May - June 2020

Organic NZ

New Zealand’s organics and sustainable living magazine

Organic NZ2 min read
From Crisis To Opportunity
A very warm welcome to Pete Huggins, the new general manager of the Soil & Health Association. Pete has been working as communications and strategy director in the Green Party leaders’ office. He has a background in fundraising, database management,
Organic NZ1 min read
Our People
Welcome, Pete Huggins Kia ora! It’s an exciting but challenging time to be joining the Soil & Health Association and Organic NZ magazine. The covid-19 virus is having a huge impact on growers, distributors, retailers and consumers of organic produce.
Organic NZ1 min read
Organic NZ
Chair of Soil & Health Marion Wood National Councillors Steffan Browning, Jodie Bruning, Barbara Collis, Jenny Lux, Peter Wells General manager Pete Huggins: pete.huggins@organicnz.org.nz Enquiries and membership support Florence Lundon-Moore: info@o
Organic NZ3 min read
Creating A New Paradigm
The world has turned upside down with the declaration of the covid-19 pandemic, and the restrictions imposed to reduce the spread of the virus. For the first time in the 78-year publishing history of Organic NZ and our forerunner publications, we hav
Organic NZ2 min read
Competitions Be In To Win!
Win one of these four Trade Aid chocolate packs, including a brand new flavour, Milk Hazelnut Organic Chocolate! This enticing combination of creamy milk chocolate and crunchy roasted New Zealand hazelnuts is fresh from the Trade Aid chocolate factor
Organic NZ1 min read
Book Review
A Natural Year Living Simply Through the Seasons Wendyl Nissen (Allen & Unwin, 2020) Reviewed by Philippa Jamieson Here’s another gem from high-flying magazine editor turned Green Goddess Wendyl Nissen. In A Natural Year she writes about her (mostly)
Organic NZ5 min read
Your Letters
Email: editor@organicnz.org.nz Post: PO Box 9693, Marion Square, Wellington, 6141. It seems to me the future lies in the hands of the leadership of the organic movement, in particular the Soil & Health leadership with its rich and compassionate histo
Organic NZ5 min read
Covid-19 Impacts On Organics
The government restrictions to prevent the spread of the covid-19 virus have had a huge impact on us all. Organic NZ asked some organic growers and businesses how the covid-19 lockdown has affected them, and here’s what they said. Joop Verbeek Co-fou
Organic NZ2 min read
Organic Products Bill – Have Your Say
The future of organics in Aotearoa New Zealand is being shaped now, and Soil & Health urges you to have your say to ensure the best outcomes for healthy soil, healthy food and healthy people. The Organic Products Bill had its first reading in Parliam
Organic NZ1 min read
The Recovery Farm Package
In the wake of covid-19, the government is looking to fund ‘shovel-ready’ infrastructure projects that can help get our economy going again. Enter For the Love of Bees, a visionary regenerative agriculture platform formed in 2016, which has initiated
Organic NZ2 min read
Say No To The Latest GE Corn
The latest application Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has received is for a GE corn, MON 87429, produced by Bayer (now the owner of Monsanto). If approved, the corn will be used in a wide range of foods. It is resistant to the toxic her
Organic NZ1 min read
Sir Robert Fenwick
Sir Rob Fenwick, being a man of vision, had a wonderful combination of the love of big ideas and the appetite to back them. His passion for nature, conservation and the environment was renowned and widely recognised. However, it was Soil & Health’s f
Organic NZ5 min read
An Organic Appreciation Of Jeanette Fitzsimons
Jeanette Fitzsimons died three weeks before New Zealand went into Alert Level 4 total lockdown to try to stop the spread of the corona virus, covid-19. As I write this during the lockdown, I keep thinking about how much I would like to be writing or
Organic NZ2 min read
Regenerative Soil Solutions
It was a heady mix of optimistic strategies and depressing realities. The Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group conference, with the theme of the Regenerative Soil Solution, pulled in some high-calibre speakers for a two-day event at Lincoln in March. Pra
Organic NZ10 min read
A Raw Deal FOR RAW MILK?
Three weeks before Christmas 2019, in a scene reminiscent of a police raid on organised criminals or drug dealers, three Government vehicles sped up the limestone road to the Ashton family home in rural Waipukurau in a cloud of white dust. Seven agen
Organic NZ2 min read
Do Rewards Outweigh Risks?
Unpasteurised lactation doesn’t exactly have an unblemished record over the past decade and, while the term ‘outbreak’ might be highly emotive, the reality is MPI’s robust attempts to keep raw milk sales behind the farm gate are simply enforcing the
Organic NZ5 min read
SURVIVAL FOODS grow & stow
The reason I believe the human race will survive in almost any nearapocalyptic situation is threefold: 1. We have insatiable hope, even when things seem utterly hopeless; 2. We have the ability to laugh; jokes and funny memes soon follow after worris
Organic NZ5 min read
Homegrown AVOCADOS
I first discovered avocados while travelling in Peru many years ago. I didn’t really like them, but they were a better option than the worm-infested local potatoes, or the native guinea pigs. Fast forward several years and avocados are an integral pa
Organic NZ5 min read
Locavore Foraging For MULCH
Mulch has many benefits – primarily to protect and enhance the soil, our most precious asset. It does this by protecting the all-important microorganisms and other creatures in the soil. Most mulch also feeds the soil food web. Applying mulch reduces
Organic NZ2 min read
Maramataka for Haratua
Kua uru nga kai te rua; kua mutu nga mahi. The crops have been stored in the rua; the work is done. With a bountiful harvest crop enjoyed and the excess stored away for future use, late autumn is a time to relax, visit and socialise with family and f
Organic NZ1 min read
Maramataka for Pipiri
Nga kai a Matariki, nana i ao ake ki runga. The food supplies of Matariki, scooped up by her. The revered star cluster Matariki (Pleiades) rises during the Tangaroa nights from 13 to 16 July, and the celebration of Matariki – Māori New Year – lasts f
Organic NZ3 min read
AUTUMNAL Recipes
A great use of tamarillos and windfall apples. Utterly delicious with cheese and crackers. 750 g tamarillo flesh (about 18 tamarillos)1 T coconut oil1 medium onion, finely chopped2 garlic cloves, crushed1.5 cups raw or rapadura sugar1 cup cider vineg
Organic NZ6 min read
Antiviral Plant Medicine
Today’s pharmaceutical industry is a relatively recent phenomenon, originating from Victorian apothecaries where drugs such as morphine were made from plant compounds, and early twentieth century dye and chemical companies who discovered medicinal us
Organic NZ4 min read
FIRE CIDER & Other Tonics
The leaves on my deciduous trees are fluttering down, carpeting the ground with piles of umber and gold. Autumn. The changing of seasons with colder temperatures, later sunrises and earlier sunsets all signal that it is time to restock the home herba
Organic NZ5 min read
5G: What’s The Rush?
The rollout of 5G (fifth generation) wireless technology has begun in New Zealand. Its main benefit is massively boosted data flow essential for the ‘internet of things’ (IOT). Think artificial intelligence (AI): machine-tomachine wireless communicat
Organic NZ2 min readEarth Sciences
Organic Matters: COMPOST The Soil Transformer
Compost is as close as we get to a cure-all for soil health and soil fertility. At the rates applied in many home gardens it can actually transform the soil type and produce phenomenal yields. This is harder to achieve on a farm scale but strategic u
Organic NZ6 min read
Hempcrete The Green Building Revolution
Have you ever looked at a skip on a building site, overfilled with ‘rubbish’, and wondered where does it all come from, where does it all go? Or do you always spot a pile of offcut pieces of timber, perfect for repurposing something… but it makes you
Organic NZ3 min read
Soil & Health Association AGM 2020
Planned date: Saturday 25 July Auckland (time and venue to be confirmed) All members and supporters are warmly welcome to our AGM. At this stage it’s not clear if we will be able to hold a face-to-face AGM; depending on covid-19 precautions we may ne
Organic NZ5 min read
Goods And Services Directory
This directory is your guide to a range of goods and services that are either certified organic, or supply organic products. • Certified organic goods, services or businesses are marked: ✔• Non-certified producers are included on the implicit expecta
Organic NZ1 min read
Subscribe!
◾ Save 7% off the retail price◾ Enjoy home delivery◾ Packed with useful info and inspiration!◾ Great gift idea◾ Support the Soil & Health Association to create an organic New Zealand! $55 for a 1-year subscription 6 issues $100 for a 2-year subscript
Organic NZ6 min readEarth Sciences
Cooling The Planet WITH WATER
If we really want to cool the planet, it’s the hydrological cycle we need to focus on, not carbon. That was one of the key messages that noted soil microbiologist and climatologist Walter Jehne gave at the Organic Dairy and Pastoral Group’s conferenc

Organic NZ

More Issues From Organic NZ