NZ could lose the ability to feed itself, climate adaptation inquiry told

Friday, 19 July 2024

Damage to an orchard on the banks of the Nuhaka River, between Gisborne and Wairoa.

Food security has to figure highly in New Zealand’s climate adaptation planning or the country could lose the ability to feed itself.

The finance and expenditure select committee is holding an inquiry into climate adaptation.

But while the focus has been on homes, papkainga and communities at risk of coastal inundation or river flooding, fruit and vegetable growers have called on MPs not to sanction the abandonment of productive crop and orchard land.

The inquiry has heard much about managed retreat, moving homes and communities away from areas at high risk of flooding.

But, Horticulture New Zealand has told the Government, “horticultural operations should not be expected to retreat from highly productive land”.

In fact, should areas no longer be deemed suitable for homes, fruit and vegetable growers will need to continue to be able to grow their crops there, and will still need infrastructure like roads to get their wares to markets in towns and cities.

“Much of our most fertile soils are located on flood plains,” Horticulture New Zealand said.

Commander of the HMNZS Manawanui, Yvonne Gray, speaks about bringing supplies to Tairāwhiti Gisborne and remote settlements on the East Coast.

“Primary production should not be forced to retreat from highly productive land, and adaptation infrastructure should not diminish the productivity of versatile soils.”

That would mean continuing in some places to maintain and develop “grey” infrastructure like stop banks and remove silt and shingle from flood channels to prevent dangerous debris flows, it said.

It also meant understanding how important the Cook Strait ferries were for food security as neither the North or South Island were self-sufficient for food.

Horticultural areas also needed protecting from debris like forestry slash being washed down from hill country, Horticulture New Zealand said.

This image provided by Horticulture New Zealand to the inquiry into climate adaptation shows two people stand on top of a seven-metre-deep pile of slash on a four-hectare orchard after Cyclone Gabrielle.

Lessons needed to be learned from Cyclone Gabrielle last year.

“When major growing regions are battered by severe weather and forced to halt production, like Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay during Cyclone Gabrielle, the country’s food supply suffers,” Horticulture New Zealand said.

“In the aftermath of that disaster, we saw the price of fresh produce skyrocket, which increased the cost of living across the country.”

It told MPs that when big growing areas were severely impacted by a storm or drought, other regions needed robust enough horticultural sectors to make up the food supply needs of the population.

Many big growers were already diversifying their supply by opening sites in both the North and South Island in multiple regions, it said.

Jacob Lawes, projects manager for the United Fresh Technical Advisory Group, told the select committee that more than 80% of vegetables grown were for the domestic market, and many varieties of fruits were grown for domestic consumption.

But he told MPs that the government has for decades failed to appreciate the importance of strategic food security planning.

Horticulture is a major industry, and it plays a big part in New Zealand’s food security.

“We’ve spent decades saying, ‘look we don’t have a problem because we can feed 40 million’,” said Lawes.

“That’s correct, if you think that the diet is milk powder, meat, apples and kiwifruit. But unfortunately, it’s not.

“For us to be food secure in this country we need a range of produce being produced,” he said.

Dr Hans Maurer from United Fresh Technical Advisory Group, says over 80% of vegetables grown in New Zealand were for the domestic market

Lawes described one laughable example of weak government thinking when he was involved in a project for the Ministry of the Environment under the previous government.

“One of our jobs was to provide some commentary on the state of the special vegetable-growing areas in Pukekohe and the Horowhenua,” he said.

That was land that was increasingly under threat because it was in demand for housing on the fringes of Auckland.

“The question we were being asked by the ministry was, ‘can’t we just shift some of that stuff over to Gisborne?’,” Lawes said.

“We just literally laughed.”

The laughter was because Gisborne was disaster-prone, and the first thing to go when a disaster hit Gisborne were the roads.