At a time when we are inundated with news of the end of the world, ideas of the way through are crucial. This one is brilliant – legislation that would enable all the things we need for Transition to happen. The great potential here is for change in a climate-meaningful timeframe.
Polly Higgins was a British lawyer who did extensive work on getting ecocide codified as a crime. Here Transition Towns founder Rob Hopkins shares Higgins’ idea of a Transition Enabling Act. – weka.
Why it’s time to revisit the idea of the Transition Enabling Act
Sometimes the very best ideas need to bide their time before they get picked up and adopted. I want to share one such idea which I was reminded about the other day and which I really think deserves renewed attention and focus. I think it could be one of the seminal and transformative ideas of our time. I’m posting it here to see what you think, for your reflections.
First, a short bit of history. In December 2010, Transition Finsbury Park and Transition Highbury organised a great event called Confronting Change, at the South Bank Centre in London. The speakers were Michael Meacher MP, the lawyer and originator of the concept of Ecocide Polly Higgins (both since sadly lost to us), and myself. In the conversation that followed our talks, Polly suggested the idea of what she called a ‘Transition Enabling Act’, a kind of yin to Ecocide’s yang, if you like, focusing on accelerating the good stuff rather than just stopping the bad stuff.
You can see the moment that the idea first came to her at 3:30 in the video below [2mins]:
She then goes on to elucidate the idea further at 5:45 in this video [1 min] and from 8:02 in this one [1 mins 30]
I love it when she describes it as “the biggest job creation scheme in world history”, because that’s exactly what it would be. The Transition Enabling Act (TEA) is a brilliant idea whose time, I think, has come. Here’s what I wrote at the time:
“Polly suggested that, in the same way that certain key pieces of enabling legislation have led to great advances in the past, perhaps the time is right for a Transition Enabling Act, designed not to ban lots of things, but positive legislation that enables all that needs to happen in order for Transition to scale up rapidly over the next 5 years”.
The idea was, as Polly explained, inspired by the Canal Enabling Acts of the Victorian times, which set out everything that needed to be changed in order to remove all of the obstacles to the rapid creation of the canals.
It is clearly possible to use legislation to unlock different approaches to development and economic change. The UK government’s current legislation on how to rapidly accelerate the creation of Freeports is one example of identifying the obstacles to something and creating legislation that removes all of those obstacles (enabling, in the case of the Freeports, a really dreadful thing to happen).
The morning after the Confronting Change event, Polly wrote to me. “My head has been spinning all night on this! How an umbrella ET Act could open the door to food/community land trusts, guerilla gardening/incredible edible, education/ transition universities, training, jobs – oh just oodles of things”.
I was reminded of these conversations with Polly about the TEA (as I will now call it) when last I week, in France, I was sat in a meeting in Muzillac in France with local officials and the local MP discussing Transition and how to accelerate it in their area. The local MP said something to the effect that “these are great ideas, and we’d love to do them, but there is so much regulation in place that stops these things from happening, so I’m not sure how possible it is”.
The meeting with local officials in Muzillac.
I replied that it would be so so tragic if our civilisation were to destroy itself simply because it didn’t have the regulations in place that would enable it to save itself. It was then that the idea of the TEA came back to me, and as I talked about it, I could see the MP scribbling furiously, inspired by the idea of being the one who brought such an idea before parliament.
Polly’s idea was that this law should be Open Sourced. She felt that all of the movements already trying to change things, community energy groups, sustainable food campaigns, land rights activists, community-led development groups, new economists, etc etc, should be asked two key questions:
1. What have you been unable/hindered in doing to create successful transitioning in your community?
2. If you are able to say, what would enable your proposal to happen?
(You can see how readers of my blog at the time answered those questions here).
The core question with a TEA, she wrote, is “whose rights take supremacy? Big business or the wider earth community (which includes humanity) … . our existing laws, which are predicated primarily in property not trusteeship laws, protect the rights of those who have the money to buy land and property over and above community use and stewardship”.
She added, “What I am doing here with the TEA is shifting the balance of rights in favour of the community so that the community can then determine what they want over and above the might of corporate and council decisions. At the moment, the onus is still on the community to prove their case each time. With a TEA … the shoe is placed firmly on the other foot – instead a council would have to justify why a supermarket should open if it could not satisfy the overarching principle of guaranteeing the good health and well-being of the community, i.e. why it is not sourcing all its food locally etc; a building development that was not using locally sourced energy and locally sourced materials etc would have to justify why it was failing to use local and sustainable materials that are low carbon etc. In other words, the unsustainable businesses/developments would suddenly become the exception, not the rule”.
A month later, she came back to me having given it more thought, with a more fleshed-out idea
Transition Enabling Act Overview
1. Ecological well-being for current and future generations is primary obligation
Welfare of the community:
Transition by communities to a cleaner, non-polluting lifestyle requires more than the proposed rights set out in the forthcoming Localism Bill (Rob’s note: the Localism Act was passed in 2011) the LB sets out, amongst other things, the community right to express an interest in decision-making (which can be rejected), the right to bid and the right to engage in referenda. To transition a community to a non-fossil fuel dependent, resilient and flourishing economy will require certain enabling provisions to be put in place, thereby embedding certain presumptions and prioritizing certain determinants that favour the transitioning community. For true resilience to be achieved, the intrinsic values of ecological and community well-being are the bedrock of a Transition Enabling Act.
By setting the highest standards for energy requirements, transport infrastructure, food and building materials etc. transitioning communities can be enabled to take action in a resilient direction when faced with times of crisis.
We do not yet have embedded in international law the freedom of a clean and healthy environment, which is a freedom that arises out of two rights: 1. the right not to be polluted, 2. the right to restorative justice. When both rights are applied, the result is the freedom of a healthy and clean environment. Many lawyers now increasingly believe that such rights should apply not only to people; they also apply equally to the natural environment as a whole. Some countries, such as the Philippines, have specified as a duty of the State to uphold the citizen’s rights to well-being, to health and a balanced and healthful ecology.
Philippines Constitution
Section 15, Article II: The State shall protect and promote the right to health of the people and instill health consciousness among them.
Section 16, Article III: The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
Governance:
Statements of rights are not in themselves sufficient to protect and ensure adherence. Leverage is required to ensure governance over those who fail to uphold the rights of another. For instance, high costs and the threat of vexatious litigation mounted by corporations can easily silence many eco-whistle blowers and citizens who would otherwise speak out when there is a failure to uphold standards. In April 2010 the Philippines implemented their Environmental Rules of Procedure. In so doing, they put in place various provisions to protect their citizen’s rights to ecological and community well-being. These include Environmental Protection Orders (EPO’s), waiving of court fees for those who act as Environmental Guardians ad litems and protection of the citizen against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (anti-SLAPP provisions). All of these provisions and more could be enacted under a Transition Enabling Act to enable transitioning communities in the UK to embed and provide protection of both their rights as well as local council and local business responsibilities to ecological and community well-being.
The UK Environment Agency will not take cases to court to prevent and/or halt and/or seek damages for environmental damage and destruction where it amounts to less than £0.5 million. Thus, without the ability for the community to self-police, this opens the door to accelerated damage, destruction and pollution. By enabling the community to police the situation on their territory, the government can effectively decentralize governance to the people (and save money). The above provisions and others listed below will open that door.
2. Local production of food is a necessity.
Current laws (e.g. international world trade rules, anti-competition laws) have created a legal presumption in favour of large-scale corporate production and supply. This has to be challenged if local communities are to be empowered to create their own supply networks and infrastructure to build resilience for the future. Local communities must have the right to self-determine how their food should be supplied in accordance with the primary obligation to ensure ecological and community well-being.
3. Transport and energy for community use and public well-being.
Transport and energy policy currently favours private ownership; e.g. single ownership of car and centralized supply of energy into homes. The shift of presumption from being in favour of private ownership to community stewardship enables shared use of resources especially important at times of scarcity. It also encourages the creation of community assets, such as community energy initiatives whereby the community can collectively bid for renewables to be bought in for the community as a whole.
Infrastructure for heating, lighting and movement within communities who are at risk of being adversely affected by fossil-fuel shortages has to be prioritized. Current legal presumptions favour centralized and private ownership, to the detriment of community ability to self-determine projects to protect their well-being. Nordic countries have laws that provide for decentralized energy systems to be put in place for communities; such mechanisms can be adopted here.
4. Land and buildings for community use and public well-being.
Provisions to enable communities to use land and buildings for the greater good of their community e.g. land for food growth, buildings for skill workshops etc. Land and buildings that are unused or infrequently used (e.g. empty office space, empty warehouses, churches) to be requisitioned/used part-time for community use. Community and ecological use and protection take precedence over and above commercial considerations.
Rental value of land (Land Value Taxation) can be implemented for community use buildings and land, thereby providing stable rent whilst creating an incentive for the community to create added value from the land and/or buildings. This would mitigate and may even eliminate chronic local economic problems by regenerating local economies and incentivizing relevant job creation schemes.
5. Enabling provisions checklist:
The Rights & Freedom
1. the right not to be polluted
2. the right to restorative justice
3. the freedom of a healthy and clean environment
The Responsibilities
4. duty of care by local councils for their communities’ health and ecological well-being
5. obligations to ensure ecological justice and provision for future generations.
Other
6. Communities to self-determine collectively by referendum (under new powers set out in the Localism Bill) whether to apply the Transition Enabling Act.
Enabling legislation required
7. Land Value Taxation for rental of land used for community purpose;
8. provision of services by local councils for transitioning communities, such as priority access to suppliers of low carbon sourced building materials and priority access to suppliers of local renewable energy schemes;
9. low carbon food incentives, such as priority procurement and subsidies for local low carbon food growing initiatives;
10. community first refusal over land and property use for food and energy purposes;
11. 10% tithe tax on local business for transition community purposes and for creating food and transport infrastructure;
12. Environmental Rules of Procedure to include Environmental Protection Orders, waiving of court fees, anti-SLAPP provisions and application of the Precautionary Principle;
13. simplification of setting up Community Land Trusts (see recent Scottish reform provisions for land use), Community Interest Companies and Charitable Incorporated Organisations (due late Spring 2011);
14. Community Training and Assistance Orders.
Bizarrely instead of removing barriers to action what seems to be being proposed here is more heavy handed regulation that would restrict people doing things that could actually lead to less environmentally damaging activity.
Take this notion of encouraging local food production as if this is a better approach to large scale global integrated food supply chains. NZ is a prime example of how many of the food that we produce has a lower carbon footprint EVEN taking in to account the cost of transporting to markets half way across the World. However the "Local is better" approach that would be part of this Transition Enabling Act would likely mean it would be difficult (if not impossible) to allow people in places like Europe to buy our products.
Lower carbon isn't enough Gosman. Consider a house fire and whether using 'more' water to put it out is sufficient, if the whole house is on fire and you decided to use buckets instead of a fire fighting hose connected to the mains water supply.
That we can produce beef with less climate/eco impact than US CAFOs is fairly meaningless if we still can’t put the fire out. (and the CAFO standard isn’t hard to beat).
We have targets, they give us a % chance of averting disaster. We need to meet those targets not hand wave vaguely towards them.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
The big conversation there is how can NZ run an economy to keep us with a decent standard of living as well as meeting climate targets? And what is a decent standard of living in a climate emergency world?
The other factors here are food shortages. If we grow our own food in ways that are resilient, we can survive. If we instead rely on the global food supply system then we risk going hungry if/when it collapses. This is not fringe theory, this is mainstream concern now about climate impacts on crops, as well as the interruptions we have seen recently from pandemics and war.
None of that means we can't export anything. It means we need to rethink what food security is and how to build it in a climate world.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
So what happens about food supply to Africa? We've already seen food shortages/famine as a result of the disrupted Ukraine wheat supply. Local agriculture there is problematic for a whole host of reasons (climate and political instability – both likely to get worse – among them).
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
NZ is (or can be) reasonably self-sufficient in food terms (we might be eating more potatoes than pasta – but we will have something to eat). Meat and 3 veg might well be returning to our base menus.
It's all of the other things that we need to be a first world economy that we can't supply locally. Many of them we will never be able to produce (we lack the raw materials).
No-one is going to have a first world economy the way we conceive of it now. It's just not possible. This doesn't mean we become third world economies, it means we change how we do the whole thing. See Doughnut Economics for how that might work.
I didn't say NZ can't export anything. In fact I specifically said in the last paragraph we can.
Food for Africa should come from:
local food
regional food
food that can be transported longer distances with low emissions
Local and regional food increase food security even in continents like Africa. One of the problems some of the places in Africa have is they have been economically forced into cash cropping for the global supply chain instead of growing their own food. This means if the crop fails they have no money to pay to buy in food. This is absolutely insane. Consider what is going to happen when crops fail in a mass scale, do you think people being able to grow their own food are going to be better or worse off? Again, this isn't fringe theory, this is mainstream understanding of what is about to happen. The UN is promoting local food.
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
Exactly, this is the conversation we need to have pronto. What would transition look like for NZ? How can we make more the things we need locally? How can we afford the imports of things we can't provide ourselves? This isn't an insurmountable problem once one gets past TINA and the way the global economy works now.
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
Imagine then what happens in a bad year, or a bad five years, if the NZ carrot see crops fail. It's a madness to put all eggs in one basket.
"We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels."
Is this still current? I remember reading that about 20y ago, before the adoption of vertical orchards and forests, and advances in aquaculture. We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
Behaviour also has something to do with it too – out of season food (that is necessarily organic, sunshine-fed, spring-watered etc) is as a fundamental right to many.
Gosman's thinking of BAU and comparing one polluter with a somewhat lesser polluter. We have so many ways of producing food regeneratively now. Making money out of it beyond people making a living and feeding that into the local economy is a different matter (one which I suspect drives Gosman's thinking).
I like this,
We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
Although that's a good point, does that always have to be the case? Are you saying there's no possibility of leaving the place better than we found it (better in terms of ecological/biodiverse value)?
The definition of "better" is a value judgement. Who decides what is environmentally better? Removing all people from NZ and allowing the countryside to revert back to nature might be regarded by some as better than doing what we are doing but it isn't really practical. Even the concept of regenerative farming is vague and open to criticism that it doesn't do what is promised (see: https://thecounter.org/regenerative-agriculture-racial-equity-climate-change-carbon-farming-environmental-issues/).
the people complaining about there being no definition of regenag, don't actually do regenag. There are some issues of accounting and research, but in terms of the actual growing, people just got on with it. And they know what it means.
Who decides what is environmentally better?
I don't know what you are getting at here. Do you accept that we (humans) know what climate change is, what is causing it, and what would slow it down and avert the worst disaster?
We will improve on what we have now and our limits for improvement will be up to us. Some injuries have been inflicted and can't be healed, but a great deal can be restored, revitalised and made more dynamic than ever before, because we are clever and can increase the speed at which nature "turns over" to the benefit of all. Case in point, coppicing.
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
This is an incredibly cycnical pov. But also, it suggests that you don't understand what regenerative or sustainable is. This is enlightening for me, because now I get why the attachment to BAU is so strong. If you can't conceive of humans living as part of nature and being a benefit, then all that leaves is the death cult. This is sad.
(mitigating negatives effects doesn't make something sustainable)
Good and bad are not terms that serve discussions well. I prefer "energised" or "vital", maybe even "active" in discussing what to do and by those words I mean the sort of energy pollinating insects exhibit as they go about their activities, the behaviour of electrons as they whizz in orbit of nuclei, the sound water makes as it flows over the scales of a fast-swimming salmon, the sum of the percussions made by hail falling onto the surface of a lake, and so on. We need to break the deadlock language has set on our thinking and imaginations, in order to be able to create new ways of being, behaviours to recommend and pathways to follow 🙂
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
As the EU has shown, the modern state can legislate all it likes but even in aggregate form it's not strong enough to manage a 'disorderly decarbonisation', which is what the EU looks like and it is the most prepared for the energy challenge of any set of states.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
By mid December this year we will know whether New Zealanders are ready for accelerated renewables in large zones. In their absence and in a lack of demand-side measures the network isn't going to cope. All of those costs of transition are currently going to be found added to your power bills.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
We certainly need an Energy Transition Ministry to do what the EA can't do. But I'd struggle to see which politicians other than Shaw would have the ability to lead it. At the moment we are struggling to merge two public media entities.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
I agree. I'll probably do a post about the NZ situation, this one was about the idea, and it was conceived of and written about by Brits. I hope you join in with some proactive ideas because you have a lot of experience and knowledge in the pragmatics of NZ's economy.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.
In a sane climate response, the government and local authorities would be putting put public messaging for the past week advising people to save power and how to do that. This is not rocket science, and it's not difficult. It does conflict with profit making models and the current mindset about how things have to work.
Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
Limits of growth. We can learn a new set of skills. Instead of trying shoehorn BAU capitalism and growth into a fantasy of green tech climate response. We don't have to let personal EVs drive the transition, it can be a smaller part.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
this really is an incredibly ignorant statement. Local food is backyard, growing for one's neighbours, town wide box schemes, urban farms, regional food growing and distribution systems, the Longwood Loop. Fonterra exists to support our planet destroying standard of living. We don't need Fonterra to eat. We do need resilient food systems, and we need to set them up now rather than waiting for the food shortages.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
Polly Higgins died in 2019. Which you would know if you had read the post properly.
Tax high earners, use that to replace the relentless commercial advertising of crap with more positive pROpAgNDa? It feels like there's plenty of will, but it's difficult for the disparate elements to cohere amid the grotesque consumerism reinforced by advertisement overload.
Is that why we have kids who really want to make a difference, but can't live without the latest phone or Tikitok, or that climate girl flying to Fiji. We want out but can't find the exit.
"It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth."….disagree……sure initial outlay but you let some of your crop seed……you plant seed inside to get going…and you water and weed and rotate the crops………..instead of sitting in front of the goggle box……and you can preseve….freeze…….dehydrate and eat fresh…..grow your own and you won't a commercial vege again…….tomatoes that taste ….well… like tomatoes and as the song goes……"teach your children well"……
Do I garden? Yes. Does my garden contribute significantly towards my food intake over a year? Not really.
Yes, I grow fruit and veges (and have a very nice herb garden). And supplement my diet with those, rather than buying them.
Is it cheaper? Probably not. When I have tomatoes in season, they're also at their cheapest at the greengrocer. But, I agree, home-grown do taste good.
Can I freeze, dry, preserve them? Yes. But I also recognize that I come from a place of privilege there: I can afford a large freezer, can afford the electricity required to process and store, have the knowledge about how to water-bath preserve, etc., have space to store the preserved results.
Do I have the time? Yes. Again, that's a privilege. I have the time (and so far) the physical fitness required to spend time in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting. It's also preference. Gardening isn't everyone's cup of tea, and/or idea of how to spend their time well.
Do I have the space? Yes. A real privilege, here in Auckland – where most new townhouse developments have a 'garden' consisting of a pocket-handkerchief-size lawn. And, of course, apartments don't even have that.
Backyard gardening can be a nice supplement to your diet – but, for most people, and certainly most city people, it's very unlikely to be a significant contributor.
The days of the 'quarter-acre paradise' are gone.
Backyard gardening's supplementing of your diet is a minor consideration, it's the transforming of your thinking that's to be valued.
The message plants carry to the observant gardener is the one needed for transforming your thinking, outside of the complex.confusing, contradictory exchanges of ideas we are seeing on this thread 🙂
Given that I've been gardening for over 30 years – it seems to be taking a long time to kick in!
Reality is that people garden for a whole lot of reasons: family heritage (my mum would kill me if I bought lemons); convenience (I love my herb garden, and just being able to have thyme on hand, when I want it); taste (home-grown raspberries); curiosity (I wonder what these heritage beans taste like, and if I can grow them here); mental health (being outside, hands in the earth – even weeding is therapeutic – 'take that! oxalis'); contributing to the table (smug satisfaction of growing your own); educating kids (look what happens when we plant our peas, we can eat the strawberries when they're red, we can scrabble for new potatoes); even one-upping the neighbours! (yes, of course you can have some rosemary)
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
I just got it! I think it's the people who can't see the unwaged economy. If you can't count it in conventional economic terms, then it's just some marginal thing we shouldn't bother with.
They're probably also not aware of the very large movement in NZ of home gardening, community gardens, school gardens, small scale market gardens, farmers markets, and food forests! So many people I know produce excess from their garden and they give it away. Invisible economy.
I'm so grateful to have grown up on a 1/4 acre with most of the land not occupied by a house/shed/garage either in trees, shrubs or a large vegetable garden. Definitely bigger than the lawn we had to play on. Deep body memory of how it works.
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
Think about the resources needed to ship lettuces internationally compared to being able to harvest from one's garden, or neighbourhood. This is quite simple to understand. Run the whole process in your mind:
Growing
fertiliser (imported)
seed (imported)
ploughing (direct GHG emissions)
water use
Refrigerated storage
Packaging (including the whole process used to create that plastic)
Shipping
Domestic transport
Waste (of embodied energy, and waste to be disposed of)
It's bonkers that we think this is secure, viable, and not damaging to the environment.
Perhaps something with a longer shelf life than lettuces would be a better example. I've never bought (or even seen) an internationally shipped lettuce in NZ.
But, setting that aside. The only way to prevent off-season crops being imported would be to ban the import. No more California cherries in May.
No more bananas, ever (apart from the tiny % grown here).
Which runs into Trade deal issues. And risks reciprocation against our own agricultural produce being exported (not really 'risks' it would be just about guaranteed).
The alternative is to load on the $$$ for every stage of the 'carbon' process. Making imported goods so prohibitively expensive that only the truly wealthy can afford them.
I can't say that that's a scenario that I feel comfortable with (even if I was one of the people who could afford off-season cherries)
Part of the problem, I think, is that our international trade connections are so widespread. And, there are plenty of figures showing that NZ lamb (for example) uses less carbon (even when shipping is counted) than local production.
My point weka is that focussing on backyard gardening in particular, in the next 5 years, is a misallocation of resources.
Community or other wider gardening exercises is a different issue, because those things can actually scale to provide a meaningful amount of food.
My parents manage to provide probably about 1/2 of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their garden – a significant feat. But they've been at it for 30+ years, they have all the skills, tools, experience, land and time to do it.
NZ produces such a huge amount of food – and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future – that spending time fussing about at the margins with backyard gardening is a waste of time. In other countries like the UK and the US, and large Australian cities, it's a sensible and important thing to do. But NZ isn't those countries (thankfully).
In NZ we need to focus on sustainable farming methods, permaculture etc.
I think you are missing the point here Belladonna. Look at the whole systems. If 20% of people in a city grow half their own food, there are multiple benefits for them personally but it also means that that amount of food doesn't have to be grown and transported in highly carbon polluting ways. Now multiply that across NZ.
Now, put that alongside all the other things happening: community gardens and orchards and food forests, school gardens, urban farms. Then market gardening on the outskirts of the city. Compare that to shipping all that food long distances and the packaging and waste, power and water consumption.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
I don't have an issue with buying local (though defining 'local' is a bit of a challenge – there is no such thing as a real farmers market in Auckland, for example – we're just too far away from actual market gardens). But expecting any significant contribution from backyard gardens (or community gardens – which only seem to operate in the wealthiest of suburbs), or school gardens (more of an education/science project than actual food contribution) – is not something that I can see working.
I guess, that you're saying that even a tiny contribution is better than nothing…. But I don't see it as transformational.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
Totally agree. As I said in a comment above, my parents can grow about 1/2 of all of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their surburban garden. But they've been doing it for 30+ years, and have the experience, time and land to do it.
Note that I said vegetables. They still have to buy meat and fruit. And that's also averaged over a whole year – in Christchurch in winter there isn't a lot of edible food coming from the garden.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
exactly AND you grow it and control what goes into it with the result tastier and healthier food and you can go have a cup of tea with ya neighbour and give them a cauli
Unless you are on a quarter acre and own the property and are mostly retired, gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal.
All those endless covers and pages of women's magazines with smiling bougies holding their baskets of greens and telling how they are changing the world is just a fat lie.
Annabelle Langbein for example, queen of all that homemade faux-working class chambray-shirted nonsense, lives on five acres with a full view of Lake Wanaka on title over $6m with a multimedia empire worth millions.
Just because you are irritated by wealthy celebrities who garden, or retirees on a certain square-meterage of land doesn't mean that your claim that gardening is "a very long virtue signal" is correct.
It is not.
Real food is produced by real people for real reasons, all over the motu.
Even people without gardens of any outdoor sort, can grow valuable food to supplement that which they have to buy. Sprouting seeds (sunflower, mung, lentils, peas etc.) on the kitchen bench then eating them fresh or processed in hummus and so on, is a real action that benefits those who take it and the carbon-wasting networks they don't use as a result.
Now it's just wilful ignorance. Maybe a reflection of your social circles. I know so many people that grow some or a large part of their fresh produce. Probably the majority of people I know, certainly too many to count. This includes people who rent and people who work. People garden for all sorts of reasons, including health, financial, and yes climate/ecology.
But sure, if the people you are following are Langbein, I can see why you don't understand what is going on. Don't want to diss AL, anyone who gardens is helping the world. Even wealthy upper middle class people.
I know people who provide a significant amount of the food from their own garden also. And I know that that is simply not achievable for 80%+ of the population.
Noting that this isn't the only example in this thread of people arguing against things that haven't been said.
So, to clarify (and I have said this already more than once), local food isn't only gardening, it's all the things,
home gardening
community gardens/orchards
school gardens
urban farming
small scale market gardens
large scale market gardens
cropping around cities
None of that precludes transporting food over greater distances, what it does is take the weight off those larger, more cumbersome and less resilient systems. People in Southland can still eat avocado, just get it from Nelson rather than Australia. People in Auckland can still eat oats, just get it from Otago rather than Canada.
For home gardening the skillset / knowledge has almost been entirely lost to the most recent generation especially in our cities.
Crop rotation, Variety selection, Seed collection and storage, Planting timing and even the means to preserve crops post harvest.
For most people a productive garden at home costs more than buying from the supermarket etc.
Small scale market gardens are in a similar situation with generational change, rapidly increasing capital / input costs combined with increasing crop losses (severe weather) making it less and less viable by the year.
I think the simplistic message is to eat seasonally.
Based on the current performance, if they had 1 billion to spend, they'd shut down the whole network while they upgraded it….for about 5 years or so…..
Auckland has had literally years of rolling stoppages – while Kiwirail and AT try to get their act together over train and track quality and maintenance. And now, train users are about to have another couple of years worth. It beggars belief that AT couldn't have been upgrading this piecemeal over the last 5 years – and now want to shut down the line, so they can do it in one operation.
It's very difficult to build support for a train network with this sort of continual disruption.
The destruction of much of the inner city business environment due to the CRL – has also informed a lot of the resistance to the government's light rail proposals. People see up close just what that kind of major disruption looks like – and don't want a bar of it.
The law (as discussed) seemed to be enabling legislation rather than prevention legislation. So my guess would be 'no'
The answer would be 'no'.
So let me get this straight
The law (as discussed), would ‘enable’ more wind turbines, more PV power stations, and more electric cars. But the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
….perhaps the time is right for a Transition Enabling Act, designed not to ban lots of things, but positive legislation that enables all that needs to happen in order for Transition to scale up rapidly over the next 5 years”.
The idea was, as Polly explained, inspired by the Canal Enabling Acts of the Victorian times, which set out everything that needed to be changed in order to remove all of the obstacles to the rapid creation of the canals.
Unfortunately reading the above, I would have to agree with Belladonna that 'no' – the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
With respect Weka, if you have any other interpretation, I would like to hear it;
She added, “What I am doing here with the TEA is shifting the balance of rights in favour of the community so that the community can then determine what they want over and above the might of corporate and council decisions.
At the moment, the onus is still on the community to prove their case each time. With a TEA … the shoe is placed firmly on the other foot – instead a council would have to justify why a supermarket should open if it could not satisfy the overarching principle of guaranteeing the good health and well-being of the community, i.e. why it is not sourcing all its food locally etc; a building development that was not using locally sourced energy and locally sourced materials etc would have to justify why it was failing to use local and sustainable materials that are low carbon etc.
In other words, the unsustainable businesses/developments would suddenly become the exception, not the rule”.
This seems a key point of the Act. To set a framework of values for transition. The Greens have been pushing the idea that each piece of legislation must be parsed through a climate emergency lens. This is a step further.
To go back to your original question about the government bailing out AirNZ, we have to bear in mind how critical it is to have a national airline given how far away from other countries we are (I assume this doesn't need explaining, I'm not talking shopping trips to Sydney). There is an obvious public good in keeping the airline going.
But I think what we can do is look at the concept and initial framework of the TEA and put out ideas on how it could be created. It's not set in stone, Higgins didn't write it for NZ, that's for us to decide how it would work here.
It's been interesting watching the response in this thread, the amount of naysaying effort that has gone into comments instead of looking at how it might work.
Even if you taxes the bejeesus out of international travel, it would only affect cattle class volumes a bit. For international travellers it's a rounding error.
Also if Kiwirail didn't teach you anything over the last 24 hours, it's throwing billions of dollars into an irreversibly sick industry. Every ticket you buy to get from Henderson to Auckland central is 70% paid for by everyone else, more if you count the CAPEX.
The transport bailouts per citizen on rail could buy AirNZ every year.
Also, I can't think of any price increase which would stop the super-rich flying their private jets (a much greater per-person impact than the poor slobs in cattle class).
After all, price is the capitalist way of rationing things.
The regional fuel tax for example was imposed as a disincentive to private car use.
The age of mass passenger air travel only really began in the '70s with introduction of the first wide body jets. Before that time, air travel was expensive.. As a result most people still used surface transport.
The amount of passenger air travel compared to today was miniscule. As was it's carbon footprint.
'The Jet Set'
Stop subsidising air travel, bring back the Jet Set, it's the capitalist way
The term 'Jet Set' once referred to that tiny minority of rich people with enough money to be able to afford to fly. You don't hear the term 'Jet Set' anymore, because of course millions of us fly. The term 'Jet Set' sounds oddly quaint and old fashioned almost from an other age, yet it is within living memory. Austin Powers generation would have used it.
(Yeah I know, fictional character and all that. But you get the meaning).
Yeah. Not greatly happy with entrenching privileges for the wealthy (or for politicians – who would still get their freebies, no doubt. Currently, the Speaker is on a junket through Latin America, with Ricardo Menéndez March from the Green Party in tow)
I don't know that we do a lot of ongoing subsidising of air travel. The 2 issues you've quoted were for crisis points – where (I understand) the Government bought a stake in the company, which was then repurchased over time.
So not a gift, or an ongoing subsidy (when the airline made profits, the Government got dividends, just like all other shareholders).
NZ governments seem to have believed that it's critical to the country to have an airline which is guaranteed to fly into NZ. That certainly paid dividends during the Covid disruption of air freight – when it was only Air NZ which was flying in and out of Auckland.
The regional fuel tax had zero success in reducing private car use (because most people don't have alternatives). Nor, do I believe that that was it's intended purpose. It was (and is) purely a cash cow for local government to use in funding transport projects.
A regional fuel tax provides a way for regional councils to raise revenue to fund transport projects in their region that would otherwise be delayed or not funded.
what!!….Kiwirail is more virtue singing huh?……..you would be appalled at what our roads would be like without rail and with carbon reduction big on the menu it is a necessity ….not to mention the heart and soul its employess put into it.
“We know the virus in New Zealand is a genetic match to a virus which caused illness in Sweden in 2020 and 2021. That illness had a possible link to frozen berries from Serbia.
The incidence of monkey pox in NZ is entirely due to the movement of people around the globe.
I was pointing to the equivalence of your "Global food supply" in the outbreak of HepA
HepA, Global food supply = Monkey pox, Global people supply.
Regardless of whether it's a food-borne infection, or a people-transmitted infection, our global world will see intercontinental spread of disease (as we all have recent familiarity with Covid)
It wold be an unusual multicellular animal that didn't travel with a few (trillion) "mostly harmless" passengers. The original Survivors series was gripping, with a great title sequence – the less long-lived 2008 'not a remake' wasn't bad either.
It seems like a really good idea to me. All those unadopted sustainable technologies – hemp & harakeke fibre, aquaculture & aquaponics, najeon chilgi, flood zone riparian crop trees & bushes, impact absorbing roadside planting – that have languished from want of interest for generations until we are well behind what were once much more degraded ecologies, could finally be brought to fruition.
Wait though, for the non-performing economists whose idea of growth is low quality mass migration and real estate inflation squeal that it can never work.
It's a nice, skilled, sustainable industry (paua shell & lacquer work for the non-Korean speakers – though turban shell is also used) – we can grow the trees, and it's a logical avenue of expression for some Maori art. Got a depressed area with no decent paying work? This might help – no greenstone required.
It demonstrates, once again, that there are answers but a lack of political will.
By political will, I mean individually as well as our employees in Wellys. Every dollar anyone spends is a political decision.
The notion that the supermarket is preferred over locally grown produce is all about convenience and turning a big blind eye to the diesel miles embedded in all that they sell. Also being willfully ignorant of the duopoly's treatment of the primary producers that sell through them.
The middle class needs to overcome it's addiction to convenience for us to rebuild economies.
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A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Magdalena M.E. Bunbury, Postdoctoral Researcher, James Cook University Burial with a horse at the Rákóczifalva site, Hungary (8th century AD).Sándor Hegedűs, Hungarian National Museum, CC BY How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been ...
Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher, CSIRO Xavier Boulenger/Shutterstock In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon ...
With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
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Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
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The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
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A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
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Perhaps this is the (hidden/not given) reason for the Government's movement toward reforming local government/TAs/regional councils?
Preparation for transition.
Bizarrely instead of removing barriers to action what seems to be being proposed here is more heavy handed regulation that would restrict people doing things that could actually lead to less environmentally damaging activity.
Take this notion of encouraging local food production as if this is a better approach to large scale global integrated food supply chains. NZ is a prime example of how many of the food that we produce has a lower carbon footprint EVEN taking in to account the cost of transporting to markets half way across the World. However the "Local is better" approach that would be part of this Transition Enabling Act would likely mean it would be difficult (if not impossible) to allow people in places like Europe to buy our products.
Lower carbon isn't enough Gosman. Consider a house fire and whether using 'more' water to put it out is sufficient, if the whole house is on fire and you decided to use buckets instead of a fire fighting hose connected to the mains water supply.
That we can produce beef with less climate/eco impact than US CAFOs is fairly meaningless if we still can’t put the fire out. (and the CAFO standard isn’t hard to beat).
We have targets, they give us a % chance of averting disaster. We need to meet those targets not hand wave vaguely towards them.
We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels.
The big conversation there is how can NZ run an economy to keep us with a decent standard of living as well as meeting climate targets? And what is a decent standard of living in a climate emergency world?
The other factors here are food shortages. If we grow our own food in ways that are resilient, we can survive. If we instead rely on the global food supply system then we risk going hungry if/when it collapses. This is not fringe theory, this is mainstream concern now about climate impacts on crops, as well as the interruptions we have seen recently from pandemics and war.
None of that means we can't export anything. It means we need to rethink what food security is and how to build it in a climate world.
So what happens about food supply to Africa? We've already seen food shortages/famine as a result of the disrupted Ukraine wheat supply. Local agriculture there is problematic for a whole host of reasons (climate and political instability – both likely to get worse – among them).
If NZ no longer exports agricultural products – that's a huge swathe of our export economy gone. What do we use for foreign exchange for the stuff that we need – and can never produce/supply locally?
[I heard a snippet on the radio the other day, saying that NZ grows and supplies the vast majority of the carrot seed used worldwide – the inter-connectedness of our economies continues to astound me]
NZ is (or can be) reasonably self-sufficient in food terms (we might be eating more potatoes than pasta – but we will have something to eat). Meat and 3 veg might well be returning to our base menus.
It's all of the other things that we need to be a first world economy that we can't supply locally. Many of them we will never be able to produce (we lack the raw materials).
No-one is going to have a first world economy the way we conceive of it now. It's just not possible. This doesn't mean we become third world economies, it means we change how we do the whole thing. See Doughnut Economics for how that might work.
I didn't say NZ can't export anything. In fact I specifically said in the last paragraph we can.
Food for Africa should come from:
Local and regional food increase food security even in continents like Africa. One of the problems some of the places in Africa have is they have been economically forced into cash cropping for the global supply chain instead of growing their own food. This means if the crop fails they have no money to pay to buy in food. This is absolutely insane. Consider what is going to happen when crops fail in a mass scale, do you think people being able to grow their own food are going to be better or worse off? Again, this isn't fringe theory, this is mainstream understanding of what is about to happen. The UN is promoting local food.
Exactly, this is the conversation we need to have pronto. What would transition look like for NZ? How can we make more the things we need locally? How can we afford the imports of things we can't provide ourselves? This isn't an insurmountable problem once one gets past TINA and the way the global economy works now.
Imagine then what happens in a bad year, or a bad five years, if the NZ carrot see crops fail. It's a madness to put all eggs in one basket.
"We absolutely won't be able to export food to Europe in the way we do now. Look at the carbon foot print of the whole supply chain to get lamb from Otago to London. It's not possible to do that without fossil fuels."
Ummm…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018843682/a-milestone-marked-for-meat-industry
Is this still current? I remember reading that about 20y ago, before the adoption of vertical orchards and forests, and advances in aquaculture. We don't just want the lesser of two evils, we want the actively good.
Behaviour also has something to do with it too – out of season food (that is necessarily organic, sunshine-fed, spring-watered etc) is as a fundamental right to many.
Gosman's thinking of BAU and comparing one polluter with a somewhat lesser polluter. We have so many ways of producing food regeneratively now. Making money out of it beyond people making a living and feeding that into the local economy is a different matter (one which I suspect drives Gosman's thinking).
I like this,
There is no such thing as actively good human activity. EVERYTHING we do has an negative impact on the environment at some level. The question is really is can the effects be mitigated and minimised to the extent it can be decreed to be sustainable.
Although that's a good point, does that always have to be the case? Are you saying there's no possibility of leaving the place better than we found it (better in terms of ecological/biodiverse value)?
https://www.boredpanda.com/brazilian-couple-recreated-forest-sebastiao-leila-salgado-reforestation/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
https://sea.mashable.com/social-good/15087/indonesian-man-plants-a-forest-with-11000-trees-all-by-himself
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/26/572421590/hed-take-his-own-life-before-killing-a-tree-meet-india-s-forest-man
Farm based on respecting the ecosystem is sheltered from the changing market amid global food insecurity. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/3/the-lebanese-farm-regenerating-soil-for-a-healthier-future
The definition of "better" is a value judgement. Who decides what is environmentally better? Removing all people from NZ and allowing the countryside to revert back to nature might be regarded by some as better than doing what we are doing but it isn't really practical. Even the concept of regenerative farming is vague and open to criticism that it doesn't do what is promised (see: https://thecounter.org/regenerative-agriculture-racial-equity-climate-change-carbon-farming-environmental-issues/).
"EVERYTHING we do has an (sic) negative impact on the environment at some level."
Surely that's a value judgement as well, Gosman?
"Who decides what is environmentally better?"
You, it seems, decides what's "negative", yes?
Tricky discussion.
the people complaining about there being no definition of regenag, don't actually do regenag. There are some issues of accounting and research, but in terms of the actual growing, people just got on with it. And they know what it means.
I don't know what you are getting at here. Do you accept that we (humans) know what climate change is, what is causing it, and what would slow it down and avert the worst disaster?
We will improve on what we have now and our limits for improvement will be up to us. Some injuries have been inflicted and can't be healed, but a great deal can be restored, revitalised and made more dynamic than ever before, because we are clever and can increase the speed at which nature "turns over" to the benefit of all. Case in point, coppicing.
This is an incredibly cycnical pov. But also, it suggests that you don't understand what regenerative or sustainable is. This is enlightening for me, because now I get why the attachment to BAU is so strong. If you can't conceive of humans living as part of nature and being a benefit, then all that leaves is the death cult. This is sad.
(mitigating negatives effects doesn't make something sustainable)
Good and bad are not terms that serve discussions well. I prefer "energised" or "vital", maybe even "active" in discussing what to do and by those words I mean the sort of energy pollinating insects exhibit as they go about their activities, the behaviour of electrons as they whizz in orbit of nuclei, the sound water makes as it flows over the scales of a fast-swimming salmon, the sum of the percussions made by hail falling onto the surface of a lake, and so on. We need to break the deadlock language has set on our thinking and imaginations, in order to be able to create new ways of being, behaviours to recommend and pathways to follow 🙂
The suggestions would be more useful if they related to what we are already doing here.
As the EU has shown, the modern state can legislate all it likes but even in aggregate form it's not strong enough to manage a 'disorderly decarbonisation', which is what the EU looks like and it is the most prepared for the energy challenge of any set of states.
Just to focus on energy for a moment, in the next 48 hours we are about to go through a cold snap that Transpower is saying will test the grid.Vector in mid September also warned about expanding power from solar and wind without also investing in digital tech to manage peak time demand – for example when everyone is charging vehicles.
By mid December this year we will know whether New Zealanders are ready for accelerated renewables in large zones. In their absence and in a lack of demand-side measures the network isn't going to cope. All of those costs of transition are currently going to be found added to your power bills.
By 2023 there is mandatory reporting on climate risk by large companies, banks, insurers, Fonterra, you name it. It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth.
We certainly need an Energy Transition Ministry to do what the EA can't do. But I'd struggle to see which politicians other than Shaw would have the ability to lead it. At the moment we are struggling to merge two public media entities.
By election 2023 we will see whether NZ business can really report so that everyone with investment in the outcomes ie pension fund holders can really see real change occurring. At that point Polly should pop over and take notes.
I agree. I'll probably do a post about the NZ situation, this one was about the idea, and it was conceived of and written about by Brits. I hope you join in with some proactive ideas because you have a lot of experience and knowledge in the pragmatics of NZ's economy.
In a sane climate response, the government and local authorities would be putting put public messaging for the past week advising people to save power and how to do that. This is not rocket science, and it's not difficult. It does conflict with profit making models and the current mindset about how things have to work.
Limits of growth. We can learn a new set of skills. Instead of trying shoehorn BAU capitalism and growth into a fantasy of green tech climate response. We don't have to let personal EVs drive the transition, it can be a smaller part.
this really is an incredibly ignorant statement. Local food is backyard, growing for one's neighbours, town wide box schemes, urban farms, regional food growing and distribution systems, the Longwood Loop. Fonterra exists to support our planet destroying standard of living. We don't need Fonterra to eat. We do need resilient food systems, and we need to set them up now rather than waiting for the food shortages.
Polly Higgins died in 2019. Which you would know if you had read the post properly.
How do we generate enough action?
Tax high earners, use that to replace the relentless commercial advertising of crap with more positive pROpAgNDa? It feels like there's plenty of will, but it's difficult for the disparate elements to cohere amid the grotesque consumerism reinforced by advertisement overload.
Is that why we have kids who really want to make a difference, but can't live without the latest phone or Tikitok, or that climate girl flying to Fiji. We want out but can't find the exit.
The exit has a large sign that's been flashing for quite a while now!
"It sure ain't going to be cured with back yard gardens that are tbh far more cost and trouble than they are worth."….disagree……sure initial outlay but you let some of your crop seed……you plant seed inside to get going…and you water and weed and rotate the crops………..instead of sitting in front of the goggle box……and you can preseve….freeze…….dehydrate and eat fresh…..grow your own and you won't a commercial vege again…….tomatoes that taste ….well… like tomatoes and as the song goes……"teach your children well"……
The change will happen first, inside of our skulls.
Gardening is one of the most likely activities to bring on this in-skull change.
Until that happens, little valuable progress will be made, therefore, gardening is critical to our shared futures.
Do I garden? Yes. Does my garden contribute significantly towards my food intake over a year? Not really.
Yes, I grow fruit and veges (and have a very nice herb garden). And supplement my diet with those, rather than buying them.
Is it cheaper? Probably not. When I have tomatoes in season, they're also at their cheapest at the greengrocer. But, I agree, home-grown do taste good.
Can I freeze, dry, preserve them? Yes. But I also recognize that I come from a place of privilege there: I can afford a large freezer, can afford the electricity required to process and store, have the knowledge about how to water-bath preserve, etc., have space to store the preserved results.
Do I have the time? Yes. Again, that's a privilege. I have the time (and so far) the physical fitness required to spend time in the garden planting, weeding and harvesting. It's also preference. Gardening isn't everyone's cup of tea, and/or idea of how to spend their time well.
Do I have the space? Yes. A real privilege, here in Auckland – where most new townhouse developments have a 'garden' consisting of a pocket-handkerchief-size lawn. And, of course, apartments don't even have that.
Backyard gardening can be a nice supplement to your diet – but, for most people, and certainly most city people, it's very unlikely to be a significant contributor.
The days of the 'quarter-acre paradise' are gone.
Backyard gardening's supplementing of your diet is a minor consideration, it's the transforming of your thinking that's to be valued.
The message plants carry to the observant gardener is the one needed for transforming your thinking, outside of the complex.confusing, contradictory exchanges of ideas we are seeing on this thread 🙂
Goodness! Has my thinking been transformed by backyard gardening?
How would I know?
You would know.
Seems it hasn't 🙂
Don't give up!
Given that I've been gardening for over 30 years – it seems to be taking a long time to kick in!
Reality is that people garden for a whole lot of reasons: family heritage (my mum would kill me if I bought lemons); convenience (I love my herb garden, and just being able to have thyme on hand, when I want it); taste (home-grown raspberries); curiosity (I wonder what these heritage beans taste like, and if I can grow them here); mental health (being outside, hands in the earth – even weeding is therapeutic – 'take that! oxalis'); contributing to the table (smug satisfaction of growing your own); educating kids (look what happens when we plant our peas, we can eat the strawberries when they're red, we can scrabble for new potatoes); even one-upping the neighbours! (yes, of course you can have some rosemary)
Then is seems obvious it has kicked in…
…only you don't know it 🙂
Ah, so because I grew up gardening, I came into it with those attitudes already in place – no wonder I don't notice anything different 🙂
On a side note, you never dared complain that you were 'bored' in our house growing up – my Mum had a list of garden jobs just waiting to go!
The only thing the old man ever gave me was something to do.
I agree that anyone pushing backyard gardening as if it is a viable and significant plank in what needs to happen in the next 5 years is barking up the wrong tree.
"a viable and significant plank"
Whatever do you mean?
Backyard gardening's great value lies in empowering, encouraging and, in part, feeding, the gardener and their family.
Why are you so dismissive?
I just got it! I think it's the people who can't see the unwaged economy. If you can't count it in conventional economic terms, then it's just some marginal thing we shouldn't bother with.
They're probably also not aware of the very large movement in NZ of home gardening, community gardens, school gardens, small scale market gardens, farmers markets, and food forests! So many people I know produce excess from their garden and they give it away. Invisible economy.
I'm so grateful to have grown up on a 1/4 acre with most of the land not occupied by a house/shed/garage either in trees, shrubs or a large vegetable garden. Definitely bigger than the lawn we had to play on. Deep body memory of how it works.
Think about the resources needed to ship lettuces internationally compared to being able to harvest from one's garden, or neighbourhood. This is quite simple to understand. Run the whole process in your mind:
Growing
Refrigerated storage
Packaging (including the whole process used to create that plastic)
Shipping
Domestic transport
Waste (of embodied energy, and waste to be disposed of)
It's bonkers that we think this is secure, viable, and not damaging to the environment.
Perhaps something with a longer shelf life than lettuces would be a better example. I've never bought (or even seen) an internationally shipped lettuce in NZ.
But, setting that aside. The only way to prevent off-season crops being imported would be to ban the import. No more California cherries in May.
No more bananas, ever (apart from the tiny % grown here).
Which runs into Trade deal issues. And risks reciprocation against our own agricultural produce being exported (not really 'risks' it would be just about guaranteed).
The alternative is to load on the $$$ for every stage of the 'carbon' process. Making imported goods so prohibitively expensive that only the truly wealthy can afford them.
I can't say that that's a scenario that I feel comfortable with (even if I was one of the people who could afford off-season cherries)
Part of the problem, I think, is that our international trade connections are so widespread. And, there are plenty of figures showing that NZ lamb (for example) uses less carbon (even when shipping is counted) than local production.
https://www.mpi.govt.nz/dmsdocument/52447-Carbon-Footprint-of-New-Zealand-Beef-and-Sheep-Exported-to-Different-Markets-public-summary
How is is better to protectively legislate for a local product which uses *more* carbon?
My point weka is that focussing on backyard gardening in particular, in the next 5 years, is a misallocation of resources.
Community or other wider gardening exercises is a different issue, because those things can actually scale to provide a meaningful amount of food.
My parents manage to provide probably about 1/2 of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their garden – a significant feat. But they've been at it for 30+ years, they have all the skills, tools, experience, land and time to do it.
NZ produces such a huge amount of food – and we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future – that spending time fussing about at the margins with backyard gardening is a waste of time. In other countries like the UK and the US, and large Australian cities, it's a sensible and important thing to do. But NZ isn't those countries (thankfully).
In NZ we need to focus on sustainable farming methods, permaculture etc.
I think you are missing the point here Belladonna. Look at the whole systems. If 20% of people in a city grow half their own food, there are multiple benefits for them personally but it also means that that amount of food doesn't have to be grown and transported in highly carbon polluting ways. Now multiply that across NZ.
Now, put that alongside all the other things happening: community gardens and orchards and food forests, school gardens, urban farms. Then market gardening on the outskirts of the city. Compare that to shipping all that food long distances and the packaging and waste, power and water consumption.
I seriously doubt that anyone in a city is going to grow half their own food (well, I suppose if you count the rural areas of Auckland – but really, that's not 'city' or 'suburb')
I don't have an issue with buying local (though defining 'local' is a bit of a challenge – there is no such thing as a real farmers market in Auckland, for example – we're just too far away from actual market gardens). But expecting any significant contribution from backyard gardens (or community gardens – which only seem to operate in the wealthiest of suburbs), or school gardens (more of an education/science project than actual food contribution) – is not something that I can see working.
I guess, that you're saying that even a tiny contribution is better than nothing…. But I don't see it as transformational.
I can see Robert's point of personal gardening changing people's perspective as being more realistic.
Totally agree. As I said in a comment above, my parents can grow about 1/2 of all of their vegetable needs, averaged over a year, from their surburban garden. But they've been doing it for 30+ years, and have the experience, time and land to do it.
Note that I said vegetables. They still have to buy meat and fruit. And that's also averaged over a whole year – in Christchurch in winter there isn't a lot of edible food coming from the garden.
Agreed.
exactly AND you grow it and control what goes into it with the result tastier and healthier food and you can go have a cup of tea with ya neighbour and give them a cauli
Unless you are on a quarter acre and own the property and are mostly retired, gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal.
All those endless covers and pages of women's magazines with smiling bougies holding their baskets of greens and telling how they are changing the world is just a fat lie.
Annabelle Langbein for example, queen of all that homemade faux-working class chambray-shirted nonsense, lives on five acres with a full view of Lake Wanaka on title over $6m with a multimedia empire worth millions.
Get real.
Nonsense!
Just because you are irritated by wealthy celebrities who garden, or retirees on a certain square-meterage of land doesn't mean that your claim that gardening is "a very long virtue signal" is correct.
It is not.
Real food is produced by real people for real reasons, all over the motu.
Even people without gardens of any outdoor sort, can grow valuable food to supplement that which they have to buy. Sprouting seeds (sunflower, mung, lentils, peas etc.) on the kitchen bench then eating them fresh or processed in hummus and so on, is a real action that benefits those who take it and the carbon-wasting networks they don't use as a result.
Now it's just wilful ignorance. Maybe a reflection of your social circles. I know so many people that grow some or a large part of their fresh produce. Probably the majority of people I know, certainly too many to count. This includes people who rent and people who work. People garden for all sorts of reasons, including health, financial, and yes climate/ecology.
But sure, if the people you are following are Langbein, I can see why you don't understand what is going on. Don't want to diss AL, anyone who gardens is helping the world. Even wealthy upper middle class people.
I know people who provide a significant amount of the food from their own garden also. And I know that that is simply not achievable for 80%+ of the population.
Who said the goal was 80%+? I certainly didn't and I haven't seen anyone in this thread say that (might have missed it).
Noting that this isn't the only example in this thread of people arguing against things that haven't been said.
So, to clarify (and I have said this already more than once), local food isn't only gardening, it's all the things,
None of that precludes transporting food over greater distances, what it does is take the weight off those larger, more cumbersome and less resilient systems. People in Southland can still eat avocado, just get it from Nelson rather than Australia. People in Auckland can still eat oats, just get it from Otago rather than Canada.
For home gardening the skillset / knowledge has almost been entirely lost to the most recent generation especially in our cities.
Crop rotation, Variety selection, Seed collection and storage, Planting timing and even the means to preserve crops post harvest.
For most people a productive garden at home costs more than buying from the supermarket etc.
Small scale market gardens are in a similar situation with generational change, rapidly increasing capital / input costs combined with increasing crop losses (severe weather) making it less and less viable by the year.
I think the simplistic message is to eat seasonally.
live in the city??….use the roof…….planters on the balcony…..guerilla gardening in green spaces,…………..
"gardening for vegetables is just a very long virtue signal",,,,,,then i am indeed most virtuous ….
My question is this;
Would the proposed TEA make it illegal for the government to 'lob' $1 billion to high emitting Air New Zealand?
Would the proposed TEA encourage the government to 'lob' at least a similar amount to rebuild the passenger rail transport network?
Would the proposed TEA incentivise passenger rail, and other low emitting forms of national and international transport?
Would the proposed TEA discourage long distance car trips and short haul commuter flights?
Based on the current performance, if they had 1 billion to spend, they'd shut down the whole network while they upgraded it….for about 5 years or so…..
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/475963/auckland-train-lines-to-close-for-network-track-upgrades-ahead-of-city-rail-link-opening
Auckland has had literally years of rolling stoppages – while Kiwirail and AT try to get their act together over train and track quality and maintenance. And now, train users are about to have another couple of years worth. It beggars belief that AT couldn't have been upgrading this piecemeal over the last 5 years – and now want to shut down the line, so they can do it in one operation.
It's very difficult to build support for a train network with this sort of continual disruption.
The destruction of much of the inner city business environment due to the CRL – has also informed a lot of the resistance to the government's light rail proposals. People see up close just what that kind of major disruption looks like – and don't want a bar of it.
But would such a law forbid a government subsidising a high emitting company like Air New Zealand?
The law (as discussed) seemed to be enabling legislation rather than prevention legislation. So my guess would be 'no'
The answer would be 'no'.
So let me get this straight
The law (as discussed), would ‘enable’ more wind turbines, more PV power stations, and more electric cars. But the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
Is that correct?
Do I have that right?
No you don't. Did you read the post Jenny?
I did read the post.
Unfortunately reading the above, I would have to agree with Belladonna that 'no' – the law as discussed) would not prevent more coal mines being dug, or more fossil fuel industries being commissioned, or more oil wells being drilled, and more fossil fuels being burnt.
With respect Weka, if you have any other interpretation, I would like to hear it;
This bit seems relevant,
This seems a key point of the Act. To set a framework of values for transition. The Greens have been pushing the idea that each piece of legislation must be parsed through a climate emergency lens. This is a step further.
To go back to your original question about the government bailing out AirNZ, we have to bear in mind how critical it is to have a national airline given how far away from other countries we are (I assume this doesn't need explaining, I'm not talking shopping trips to Sydney). There is an obvious public good in keeping the airline going.
But I think what we can do is look at the concept and initial framework of the TEA and put out ideas on how it could be created. It's not set in stone, Higgins didn't write it for NZ, that's for us to decide how it would work here.
It's been interesting watching the response in this thread, the amount of naysaying effort that has gone into comments instead of looking at how it might work.
Even if you taxes the bejeesus out of international travel, it would only affect cattle class volumes a bit. For international travellers it's a rounding error.
Also if Kiwirail didn't teach you anything over the last 24 hours, it's throwing billions of dollars into an irreversibly sick industry. Every ticket you buy to get from Henderson to Auckland central is 70% paid for by everyone else, more if you count the CAPEX.
The transport bailouts per citizen on rail could buy AirNZ every year.
Also, I can't think of any price increase which would stop the super-rich flying their private jets (a much greater per-person impact than the poor slobs in cattle class).
So what, it would stop most of us.
After all, price is the capitalist way of rationing things.
The regional fuel tax for example was imposed as a disincentive to private car use.
The age of mass passenger air travel only really began in the '70s with introduction of the first wide body jets. Before that time, air travel was expensive.. As a result most people still used surface transport.
The amount of passenger air travel compared to today was miniscule. As was it's carbon footprint.
'The Jet Set'
Stop subsidising air travel, bring back the Jet Set, it's the capitalist way
The term 'Jet Set' once referred to that tiny minority of rich people with enough money to be able to afford to fly. You don't hear the term 'Jet Set' anymore, because of course millions of us fly. The term 'Jet Set' sounds oddly quaint and old fashioned almost from an other age, yet it is within living memory. Austin Powers generation would have used it.
(Yeah I know, fictional character and all that. But you get the meaning).
Yeah. Not greatly happy with entrenching privileges for the wealthy (or for politicians – who would still get their freebies, no doubt. Currently, the Speaker is on a junket through Latin America, with Ricardo Menéndez March from the Green Party in tow)
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2209/S00176/diversity-and-inclusion-in-focus-for-upcoming-latin-american-delegation.htm
I don't know that we do a lot of ongoing subsidising of air travel. The 2 issues you've quoted were for crisis points – where (I understand) the Government bought a stake in the company, which was then repurchased over time.
So not a gift, or an ongoing subsidy (when the airline made profits, the Government got dividends, just like all other shareholders).
NZ governments seem to have believed that it's critical to the country to have an airline which is guaranteed to fly into NZ. That certainly paid dividends during the Covid disruption of air freight – when it was only Air NZ which was flying in and out of Auckland.
The regional fuel tax had zero success in reducing private car use (because most people don't have alternatives). Nor, do I believe that that was it's intended purpose. It was (and is) purely a cash cow for local government to use in funding transport projects.
https://www.transport.govt.nz/area-of-interest/revenue/regional-fuel-tax/
what!!….Kiwirail is more virtue singing huh?……..you would be appalled at what our roads would be like without rail and with carbon reduction big on the menu it is a necessity ….not to mention the heart and soul its employess put into it.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/10/04/pams-frozen-berries-recalled-after-7-hospitalised-with-hep-a/
Global food supply.
The meningitis outbreak seen in Norway and NZ in the 90's has a genetic match to the Somali outbreak in refugee camps.
Monkey pox.
Global people supply….
would you mind using whole sentences because I don't understand what you are trying to convey.
Likewise Poission.
The incidence of monkey pox in NZ is entirely due to the movement of people around the globe.
I was pointing to the equivalence of your "Global food supply" in the outbreak of HepA
HepA, Global food supply = Monkey pox, Global people supply.
Regardless of whether it's a food-borne infection, or a people-transmitted infection, our global world will see intercontinental spread of disease (as we all have recent familiarity with Covid)
It wold be an unusual multicellular animal that didn't travel with a few (trillion) "mostly harmless" passengers. The original Survivors series was gripping, with a great title sequence – the less long-lived 2008 'not a remake' wasn't bad either.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zbf7pQkEvA
It seems like a really good idea to me. All those unadopted sustainable technologies – hemp & harakeke fibre, aquaculture & aquaponics, najeon chilgi, flood zone riparian crop trees & bushes, impact absorbing roadside planting – that have languished from want of interest for generations until we are well behind what were once much more degraded ecologies, could finally be brought to fruition.
Wait though, for the non-performing economists whose idea of growth is low quality mass migration and real estate inflation squeal that it can never work.
You got it! So much is waiting for us to wake up.
I have to ask, Stuart, why you included najeon chilgi in your list???
It's a nice, skilled, sustainable industry (paua shell & lacquer work for the non-Korean speakers – though turban shell is also used) – we can grow the trees, and it's a logical avenue of expression for some Maori art. Got a depressed area with no decent paying work? This might help – no greenstone required.
It fits nicely with contemporary tech https://mystickorea.com/products/najeon-cell-phone-case or art furniture https://www.etsy.com/au/listing/1280949258/amazing-korean-traditional-mother-of?click_key=15e65e2d5f177f264ef74cdd986a0e8798681d51%3A1280949258&click_sum=48b30d8c&rec_type=ss&ref=landingpage_similar_listing_top-1&cns=1&sts=1
It has health properties too: https://www.shokunin-japan.com/blogs/news/the-antibacterial-properties-of-lacquer#:~:text=One%20of%20its%20advantages%20is,as%20a%20healthy%20alternative%20dishware.
Great post weka, thanks.
It demonstrates, once again, that there are answers but a lack of political will.
By political will, I mean individually as well as our employees in Wellys. Every dollar anyone spends is a political decision.
The notion that the supermarket is preferred over locally grown produce is all about convenience and turning a big blind eye to the diesel miles embedded in all that they sell. Also being willfully ignorant of the duopoly's treatment of the primary producers that sell through them.
The middle class needs to overcome it's addiction to convenience for us to rebuild economies.