The Country 18/03/25: Dr Jacqueline Rowarth talks to Jamie Mackay

It's "Locavore March". But can we really suffer through 31 days of eating only food grown within a 150km radius? One of NZ's leading farming academics says you can but with much difficulty!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
She is one of our leading primary sector academics. Fortnightly,
she writes a wonderful column on our website The Country
dot Co, dot Zi, Chequel and Roweth. If you don't
mind me saying so, you've outdone yourself this week or
this fortnight with your Locovore March column, tell me all
about locivore March, A new way of eating with your

(00:21):
mind engaged.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, it was being promoted at the beginning of the
mark the month, and we're halfway through, and I wonder
how many people have actually done it. And they're trying
to eat within a certain radius maybe one hundred and
fifty k of where they're living. And it should be
about producing as well as preparing, and it's actually incredibly restrictive,

(00:45):
and people don't realize how limited their whole eating then become.
So I've got some various examples there, and of course
the prime one is chocolate. When people don't realize we
don't grow chocolate their own sugar, then their whole way
of life will change. And think about tea and coffee,
where does that actually grow? And of course we're aware

(01:07):
about the tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples, but
avocados are in there as well, and spices. We don't
grow spices except for saffron and then salt. You're in
fundamentally within Grassmere, the Marlba region. It's very limiting and
I don't think people realize about grain for your toast

(01:28):
and sandwiches either mostly South Island or imported from indeed Australia.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Not hijaqual and not to mention South Island as not
being able to have smashed avocado on toast.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Your cope, your coat, but no, they wouldn't be able to.
But there are all sorts of interesting things when you
start thinking about a radius like that, so you can
go along to your farmer's market. There's been some bit
of coverage about them this month as well, but actually
quite a lot of what they prepare has come from
things that were grown for are away. So the critical

(02:01):
thing about whatever radius they've decided is that the people
who are selling it have been involved in the preparation
and perhaps the production. But it's there that you see
what is actually in season and what you might be
able to eat for the week. I think that farmer's
markets have a great place and it's really helping people

(02:23):
to see what it really takes to produce food. But
then also think about the localization, because when I'm at
a farmer's market, I see a lot of things like
juices or jams and chutneys and those sorts of things.
But you do actually need to think where the sugar
comes from. And it's not New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Obviously. Back in the old cave man days, Jack wall
n rowis, every month was a loke of war months,
because one hundred and fifty kilometers would have been one
hell of a radius for a cave mate.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Ear is, Yes, I think it would be rather less
so the way you ate then, and all sorts of
theories about what you had available to you. I think
you ate whatever you could get, frankly, And there are
people who say we shouldn't eat one thing or another,
but you know, our teeth showed that we were pretty
much omnivorous and we ate what we could get. And

(03:17):
there was a lot of exercise, there was a lot
of lifting, and people were fundamentally healthy. If they got
through the first few years, they lived as long as
we do. It's just that most of them died when
they were before they reached adulthood.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Hi, Jack Well, and what happens if you lived in Greenland.
Now the old Trumpster he wants to take it over.
But here's an interesting step from your column. Greenland is
only seventeen percent food secure.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Yeah, that is certainly the estimate. And it's because they
can't grow much and they have access when it's not
completely frozen, to fish and seals, and you know, there's
lots of blubber there so they can try and keep warm,
and they can get oil. But food was one of
the main problems with actually getting through the winter. And
I think we're talking a couple of weeks about the

(04:05):
whole celebrations of food supply, and we're coming into easter,
we will be able to celebrate the fact that the
hens are laying again. This is in the northern hemisphere,
and the cows are in milk. But just remember, think
about Thanksgiving Day, food arrived and the poor old turkey
gets either pardoned or even so. Food has played a

(04:27):
major part in our cultural development and indeed in our survival,
and sometimes we forget, and that's why we're so I'm
so pleased to be talking to you today because it
is National Agriculture Day in the United States of America.
They've got a whole week of celebrations reminding us about
the field and the farms and the people who keep

(04:48):
them going.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Okay, we're going to speak to our US correspondent, hopefully
Todd Clark, very shortly on the country. Just give me
thirty seconds on the drought on the North Island. You're
based on the White had our region there. I'm looking
at my knee were drought and dick smep as I
do every day. It's getting darker and darker.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, it's very ugly. And though there was five dollars overnight,
I turn that urban rain. Sorry about the barbecues and
the washing, but it's not okay for agriculture. It hasn't
done anything in terms of replenishment. We're feeding out an
extra twenty thousand dollars worth of feed to our animals,
deer and dairy, just to make sure that they are fit,

(05:30):
that they are healthy animals and going into either carving
or about to be dried off. But they'll go in
at the right state into their next stage. And of
course that's a lot of staff time. And this is
the sort of thing which you hope won't have to
occur and it's difficult to budget for, but the expenditure
has to be made. So when people are saying great

(05:51):
record milk prices, we need to remember what the costs
behind that are and go back to the US. They're
about to hand out ten bills US dollars in support
for farmers. We need to think, as we're doing our
local bore or our paleo, or just celebrating food in general,
what is the cost of production? Because it's not.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
Being met Doctor Jackwell and Roweth always appreciate your time.
You can read all about it on our website, The Country,
dot co dot MZ. Catch you in a fortnight lovely
talk to them