Levin woman Radha Sahar has eaten plant-based food for 50 years now - not one bite of meat. She gaveHorowhenua Chronicle a tour of her backyard, where a variety of plants and proteins are growing just a short distance from the dinner table.
When Radha Sahar made a conscious choice to stop eating meat, it was common for children to be threatened with no pudding for not eating theirs. It was a very different New Zealand back then, with little variety beyond meat and three vegetables.
The year was 1973. She had landed a casual job at a health food shop in Dunedin called True Foods. The owner was a lady named Maida Warren, who wanted all the staff to know and experience the foods and products that her shop stocked, from herbal tea to chocolate, and to understand their health properties.
Sahar remembers being given something to try that few people had heard of. Chickpeas. She started supping redbush tea and, horror of horrors, using linseed, something that was widely considered horse food back then.
The more she learned about food alternatives and her own food choices, the more she realised it made perfect sense for her to stop eating meat. So she did.
Vegetarianism had been around, she said, but she had thought it was something that other people did. Like most people, hers was a diet that had been centred around meat, milk and cheese.
Radha Sahar has a garden that services much of her dietary requirements.
“We were all called nutters or health cranks in those days. Anyone who was vegetarian was. But I was so fascinated by what I was learning,” she said.
“I loved the learning. Each night I would go home and cook something I hadn’t come across before, night after night, and thought, ‘Wow, these are really nice’.”
It also played to her growing social conscience. She was influenced by a book on the shelf at True Foods that she took home and absorbed completely. She still has a copy of Diet For a Small Planet, by Francis Moore Lappe, on the coffee table at home.
“After a while, I realised I hadn’t eaten any meat and preferred this food. I was feeling really great and decided this was the way I wanted to go,” she said.
A selection of beans harvested from Radha Sahar's backyard garden in Levin.
She admitted to having a scant understanding of proteins and their role in foods at the time, but it sent her on a journey of discovery about the different vitamins and minerals in foods and their nutritional value.
The introduction and popularity of soybeans provided a much-needed injection of protein, and there was a growing awareness of other foods like tofu and quinoa.
“The thing that excites me the most is growing your own protein,” she said.
Talking about dietary choices can be difficult for Sahar. She is at pains not to come across as dictatorial or holier-than-thou. She is simply sharing her own food journey, backed up by 50 years of personal experience.
“I’m not a dietitian. I am not a nutritionist. I don’t want to advise people. I don’t like talking about it unless people are genuinely interested,” she said.
Buckets of homemade compost about to be applied to Radha Sahar's garden.
“People are understandably defensive about food - I don’t want anyone telling me what to do, so why should I do that to anybody else? I respect choice,” she said.
But, to get off her chest her views on food consumption, she writes a quarterly column for a national health food magazine under a nom de plume.
In her latest column, she draws a connection between food choice and climate change, opening a conversation about where food comes from and the virtues of eating locally grown produce. There was a big plug for local food producers, like Lewis Farms and Genoese Foods.
“Eating seasonal produce supplied by local growers is a great way to tune in.”
“You can’t get more local than your own backyard. And you won’t have to open your wallet much at all if you grow your own fruit and veges ... but most of us can’t grow much food at home. Our commercial growers keep you and me alive. The more we can respect this, identify with them and buy local, the better.”
She remembers her excitement when she found a magazine designated to the whole foods ideology, scouring its pages which reaffirmed long-held habits and beliefs. Her contributions were thoughtful and concise.
“The magazine has given me a portal to entice people to think about what we can all do about climate change and our personal carbon footprint, and for me, it’s about feeling excited about that, rather than guilty or obliged or burdened,” she said.
“It’s about enthusing people about what they eat ...”
When asked if she minded talking about her own health, Sahar said she kept well, but didn’t like to “bray” about it. She simply felt healthy and energetic.
“We were reasonably healthy because Dad grew most of our veges growing up, and looking back, we weren’t eating a lot of sprayed products,” she said.
She said there had been huge strides in the variety of foods available in New Zealand since the 1970s. Going out for dinner meant there were often now bonafide menu choices other than ordering a side dish of vegetables.
The flowers of the sweet pea growing next door to the row of broad beans.
Fast-forward to 2023, and that journey of discovery is continuing. Her own backyard is a trove of seasonal vegetables, beans and fruit trees. A great deal of effort went into the preparation and maintenance of the soil, with a large composting area integral to the operation. As much decomposition as possible was returned to the garden.
At a quick glance, there is at least one variety of blueberry and plum, pear, apple, lemon, mandarin, orange, persimmon, grapefruit, feijoa and plum trees within view. There are peas and beans coming to the end of their season, and a variety of vegetables and herbs in raised gardens at ground level. Many different kinds of beans are dried out, put into jars and used for cooking when required.
Surplus food is donated to community centres that make up food parcels for families in need.
“It is a lifestyle. Anyone can live it in their own way and situation, and adjust to various things,” she said.
She believed ‘localism’ was a word that should apply to food, especially natural whole foods. It made sense to eat seasonally where possible and look how far food was travelling.
One person can only do so much in a global sense, but the power of the collective can make a difference to market forces and force meaningful change. There were examples of that happening already, she said.
“That excites me.
‘But it only matters if you care. As an individual, of course, I like taking these little steps,” she said.
“The overarching fact is that the more fruit and vegetables and plant protein foods we eat, the more we are lowering our carbon footprint. The potential for change is there.”
Recent polls tend to suggest that between 6 and 10 per cent of New Zealanders are vegan or vegetarian, although they are growing in number each year.
