Is NZ’s consumer culture making nature disposable?

Craig Heatley in his Saturday morning interview on Radio NZ said we won Lotto at birth, being born here.

When we look at the chaotic state of other countries and the mayhem of political instability, New Zealand is a great place to live.

However, I’ve come to the conclusion that for too long we have allowed the inescapable poverty of spirit to seep into our psyche.

Where did this all go wrong?

Is it our consumer culture that drives us to want more with no regard for what that brings?

Driving to the office every day I see the results.

Discarded rubbish along the roads, and this week a ‘disposable’ nappy thrown on to the road at the northern end of Bulls.

And ‘road kill’ — a hawk at the side of the road which had been searching for food.

This was a senseless action by someone driving too fast to slow down and allow the hawk to fly off the road.

We seem to have placed no value on our natural world.

These animals were here before our roads but we’ll run them over because we can.

Buying, growing local

I buy local and in season at our market and I know where and how the food is grown.

This week MPI has advised that imported apple and stonefruit cuttings from a US testing facility will be contained or destroyed.

MPI audited the Clean Plant Centre Northwest in Washington State and found a “number of significant failures” and has “completed a thorough technical analysis on whether it is possible to retain rather than destroy the plant material”.

MPI went on to say that “industry can keep priority plant material as long as it’s properly contained while we determine if it can be tested for diseases so it may be released in the future”.

In this uncertain time of climate change, I question why we have to import anything that could open our borders to pest and disease.

Monty’s Surprise is a heritage apple grown in Whanganui and for years now heritage plants have been favoured by many.

A chemical analysis of over 250 apple varieties identified this unique New Zealand apple as being the pick of the crop.

The Heritage Food Crops Research Trust has carried out a lot of work into the effectiveness of this apple.

The trust says it believes Monty’s Surprise is the best in the world for human health and can be eaten as a preventative measure to reduce the incidence of disease.

Food grown locally and naturally has to be the choice for better health.

Growing our own food solves many issues around poverty.