Let’s Hope The Weather Holds

New Zealand needs a food strategy

In this episode I speak to CEO of Eat New Zealand Angela Clifford.
We talk about why New Zealand needs a food plan and strategy, how introduced species like deer and trout play a role in a food plan, we touch on food waste, regenerative agriculture, we bemoan how white bait is managed, and we talk about the role of the export market, the supermarket duopoly, Supie, the role consumers have to play in making new systems work and more.
 
Maori definitions used by Angela for foreign listeners;
Kai moana: Food from the sea
Whanau: Extended family or community
Mahinga kai: cultivation or food gathering place
 
 
 

Could you fly fish for the extinct New Zealand grayling

In this episode I talk to Dr Nic Rawlence director of the University of Otago's Palaeogenetics Laboratory and PhD student Lachlan Scarsbrook, based at Oxford University in the UK, about the extinct New Zealand grayling.
I also talk to Ross Bailey, an Australian fly fisherman who has in the past caught Australian grayling as bycatch. The Australian grayling is protected and you are not allowed to target them. Ross shares how he caught them on the fly, what fly patterns they went for, what rivers they are found in, how hard they fought. He also talk about catching their far-off cousins in Europe and Alaska.
The grayling was hyper-abundant and was New Zealand's most common fish. It is, for now, the only extinct New Zealand fish.
Dr Nic and Lachlan do a deep dive into a DNA study they did, what they found, the wide ranging theories of how the fish became extinct, what it ate (which is a clue to how you'd fish for it if you are a fly-fisherman), we establish that you don’t have to fish every weekend to be able to study fish, we talk about possible reintroduction of the fish, and Lachlan says Nic is a rainmaker when it comes to getting funding for studies. We also talk about dogs, wolves and why using fish as fertiliser isn't a good idea.
 

Glyphosate, your hormones, cancer, and why all the previous science was wrong but also right with Ian Shaw.

I speak to Professor Ian Shaw an international expert on food safety. We talk about glyphosate as an environmental estrogen, estrogen mimicry, ideas on non-genotoxic carcinogenicity and how former research was right and then turned out to be completely wrong, long term inflammatory effects and possible environmental impact of glyphosate through avenues that were not previously considered. Shaw is the former chair of the UK Pesticide Residues Committee and working as the National Food Safety Programme Manager at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), based in Christchurch. He specialises in chemical residues in food and the environment and their human health effects and leads the Toxicology Research Group at the University of Canterbury.

Eat what you kill with Tim Kavermann

How do you build a social media community that shares recipes of food they harvested? How would you market wild meat to a townie consumer? How do you give wild meat value in a country like New Zealand that declares some sources of game as pests? What is ethical spearfishing? How does the outdoors connect to mental health? 
I speak to brand strategist, creative, photographer and foodie Tim Kaverman from Eat What you Kill Co about all this and more.

The Hunter‘s Journal with editor Cam Henderson

Cam Henderson started the Hunter's Journal magazine in a time when print is supposedly dying. He kicked that theories behind. We speak about getting a magazine started. Being cold outdoors. How good Kiwi hunters have it. Why hunt photography has become so freakn good. And how awesome that first time you see a tahr bull is.

Ethics of hunting with Francesco Formisano

I talk to Francesco Formisano from Altitude and Trails about the ethics of hunting. We explore how we lost our spiritual connection to the animals we hunt and eat. Why some cows are clever. We talk about tahr in New Zealand. His project to study animal pathologies in the New Zealand tahr population. And we forget to talk about how animals full of adrenaline taste like crap and why is a good reason to know your rifle or bow and ensure a swift kill. We may swear once or twice.

Pay a farmer to grow your organic food

I speak to Douwe Korting about the Herenboeren concept in The Netherlands where families pay a farmer to specifically grow organic food and free range meat for them.
With the system not focusing on profit the farmer is free to focus on regenerative agriculture methods. Families who wish to volunteer their free time do so and assist the farmer where he feels he may need a hand.
The Herenboeren are involved with government and are active in the discussion on new approaches to agriculture in a changing world.

Maximising fish utilisation

I speak to Susan Marshall, Science Group Leader for Marine Products at Plant and Food about bioscaffolds, the research they are doing, full utilisation of fish, changing the fishing industries view on what part of a fish is important, the blue economy and more.