Safe food store

Food security sounds like a quaint concern in the age of global trade. Fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables are flown around the world. Every week our supermarkets display produce from numerous countries.

Yet national food security remains important to most people. Everyone likes to think their country has enough food to sustain its population if it had to.

New Zealanders probably imagine theirs is one of the last countries that needs to worry. Indeed, our food exporters are constantly battling the food security concerns of other countries that cause them to protect or subsidise their own farmers in competition with our products.

“There is no need,” we tell them, “we will never refuse to supply you.”

But our feature today suggests that even Kiwis want food security, and climate change is giving them reason to worry about it.

Climate change means countries are getting warmer, with more extremes of wet and dry weather and bigger storms. Just this summer, some regions suffered drought, followed by heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones. Plant growth has been disrupted, crops destroyed.

The results were seen in prices of vegetables. In November a group of doctors warned in the Medical Journal that low income households could not afford to eat properly. Instead of greens on their plate, those children are being given instant noodles and white bread.

High prices may be a temporary problem but the horticulture industry believes New Zealand’s local supply could be permanently threatened by the loss of suitable land to housing.

We import very little fresh produce, according to Horticulture NZ. Just about all our supply of staples such as carrots, onions and potatoes is grown here.

They estimate that only 5.5 per cent of the country is suitable for crops, and only 1 per cent is used for horticulture. They want the rest of the suitable land secured for the purpose in the event of climate change. We must keep our market gardens in good shape.