Elaine Rush: AUT Nutrition Professor on families on the benefit being unable to afford healthy food

Calls for a national food strategy to be implemented in light of research showing it's virtually impossible for families on a benefit to afford healthy food. 

Data shows two-children families receiving financial assistance would be $200 dollars short if they bought low-cost nutritional kai. 

AUT Nutrition Professor Elaine Rush told Mike Hosking that feeding Kiwis well needs to be prioritised over sending it overseas. 

She says we need to also think carefully about the food we import in large quantities, as most fail to promote healthy eating. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A new report that is found as virtually impossible apparently
for beneficiary families to eat healthy food. It's the inflation argument,
of course, over the past six years. The question is
what to do with anything at Professor of Nutrition, Child
Poverty Action Group spokesperson A Lane Rush is with us. Elaine.
Very good morning to you, Good morning, very good news.
Is that this report correct me if I'm wrong as
retrospective and the cost of food is now coming down.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's not coming down, it's just rising more slowly.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, the last figure was actually down.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, yes, but the mount down is very small on
some foods and it depends what you're looking at at
the food basket is at work, Yeah, that's true to
We selected from these stats New Zealand Food Basket the
healthier foods that were at budget prices and examined how

(00:50):
they had changed over the years.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
But I'm wondering if, because your report is retrospective over
the last six years, you're missing the boats lightly. Tomatoes,
cheese and potatoes are down sixteen percent, fru and vegetables generally, meat,
poultry and fisher falling sixteen point one percent.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, I don't think we're the ones missing the boat.
There's a lot of children missing the boat at the moment,
and the pressure on food banks and other places is
increasing greatly. And it's not just the poor as you say,
it's middle class too. Because of the increasing unemployment, more
and more people are finding it harder to make ends

(01:28):
meat because it's not just food that is part of
the cost, it's accommodation and electricity and all those other things.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So does true. What do we do about it?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Though? I think in New Zealand we need to have
a cohesive food strategy, not just driven by politicians, but
driven by business people and everyone involved in the food industry,
which basically is everyone in New Zealand. We need to
have sim system where we actually prioritize feeding New Zealand

(02:02):
as well first before sending the food overseas, and think
very carefully about foods that we're importing in such huge
quantities because they're actually failing to promote health in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Okay, so, but we make a living as a country
from selling things like food to the world. That's what
we do as a country.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yes, but our living isn't conditions aren't that good in
New Zealand at the moment and particularly with impacts on
global supplies, most likely to get worse, particularly for food overseas.
Food is getting more expensive and climate change is making
a huge difference to where the food supplies go. For instance,

(02:48):
into China, now we're not exporting as much.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
No, that's because they don't have any money, because they
handled COVID poorly and they didn't open the borders in time,
and their economies going backwards.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
But it's one reason that the whole thing is incredibly complex,
and we've got to be very careful when systems are
changed that the change doesn't impact on other things and
actually make it worse.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm going Aline appreciate your time. Aline Russia is the
professor of nutrition at AUTO. For more from the Mic
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