Iwi growers lead way on clean earth, food

A founder of the Maori produce label, Hua Parakore, says iwi food growers and processors are leaders when it comes to indigenous peoples' stand for clean earth and clean food.

Geneva Hildreth said initiatives such as the "pure product" stamp Hua Parakore, Taitokerau Organic Producers (which she also helped found), and Maori plant, environment and cultural sustainability organisation Te Waka Kai Ora had struck a chord among other peoples with similar traditions of earth ethics and spirituality.

"What we're trying to do is promote an indigenous model," Ms Hildreth said of Hua Parakore, the Northland initiative she helped start up in 2012.

It was essentially a process of verification as well as an inherent value system that went beyond the soil and practice-based "organics", she said.

"The process is very deep. People who use this have to be able to talk about the whakapapa of their whenua. It's about how we look at what we're doing, not just meeting standards. There are plenty of standards-based certifications out there.

"I've been through the biodynamic certification process myself and this spiritual aspect has been missing. There's still a need to be mindful about what you use, where you use it and how you use it.

"Our vision is to have all Maori land with a sign saying Hua Parakore at the gate."

Bee keeping and pollen enterprises and a Palmerston North dairy foods company, farmers, commercial growers and other land users had signed up to it.

While producers were increasingly meeting consumers' need for uncontaminated food, Hua Parakore was also against the hybridisation or modification of old plant varieties.

Ms Hildreth said Maori gardeners were aware of the need to protect old varieties of riwai and other plants.

But iwi had deep concerns about the health and treatment of the whenua (land), she said.

The lack of a Northland-wide local-government block on genetically modified organism trials breached partnership principles, Ms Hildreth said.

Issues such as fluoride in public water supplies were also of concern.

"The bulk of the water that goes into our homes goes down the drains ... We only drink a very small amount of it, so give people fluoride pills - don't put a chemical into the water that ends up in our whenua."

Chemicals that went into the earth stayed there and undermined food producers' ability to say their soil and products were uncontaminated.