14 August 2024 The growing call for a national food strategy to build resilience in New Zealand

With many challenges facing New Zealand’s food system, there is an increasing awareness of the need for a national food strategy to deliver Kiwis greater resiliency.

A more food-secure system would give New Zealanders greater access to nutritious food while meeting export targets without causing undue environmental harm and creating large volumes of waste.  

Lincoln University’s Professor Alan Renwick adopted the term ‘food system in disarray’ to describe the current situation in New Zealand. He says before forming a strategy, the depth and breadth of the challenges within the food system need to be understood.

“We have major challenges with waste – up to one-third of the food we’re producing is not being consumed. This, coupled with a food system incurring high input costs, means we are using costly resources to produce food that is thrown away.” 

There is a need to address both productivity and profitability in New Zealand says Professor Renwick. The country’s productivity growth rates have declined since 2000, with the primary sector unable to produce more with the same or fewer inputs. The sector is also struggling with profitability, with the relative price of inputs often rising faster than outputs.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has estimated that for every New Zealand dollar of output in the food system, there are 83 cents¹ of environmental hidden costs including greenhouse gas and nitrogen emissions, water quality and scarcity. Importantly, this estimate does not account for the costs associated with biodiversity loss.

As Professor Renwick explains, the rise in food inflation in New Zealand since 2021 has resulted in further challenges for families who were already food insecure.

“A World Vision study² showed that our price spike was higher and slower to come down than other countries. We need to understand how our food system and supply chains differ from other countries. Is it that supermarkets have too little competition? Is it a consequence of our export-focused primary production that is detrimental to our food supply?”

To add further context to the New Zealand food system, tensions exist between the importance of exporting primary produce and an increasing call for greater availability of locally grown food to consumers.

Professor Renwick believes opportunities to add value and grow more are possible through overcoming these challenges and creating a more resilient food system. To achieve this though, and to shape a national food strategy, further research is necessary.

“As Co-Director of the Lincoln University Centre of Excellence Transformative Agribusiness, we investigate alternative energy and sustainable food systems. Continued research of circular approaches will offer enhanced solutions for food production designed to reduce our footprint and waste.”

Where should we start in forming a national food strategy? By building a more resilient system says Professor Renwick. He suggests diversifying systems, moving away from the current model of specialisation that has made New Zealand more vulnerable, particularly to extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle.

Addressing and adapting to climate change requires urgent attention, both to build resilience and to reduce emissions. The sooner this is done, Professor Renwick says, the smaller the associated costs will be.

The government needs to take the lead on a national food strategy suggests Professor Renwick. He also acknowledges the importance of all stakeholders from the food system being involved, including advocates for exporting primary production and those who want a greater focus on supplying food locally.

To achieve this level of cooperation and collaboration, will require a move away from traditional policymaking in this country.

“Most policies focus on individual aspects of the food system. Rather, all aspects – at the farm level, environmental, trade, health and nutrition for all New Zealanders - need to be considered within a framework that understands how they are interrelated. This supports a coordinated response so that one facet of the food system does not negatively impact another.

For media enquiries, email media@lincoln.ac.nz or phone 03 325 3827.

1. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. (2023). Hidden costs of agrifood systems and recent trends from 2016 to 2023. https://openknowledge.fao.org/items/93eefa6e-bb86-4834-9450-29b07d3e28b8
2. World Vision. (2024, February 29). NZ joins world's poorest countries with highest food cost rises. https://www.worldvision.org.nz/about/media/food-price-spikes-nz-joins-worlds-poorest/