Every week The Feed interviews the movers, the shakers and the makers in the New Zealand food industry. Check out the interviews on The Feed Weekly podcast or in a Q&A format below. And if you’ve got a story to tell or an opinion to share, drop us a line at editor@thefeed.co.nz
It’s the time of year when the pedants moan about the pagan origins of Easter and the arrogance of imposing a northern European religious rite on this proud South Pacific nation. Holy heck, not even the crosses on hot cross buns are authentic. It seems they’re Saxon...
Throwing food as a protest has a long and noble tradition, says Evan Smith, Flinders University Last weekend, anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, better known as Posie Parker, arrived to speak at a rally in Auckland, which was surrounded by...
Imagining the future used to be the job of miserable sci-fi writers. Think killer robots, toxic fungi, alien probes. But stand aside, Asimov. Thanks to new government rules, all New Zealand industries must now engage in some crystal-ball gazing to imagine how they...
In the second installment of a regular series featuring our witers' worst meals, David Wrigley looks back on some questionable decisions made in the face of sensible advice. I have a terrible memory. I can’t remember faces and I can’t remember names. My kids don’t...
Easter is looming. When is it going to get here exacty? I don't know. Who can say? The pope? The Easter Bunny? Probably. Easter is the only New Zealand public holiday dictated by the lunar calendar. It's a celebration of promiscuous rabbits and chocolate eggs, of...
News that high school children were served raw chicken for lunch took me right back to 1990 and the worst meal of my life. Earlier this month students at Kaitaia High School had to chuck out their sandwiches and then chuck out their guts in a makeshift triage. They’d...
How did the perfectly organized pantry become so ubiquitous in the digital age? And what does it say about the expectations of being a good homemaker? Jenna Drenten has been thinking. Neatly aligned glass spice jars tagged with printed white labels. Wicker baskets...
Change It Up: How do you find space in a crowded market for yet another non-alcoholic beverage? The team behind Good Shit Soda have cracked the formula, reports Ben Fahy “We want to cover the country with Good Shit and then look to the horizon,” says Becs...
Late last year Chief Executive of Hawke’s Bay Tourism, Hamish Saxton said that after another rollercoaster year for Hawke’s Bay’s visitor economy, things were on the up. “ Considering where we started in January 2022, the visitor economy in Food and Wine Country is...
It's already a month since Cyclone Gabrielle hit. A month! Hawke's Bay resident and wine writer Yvonne Lorkin recalls the day “Hi luv! Happy birthday!” It was just after 10pm on the night of Thursday Feb 16th when my phone rang. It was my mum. The line was...
For hospitality workers and workers who have left the industry over the past couple of years, the He Tangata survey released by AUT this week will contain few suprises. Business owners and industry lobby groups however, may find a few unpleasant truths that don't sit...
Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand's main fruit-growing region hard – now orchardists face critical climate choices. To recover or to reinvent, asks Anita Wreford, of Lincoln University Hawke’s Bay, one of New Zealand’s most productive regions and the hub of the...
The slash devastation in Tairāwhiti reflects poor decisions to clear native forest off steep, erodible hill country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which was also encouraged by the government of the day. It's time to change that approach, writes David...
Agriculture is facing a huge problem with climate change. It's also facing opportunities for growth and leadership. The ag-tech revolution is underway but it could be so much faster, says Rohan MacMahon, co-founder of Climate Venture Capital Fund As I write these...
National Farmers’ Market Week is coming up and, in the wake of cyclone Gabrielle and the ongoing cost of living crisis, it provides us with an opportunity to consider our food supply chains and where our priorities should lie when thinking about the use of our arable...
Climate scientist Kevin Trenberth warns that obsessing on cow burbs risks missing the real source of global heating: fossil fuels. New Zealand, where agriculture is one of the largest contributors to climate change, is proposing a levy on cow burps. The reason...
Change It Up: In the third of our of series about food innovators Kieran Clarkin meets Simon and Lauren Sharpe of Thousand Gods - lo-fi, small-scale, winemakers in the heart of mega-sauvignon blanc country. Change It Up is brought to you by Everybird Coffee. ...
Food That Changed My Mind: In the first of an occasional series we explore foods we misunderstood, misrepresented or mansplained away. Today Vincent revisits oliebollen. What is it: Literally translated as ‘oily balls’, Oliebollen are an egg-and-flour batter...
If the rain that deluged Auckland is the ‘new normal’, how are hard-hit growers meant to think about the future? Can they grow anything in the ‘normal’ way again? Vincent asks senior cropping scientist Brent Clothier what he's telling his clients about the future of...
Schools are back after a long and wet summer and parents throughout the country are breathing a sigh of relief. Champagne corks are popped, prescription drugs are returned to the cabinet, and thoughts of going anywhere near the moribund local museum to look at 19th...
As the backwash recedes on Auckland's flood, the backlash begins. Pukekohe's growers are some of the most affected - so who's to blame when food goes to waste? It was heartbreaking this week to see piles of onions and potatoes, freshly harvested and ready to eat,...