There’s no one answer, which gives me plenty to write about.
Let me first clear the air on city living. On our back porch there’s a pile of firewood (my husband will shudder at that description as each stack is artfully organised), the winter vegie garden is in hibernation and one of the neighbours has a beehive tucked away in the untouched bush that hides the boundaries between the backs of the properties a few doors down.
This is city life for me in Auckland where most of the bungalows still have backyards and I can cycle or walk to the city centre in less than an hour.
Like many Kiwis, I don’t have to look too far back into my family history to find farming in my DNA on both sides of the family but for at least a generation there’s been no farm to visit.
Perhaps that’s part of the reason people like me are looking for more of a connection between the food we eat and the people who grow it.
I want to know that the food I feed my young family is produced sustainably and that it is what it says it is.
You might well wonder where my views of farming come from.
I spent a good few years as a business journalist before going freelance, covering companies from start-ups to NZX-listed firms and the issues haunting and spurring business in this country before, during and after the global financial crisis.
For the primary industries, food safety, sustainability and authenticity became real – not just something to talk about in the boardroom but to actually measure and reach.
It seems the primary industries have been like a possum caught in the headlights in mainstream media recently, with dairy getting a blast for its role in New Zealand’s declining fresh water quality and Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy saying there will be limits on further dairy intensification and that future export growth will focus on creating high value not high volume.
This is the type of news my social network reads about farming.
When I asked my friends what they’d say in this column, some expressed concern about some of the farming practices (bobby calves for example) and the environmental effects.
But some also remembered visiting grandparents’ farms and mucking in on whatever needed doing.
On a lighter note, I grew up watching the television series Country Calendar, which also formed part of my rural education. It ticks all the boxes for me about what I like to hear about rural life and those exporting to all corners of the globe.
It’s worth asking why the farming industry isn’t telling more of these stories about making a living in rural NZ.
These are the good stories that, built up over time, help an industry to develop a good public perception.
Right now, the public perception of our primary industries isn’t in the best shape.
As for life in the city, if I don’t know my food is safe, sustainable and authentically produced I’m simply not going to buy it.
I’m often pushed for time when it comes to the weekly household shop but I like to buy my fruit and vegies from the local store and get a cut of meat from the butcher.
I like to support local businesses but I also know I’ll benefit from their values for good quality produce.
The thing is, we city folk really do care about what’s happening on the farms and how our food is produced and that NZ can be sustainable into the future.
