GROWING GREEN: Chris Coney has been using organic farming methods for decades at his Te Puna orchard. Photo/George Novak
GROWING GREEN: Chris Coney has been using organic farming methods for decades at his Te Puna orchard. Photo/George Novak
Kiwis are eating and growing more organic produce than ever. The 2016 New Zealand organic market report shows a 127 per cent rise in sales through supermarkets since 2012. Here in the Bay of Plenty, more growers are becoming certified organic or starting the process as consumer demand increases. The products often come with premium prices. Is organic healthier? How do you know you're getting value for money? Bay of Plenty Times Weekend reporter Dawn Picken investigates the buzz surrounding organic.
Growers Something smells fishy on Chris Coney's Te Puna orchard as he scatters fertiliser beneath avocado trees.
"You have to spread it while it's raining," he says.
It's pouring, as white clouds of fish meal drift upwards. Chris and wife, Judy, have been farming organically - without using non-organic pesticides, herbicides or additives - for about 25 years.
"You're always adding to the soil ... you're feeding the soil and building up healthy microbes rather than depleting them with synthetic fertilisers," says Judy.
She says concern for people got the couple into organics.
"You can't produce a perfect-looking crop, but you can produce a perfect-tasting crop ... and there's nothing on the fruit that's going to harm me while I'm packing them ... Avocados, with conventional orchard spraying, they spray straight into the atmosphere."
The Coneys sell their avos at the Tauranga Farmer's Market on Saturdays when their crop's in season. They get $5 per bag for four large; five medium or six small avos.
They also grow garlic and say organic horticulture - cultivating crops without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or genetically modified organisms - takes more time and labour than conventional farming.
The Coneys (he's 71, she's 70 years old) supported a family while farming organically and used to have four children helping in the orchard.
Now, they often rely on WOOFFers (volunteers from World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Over morning tea of avocado and tomato on rice cakes, Chris explains while 'God's ways' may be slow, hand-weeding and using non-toxic fertiliser helps the Earth long-term.
"The fertilisers and your sprays, we're now seeing the results of the last 100 years where all the things that we've been using, acid for fertilisers ... are now coming into our waterways."
John Cotterell, a non-organic orchardist who owns five hectares of avocados in Katikati says growers are very aware of chemicals being sprayed on orchards and are using more targeted sprays than in the past. "Under an industry programme called AvoGreen we don't spray unless there is a pest found, and we record all sprays in an electronic spray diary. This allows the packer to know the fruit will be free of chemical residues before they are harvested and exported."
WORM WEE: Silvio Maffra uses worms to fertilise his organic crops on land at Whakamarama. Photo/George Novak
In Whakamarama, Silvio Maffra is tending tomatoes and other plants in a plastic-covered grow house. "I've got eight different varieties of tomatoes here. Four of them are cherry- red ones, yellow ones, if you'd like to try ..."
I eat one of each.They're sweet and bear the unmistakable taste and aroma of home-grown.
Maffra completed an organic horticulture course at Toi Ohomai, has volunteered on a half-dozen organic farms in Central America and has an agreement to farm land at his current site, operating under the name Abundant Backyard.
His crop also includes lettuces, spinach, herbs, strawberries, carrots and courgettes, some of which he sells to local restaurants and shops.
"On the same rows, I plant some herbs, because they are companion plants. Basil goes well with tomatoes."
The 34-year-old native of Brazil is not yet certified organic. He says the process takes three years.
"Now I know what I'm gonna grow, what works well. Once the season is finished, I'll look at getting certification."
He says he uses no chemicals or non-naturally occurring pesticides.
"A lot of my time I spend weeding."
Steven and Jenny Erickson farm 80ha near Waihi. Steven says they've been producing organically 32 years, and have had their current operation since 2001.
We bought a run-down farm and applied for certification right away.
He says farmers can still sell items produced organically during the transition, "... but maybe you're not getting the premium that you will eventually".
The Ericksons sell citrus and other fruits and graze another farmer's dairy herd. They mostly supply Auckland and Wellington retailers, because that's where Steven's best contacts are.
He says organic farmers can command higher prices for many items, but it varies - a lot.
"There's no percentage increase in some things. For grazing land we're getting a 30 per cent premium over the conventional guys. Lemons, a 20 to 30 per cent premium."
He says his costs are lower, too.
"Some will argue that, but there's no question we have lower costs of production than a conventional farm because we're not buying pesticides and herbicides."
Steven says the couple's last two years have been busier than the previous 10.
"Especially in the animal sector, there's a lot more interest in organic pasture management."
CONFIDENT SHOPPER: Jo Dey of Matua says she's been buying organic foods ever since they became available in Tauranga. Photo/Dawn Picken
Shoppers and Sellers
It's a wet Wednesday afternoon at the Wild Earth Organic Store on Cameron Road when I visit.
Shopper Jo Dey is loading a trolley with produce: broccoli, bananas, blueberries, pumpkin, microgreens ... and she's just getting started.
The 48-year-old Matua resident says she's been buying organic even since it's become available in Tauranga.
"It's healthier. No chemicals. That's probably the biggest thing, there are no pesticides. I guess it's just a gradual awareness of how many chemicals are in our food. I buy organic as much as I can."
Wild Earth manager Rachel Miller sold the store in December to Huckleberry Farms.
She and her family started the business 25 years ago. She says the past five years, especially, have seen massive growth.
"There's a lot of consciousness about what people are feeding their children that wasn't there before."
I spot two families with babes in arms and Ben Cowman of Otumoetai, who's come in with nine-year-old daughter, Poppy to buy an organic apple.
"She had problems with eczema. And that's a gut-related issue. So we had to really watch what she was eating. Buying organic seemed like the right thing to do."
Mount Maunganui New World owner Allan Rudkin tells me he's seeing an interest in organics, but shoppers expect high quality at a reasonable price.
"Organics can't fit that at the moment. Volumes are not substantial enough."
He says a frequent customer recently bought a $10 punnet of organic grapes and asked him to try them.
Conventional is still miles and miles apart. A lot of hormones and sprays are used - fungicides, herbicides, insecticides ... You can't even compare the two.
"They were divine ... some people are adamant that's all they want [organic] and maybe they can afford it, but people on a tight budget might say, 'I wouldn't mind organic,' but I can't afford that."
Gate Pa Fresh Market owner David Stewart (who also writes a produce column for the Bay of Plenty Times) doesn't carry organic produce because he says his customers won't pay higher prices.
He says most growers don't use a fraction of the sprays they used to.
"If you're concerned about the environment ... buy quality food, know where you're buying it from, wash it. I don't buy product from people I don't like or think they don't do a good job. I buy good product from good growers."
Stewart says he's appalled when he sees organic price sheets.
"Apples, five dollars a kilo - I've got bins of Fuji apples straight from the orchard at one dollar per kilo. If the retailer's paying five dollars they should be charging $8.99 per kilo - no one's gonna do that."
Value or Hype? Academic Perspective Ruth McLean, who teaches organic horticulture at Toi Ohomai says consumers don't always have to pay premiums for organics.
She suggests visiting farmer's markets and tapping into community gardens to learn to grow your own pesticide-free food.
McLean says also consider long-term costs associated with chemically-raised food.
"Look at your future health bills. If you are paying a little bit more at the moment, you might be saving on your doctor's bills in the future ... most of these chemicals are manufactured by huge corporations and certainly my parents' generation was told they could mix stuff up by using their bare hands and it was perfectly safe."
She says be wary of the label 'spray-free,' as even pesticide that doesn't touch the plant could still get into the soil. And, she says organic growers often spray seaweed or approved liquid fertiliser on crops.
Organic Food growers. Chris Coney spreads organic fertilizer in the rain. Photo/George Novak
Group leader of Hospitality and Tourism at Toi Ohomai Rose Wood says organic can be useful to growers as a marketing tool.
While she says farmers are allowed to call products organic even if they're not certified, someone using that label without adhering to organic practices could be in violation of the Fair Trading Act.
She says much of the attraction of organics is perception.
"It's about your ethical decisions, as well. Environmentally-conscious consumption of food is a social, cultural trend. It's a real growth area. They've just started a farmer's market in Rotorua. They're looking to grow because the demand is there."
A daily artisan market also started several months ago in Waihi.
Jim Bennett, certification manager with Organic Farm New Zealand, helps Bay of Plenty growers through the organic compliance process.
You don't have to join the organic movement. It's all in books. You can read it up if you want to.
He says New Zealand has lagged behind the rest of the world in regulating organics, but things are picking up. OFNZ has 22 local members and another five or six in the pipeline.
Other organic certification bodies include BioGro, AsureQuality, Demeter and one administered by Te Waka Kai Ora.
Bennett says despite the fact conventional growers are using fewer chemicals, those that are used build up in the environment.
"Conventional is still miles and miles apart. A lot of hormones and sprays are used - fungicides, herbicides, insecticides ... You can't even compare the two."
After 25 years in the industry, Bennett says he has yet to meet a rich organic farmer.
"I've seen many growers fold and have to go back to normal jobs, even on minimum wage."
University of Waikato School of Management professor Frank Scrimgeour says the food situation here is much different than in a place like China.
"In New Zealand, if your food is not grown organically, it will still be grown in such a way that is has to comply with certain kinds of standards." Scrimgeour believes neither consumers who buy from conventional farms nor those who buy organic really know what's on and in their food.
"I suggest there's room for a middle ground...one extreme is organic and the other extreme is a rule there are no regulations about the use of chemicals in agriculture. The middle ground is a state-regulated apparatus applied through the Ministry of Primary Industries and associated regulations which limits what they [growers] can do."
Avocado orchardist Chris Coney says his family is fortunate - they've owned their Te Puna property for decades.
He worries how future organic farmers will survive.
"A person coming now on to the land to go organic on a small block and carry all the loans these farmers are carrying - it would be impossible.
He suggests families who want to eat healthy apply the principle of Kiwi DIY.
"You don't have to join the organic movement. It's all in books. You can read it up if you want to."
In New Zealand, if your food is not grown organically, it will still be grown in such a way that is has to comply with certain kinds of standards.
Organics Sector Fastest Grower The total value of the organics industry is estimated between $457-467 million, according to the 2016 New Zealand organic market report.
That's an increase of 30 per cent from 2012, when the value of organics was $350 million. In an editorial on the Organics Aotearoa New Zealand earlier this year, board member Barbara Harford wrote organics are the fastest-growing multi-food sector in the world. She argued organic growers push towards more sustainable practices produces innovation which is often adopted more widely.
"Take the role the organic sector played in introducing safer, lower drift spraying regimes in kiwifruit orchards. The organic sector showed that traditional spraying practices weren't essential; and this was part of a move to significantly tighter rules and penalties nationwide."
Harford says organics are big part of the move towards sustainable production. Te Puke-based Trevelyan's Pack & Cool managing director James Trevelyan agrees, though most of the kiwifruit growers his operation services farm conventionally.
"The organic guys are the ones that have paved the way in providing solutions for conventional guys." He says thanks to organic-lead intiatives, Hi-Cane (Hydrogen Cyanamide) could someday be replaced with an organic option such a copper-oil mixed spray.
Meanwhile, Trevelyan says organic produce comes with a lot of compliance standards, and his own organic home orchard undergoes a three-hour annual audit that includes residue testing. "As a consumer if you want absolute confidence in what you're eating that complies to a standard go buy something that's certified [organic]."
What's on your store bought tomatoes? Photo/file
Tomato Trail
What's on your store-bought tomatoes? I tried to find out after watching my 13-year-old daughter eat Pam's brand cherry tomatoes (non-organic) without washing them. Calling the 0800 number proved fruitless.
When I asked for the name of the grower, a customer service representative said, "We aren't allowed to give out supplier information." Foodstuffs communications department also declined to provide specifics. Head of external relations Antoinette Laird said in a statement,
"These tomatoes have come from one of our large commercial growers, whose Integrated Pest Management Systems are top class. These days, the monitoring systems that growers use are so good that they barely have to spray at all."
