Richard Moore's Straight Talk Columns

High cost of our food hard to stomach

12/4/2011

SOMETHING is rotten in the state of New Zealand and it's high time something was done about it.

As a self-confessed school-lunch Nazi, I quiz my kids about what they are taking to eat on a daily basis. Have you got fruit? Have you got muesli bars? Have you got sandwiches or rolls? Do you have enough? Here have some more.

I'm the same when I cook - fresh meals each day to try to limit the huge amount of additives, preservatives, salts and sugars in processed foods that are too readily, and too cheaply, available in supermarkets.

Softdrink being cheaper than milk? That so isn't right.

Unfortunately, trying to feed children fresh meals costs an arm and a leg but it is a price I am almost happy to pay.

It offends me when I walk through a supermarket produce section and see fruit and veges at exorbitant prices. Cauliflowers at $4.50. A head of broccoli $2.49.

You'd understand it if what I was after was out of season, however, even in winter months winter veges are expensive. Out of season salad things are just insanely priced.

Take the Auckland supermarket recently selling a capsicum for almost $6.

I want my kids to eat well and so I just wear the cost of things, but I am lucky. I can afford to do that, for the moment anyway.

There are tens of thousands of families living in New Zealand who struggle to put the basics on the table, let alone ``luxuries'' - like fruit and veges. How must they feel when they see nutrition ads saying ``give your kids 5+ servings a day of fruit and vegetables''.

Who are these nongs who trot out that sort of unaffordable idiocy?

It is estimated that 40,000 kids a week are being fed by charities because their families can't afford the food.

Now I don't know about you, but in a country that grows food for the rest of the world I reckon that is a damn disgrace. In fact, it is criminal.

Among those 40,000 I am sure there are those families who are so hopelessly inept, or uncaring, that they don't feed their kids because they are either too off their faces, or would rather have a packet of fags.

Work and Income and CYFS will know the problem families and part of that group's benefits should be delivered as food vouchers rather than cash. That would give their kids a chance at being fed.

But also among those 40,000 kids there will be those whose parents go without food so their young ones can put something in their stomachs.

School principals have come out and said the number of pupils turning up for free breakfasts is increasing daily and they know that a hungry pupil is less able to learn and more likely to disrupt classes.

It's been reported that at least 185 of New Zealand's 256 primary and intermediate schools in the poorest 10th of the nation (decile one) give their children breakfast or other food. But the problem is there are many children in higher decile wealthier areas who are also going without food.

You can guarantee there will be children in Papamoa and Bethlehem who are not being fed before coming to school. Some may not have lunches. They will be slipping through the cracks because their schools are seen as being for better-off people.

Tauranga's FoodBank hands out 35 to 40 food packages a day to people from all strata of the socio-economic spectrum.

So-called wealthy families are also being hit by the rocketing price of food, which has gone up by 7 per cent over the past year. We won't even mention the working poor who, due to the low rates of pay, do a fulltime job and still struggle.

Much of the problem lies with us having to pay export prices for goods grown, or produced, just down the road.

We are being ripped off when it comes to food and we need to have a Royal Commission into the profiteering that is going on by the giants of the food industry and supermarkets.

I know businesses need to make money - but we should draw the line at obscene rip-offs.

The time has come to say ``enough''! We are sick of outrageous food costs. Take off GST from fresh fruit and veges to ensure healthy food is cheaper and make sure those who skew prices to make more profit are clobbered with a very hefty stick.

Give tax credits to meat/dairy companies so they don't charge export prices for their food on the local market. And educate the lower levels of society about cooking and eating good, affordable food.

In the long term, the investment will pay off for this country as obesity rates drop, diabetes levels fall and the number of more productive and educated kids grows.

If your school has a breakfast programme, or offers free food to hungry kids, I'd like to know about it.

richard@richardmoore.com