News Article: Time to build resilience into food production

Manaaki Whenua researcher and senior economist Dr Suzie Greenhalgh and former colleague Dr Tarek Soliman say the recent rising cost of living gives more weight to their 2020 argument that New Zealand should pay more attention to food security at a national level.

In their policy brief, Rethinking New Zealand’s food security in times of disruption, Suzie and Tarek said feeding Kiwis was overlooked in the pressure to produce premium products for the lucrative export market. But the times, they are a changing.

‍20 some years ago, I decided to study plant breeding. My reason for doing that was simple; food is a fundamental human need and doing something that would help with food security seemed like a good thing to spend time and energy on. Over time, it became clear to me that food production is just a small part of food security. A part that can be channeled into profits over peoples' dinner plates. This is a country that produces more than enough to feed its people, yet many are going hungry. Policy matters.