Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 6/7/23

Govt dishes up $4.6m to help put the kibosh (or should that be ‘kaibosh’?) on food waste

Sums of government spending feature in three of four new ministerial statements posted on the government’s official website since Point of Order’s previous Buzz report.

One of the new spending announcements deals with waste.

No, not wasted spending. The Government is sinking $4.6 million into projects aimed at reducing food waste.

Some of that money will be ladled to an organisation called NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 for a project called Kai Commitment.

This is described as a voluntary national agreement in which major food businesses commit to reducing food waste. Businesses signed up so far are Countdown, Fonterra, Foodstuffs, Goodman Fielder, Nestle, Silver Fern Farms and Wilcox.

None of them are short of a dollar or two, we would have thought…

The other spending decisions are –

• A further $500,000 to the Post Your Support initiative, a community fundraising campaign supporting farmers and growers to fix cyclone damaged fences and growing structures,

The Government previously contributed $100,000 to help kick-start this work. The additional $500,000 is “to ensure that essential infrastructure like fences and growing structures can be repaired and replaced, with funds going towards materials like posts and wires”, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said.

“This sits alongside our ongoing support for cyclone-affected primary producers, including $74 million in recovery grants, and the North Island Weather Events Loan Guarantee Scheme and Primary Producer Finance Scheme,” he said.

The Government has made an additional adverse event classification following ongoing wet conditions in the Bay of Plenty, releasing $50,000 to boost support in the region.

Rural Communities Minister Kieran McAnulty said this extra funding will enable the Bay of Plenty Rural Support Trust to deliver further services to those in need.

“The cumulative impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle and continued heavy rain events mean challenging conditions for farmers in the lead-up to calving,” he said.

The Government contribution to the Post Your Support campaign comes from the $35.4 million allocated in Budget 2023 to support the recovery of rural communities affected by the recent North Island weather events.

• A further NZ$11 million in funding has been announced to support the United Nations’ response to the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. This takes New Zealand’s support for Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in August 2021 to $24 million.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said Afghanistan is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than two-thirds of the Afghan population now requiring assistance. Vulnerable communities are experiencing record levels of food insecurity and are in desperate need of health services, clean water, and education.

She condemned Taliban restrictions limiting Afghan women and girls’ access to secondary education, higher education, public and political spaces, and to employment opportunities. Such restrictions are contributing to worsening humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.

“The further imposition of restrictions on Afghan women working for the UN and non-governmental organisations undermines the delivery of much-needed, effective and principled humanitarian assistance. We commend those dedicated humanitarians, especially Afghan women, working in this exceedingly difficult context to provide essential assistance.”

The $11million will support UN agencies to provide essential assistance to the people of Afghanistan and includes:

• $4million to the World Food Programme to support their provision of lifesaving and suffering-alleviating food assistance.
• $3.22million (US$2m) to the Food and Agriculture Organisation to support food security and livelihoods, including through the provision of fertilisers and seeds, and cash-for-work programmes that will rehabilitate rural infrastructure.
• $2 million to the UN Children’s Fund to support the provision of health, nutrition and sanitation assistance for young people and their families.
• $2 million to support the UN Population Fund’s provision of critical reproductive health and psychosocial assistance to affected communities, especially women and girls.

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Tackling food waste is good for people and the planet

Projects tackling food waste are getting a big boost from the Government.

Announcing the initiative to cut climate-damaging biogenic methane emissions from decomposing organic waste, Associate Environment Minister Rachel Brooking said the 157,000 tonnes of food wasted every year in this country could feed 336,000 people for a year.

“This is obviously a huge waste of money and resources, especially when many people are finding it tough at the moment.

“And it’s also bad for the environment – particularly the climate. Producing that food takes resources. Dumping it fills up our rubbish tips, and as it decomposes it produces methane, a powerful, climate-damaging greenhouse gas.

“We know we have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, and that’s why I’m pleased to announce support for projects tackling the waste food problem at its source,” Rachel Brooking said.

The organisations getting government funding will work with the Ministry for the Environment over the next three years to help build wider understanding of the scale of the problem, and aim to cut their food waste by 10 per cent.

The statement notes that methane has a warming effect 28 times greater than carbon dioxide. New Zealand is committed to cutting the amount of methane being produced from organic sources by 10 per cent by 2030, and by between 24 per cent and 47 per cent by 2050.

Nine per cent of biogenic methane comes from food and other organic waste. The Government’s Emissions Reduction Plan, released last year, includes emissions reductions of up to 400,000 tonnes a year from reducing that waste.

Collectively, the four projects will receive $4.6 million over three years from the Climate Emergency Response Fund (Cerf).

The organisations being funded are:

• NZ Food Waste Champions 12.3 for a project called Kai Commitment, a voluntary national agreement in which major food businesses commit to reducing food waste. Businesses signed up so far are Countdown, Fonterra, Foodstuffs, Goodman Fielder, Nestle, Silver Fern Farms and Wilcox.
• WasteMINZ for a project supported by 52 local body councils, to create multi-media campaigns encouraging householders to reduce the amount of food they waste. The project will draw on the successful Love Food Hate Waste campaign.
• Para Kore Marae Incorporated’s project with more than 800 mainly Māori-led organisations, working towards zero food-waste.
• A consortium of organisations including retirement village providers Arvida, Bupa and the Retirement Villages Association, led by the University of Otago, to measure and reduce the amount of food being wasted in commercial kitchens in the retirement sector.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton