a new organization and still growing, they are looking to build capacity and resources in a couple of areas. If you have any skills in funding applications, vermicomposting, or are interested in supporting the work that Grow Wanaka is undertaking, please get in touch with them at wanakacommunitygarden@gmail.com.

Written by Naomi Morgan
Photos from Chloe Rowe

Dylan - Crooked Roots Farm

When people are able to step on the land where their food comes from, it sparks something special. A connection between people, and the earth. Dylan Parker, who is involved in many food growing projects in the Christchurch area, knows this first hand. When he was a kid, Dylan’s grandparents owned a biodynamic farm in Fairlie. He spent time there, as well as in the Marlborough Sounds, foraging for berries and mushrooms. Deeply passionate about growing food and cultivating a relationship with land, he dedicates his energy to help more people have the opportunity to connect with place, even if they are living in urban areas.

The questions Dylan’s work seeks to address are ones we want to answer through Village Agrarians too. How can we help more people be empowered to grow food and to have a relationship with land and place? How can food be produced in a sustainable and equitable way? Many of the projects Dylan is working on in Christchurch contain answers to these questions. 

Cultivate Christchurch, Dylan’s mainstay, provides paid internships for young people where they learn to grow food as well as develop job skills. He says one of the most powerful things about this work is when older interns have the opportunity to teach newer interns. He enjoys watching knowledge passed between people and he believes the internship is a valuable life experience, showing young people you do not need to have a job in a building, that working outside is valid too. The program is an entry point for some of the interns to go on to study Organic Horticulture at the BHU. Dylan mentioned that while many interns become very interested in sustainable food production through their internship at Cultivate, difficulty in accessing land and jobs in the field is a challenge that sadly prevents many from continuing. 

While the challenge new growers face in finding land is ongoing and something Village Agrarians hope to help address, fortunately, Dylan and some friends have accessed land through the BHU to steward a project called Crooked Roots. Crooked Roots is a farm focused on a mixture of really slow crops, for example Burdock and Celeriac, as well as dye plants like woad and Japanese Indigo, and seedlings trees. The friends all work on the project on their days off, and are open source with anything they are growing. The group is keen to share seeds and knowledge with anyone who is interested, and is glad to have the opportunity to grow what they want, focusing on crops that are too slow, or different, for many growers to cultivate. Excited to have dye plants that will be red, blue and yellow, Dylan looks forward to using these primary colors to make ink for woodblock printing! 

In addition to these two projects, Dylan is moving intentionally to help activate a new project in the Red Zone along the Ōtākaro Avon River Corridor. It is a beautiful resource the city has, and the project aims to create a community engagement site with demonstration gardens so that people can connect with place, and be empowered to grow food themselves. 

We were so excited to learn about all of these projects that Dylan is involved with and the ways that they are creating the more sustainable, equitable and connected food system we are envisioning for tomorrow. If you want to connect with Dylan to learn more about his work, check him out on Instagram at @Crookedroots.nz and @Farmerdillo. You can also read about and support the work of Cultivate Christchurch on their website. 

Written by Naomi Morgan
Photos by Dylan Parker

CSA - An Entry Point to Community Food

My entry point into the world of organic, community focused agriculture was through the first CSA share I ever participated in. The CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture, is a popular model for small scale farms to get produce directly from the farm, to the people. I attended an information session at my university in Oregon where two local farmers came to introduce the idea of Community Supported Agriculture to students. The farmers had prepared some roasted parsnip snacks to share while discussing their commitment to organic principles, their history with farming, and the ways the CSA model benefits the whole community. We learned that by entering into a partnership and paying for a share of the harvest at the start of the season, the community invests in the farm and the farmer. This ensures the farmer has the necessary capital to invest in infrastructure, tools and seeds at the start of the season. In turn, the community receives a share of the harvest every week. 

For me, the CSA was an entirely new idea. The invitation to participate in something different from the supermarket was exciting: the shiny promise of fresh vegetables would make every week feel special, and while the produce would be expected, the variety would be a surprise to look forward to. My friends and I faced just a couple of issues, one being that the share provided enough vegetables to feed a family, and the other, which felt like more of a barrier, was the commitment to paying up front for months worth of food. 

Naomi picking raspberries in Oregon.

Our desire to enter the community of the farm by becoming CSA members led us to form a small community in our household. If one share provides enough to feed a family, we could become a family, sharing food and cooking together. We talked to the farm about our financial situation as students, and luckily they allowed us to split the payments, making it possible for us to become part of the community for the season. And so began our adventure as a new CSA household. Each week we would wait eagerly for the email from our farmer (our farmer! It was so exciting to know her!) featuring a beautiful photo of greens, onions, tomatoes, as well as things I had never heard of, like kohlrabi and celeriac. We would go together to the car park across the street from campus where we picked up our vegetables every week. At home we tried new recipes, ate lots of salads, and turned many meals into potlucks. 

Looking back, I know that the first season of joining a CSA catalyzed a change in my relationship with food and agriculture. I started thinking about things I had never considered before. I knew my farmer, Carrie, was getting paid a fair wage, but what about the people who grew the food for the supermarkets? What were their wages like? And all of those heads of broccoli and boxes of berries and perfect apples didn’t come from nowhere. Where were they grown? And how did they get to the shelf, lined up all uniform and shiny?

In Aotearoa, the majority of the food grown here is shipped overseas. The history of conventional farming as a colonial project to feed Britain shapes many practices and standards in conventional agriculture today. But Aotearoa has a longer history of organic and community farming than conventional agriculture. Maori horticulture and gardening traditions are far more productive, generative and able to sustainably feed communities than conventional methods. Luckily more people are recognizing and honoring this knowledge every year. 

Our goal at Village Agrarians is to support as many people as possible to get involved in local, organic, and equitable food systems. Finding an entry point is essential, and for me, it was joining a CSA. As interest in local food systems grows, we are digging into questions of access, affordability and equity. We are asking questions like, what is the best way to support new growers who want an active role in feeding their community? How can the CSA model be affordable to everyone who wants to be involved? Is it possible for farmers to offer a sliding scale membership where members pay according to their ability? Maybe door delivery with an electric vehicle could help busy families get fresh vegetables, while also acting in a way that is mindful of climate change. In my eyes, we must support a change to sustainable and equitable agriculture with and for each other. We hope you will get involved too, because together we can shift far more than any one of us could alone.

By Naomi Morgan

Stolen Seeds

Stolen Seeds - A comic by Marissa Perez for the IPRC Comics Certificate Program in Portland OR. You just have to look and you'll start to see all the seeds (beginnings) in your neighborhood. Check out her website to see more of her work!

Welcome

It is quite likely, that if you are reading this, you probably have an interest in local food, organics, or sustainability. Good on you! What a good sort. Welcome to Village Agrarians, a group of other passionate folk who want to improve the world in a similar way. 😊

Why? Local, organics, and small scale have been increasing in priority since globalised consumption is driving the need for change, to be able to sustain our wonderful earth and the beautiful beings we share it with. It has been well established that the current global food system negatively impacts the environment, is wasteful, unequal, and vulnerable to unforeseen future changes. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the support for local consumption and ‘building back better’ has only grown even more. Lockdown showed me how fast drastic change can happen if we really prioritise it, but it came at a difficult cost which is why it hasn’t been prioritised enough yet.

Reading a book by Melinda Williams, I recently came across the term ‘eco-despair’. I think a lot of people are feeling this at the moment. Perhaps particularly the young folk who aren’t yet able to vote, and are taking to the streets to voice their despair instead. When the problem feels so big, it can be overwhelming and hard to get a feeling of control over our own future and help where we want to most. I like Melinda’s way to combat this. Draw yourself two circles, one small, inside a larger. The small inner circle is your ‘circle of influence’. Fill this one with things you can influence directly. E.g. choosing to cycle, diet, growing some of your own food, choice of what you purchase, refilling rather than packaging. The larger is circle your ‘circle of concern’. It is for issues you are concerned about but are perhaps not able to directly influence as much as you would like. Examples might be protecting Maui dolphins on the West Coast. For issues in this circle, it might be best to address them by raising your voice by writing letters or submissions on proposed projects or government consultations. Categorising this way gave me a sense of empowerment and direction for where to put my energy and help handle my worries.

My Mum has always told me that making a difference is the most important thing we can do with our life. I love that my Mum taught me this, it has a huge influence on the choices I make. But ‘making a difference’ is pretty broad, and can feel unattainable as the goal posts keep shifting. But just by striving, and being passionate, we can influence and inspire others. Every little bit adds up. Growing food sustainably is perhaps the greatest thing we can do to help save the planet, and build food justice. Agriculture is responsible for about half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, and food waste alone, if it were a country, would be the third largest emitter in the world, following only the USA and China.

As Village Agrarians, we are setting out to address this. By encouraging people to take up organic horticulture practices, and arming them with support to take their new skills a step further if they wish. Not only does this empower us to act on our own ‘circle of influence’, but also expands our circle by empowering others to act on their circle of influence too, through providing sustainably grown food.

Welcome to the club 😊 Let’s get started, I’m excited to meet you 😊 

Leigh – Beginner, Wanna-be, Village Agrarian.