Organic NZ

Organic NZ is filled with info to live a healthier lifestyle - for you and the planet! Published by the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand, working since 1941 for sustainable organic agricultural and good health. Topics range from home garden to large-scale success stories; eco-building; urban organics; genetic engineering & chemical issues; food matters & natural health.

Organic NZ

The economics of star gazing • Guest editorial by Cathy Tait-Jamieson of BioFarm

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Organic Week is back! • 11–19 September 2021

Bayer to rethink home use of glyphosate in US

Meet Tiffany Tompkins, coordinator of Organic Week

Big changes needed: Climate Change Commission

Take action on glyphosate: EPA calls for information

What’s the future of farming?

NSW lifts GE moratorium

Research into seaweed for suncare products

Matariki at our place • Jessica Hutchings reflects on the midwinter celebrations, observations and grounding energies of Matariki, and the activities taking place at her whānau farm at Kaitoke.

The best of both worlds • Aotearoa New Zealand is seeing a groundswell of regenerative agriculture. Martin Freeth finds out just how complementary the new thinking and practices are with the longer tradition of organic farming.

GRASSROOTS AND GLOBAL • Being served cooked rat and unwittingly drinking rice alcohol spiked with dead eagle are just a couple of the things Chris and Jenny May experienced as they travelled the world, advising, supporting and building organic networks. Sue Gilmer finds out more about what these organic stalwarts have done over the last half century.

Learning by growing • In the picturesque seaside town of Riverton, west of Invercargill, a school garden is proving to be a fertile ground for the cross-pollination of learning, as Hollie Guyton and Rebecca Perez show here in words and pictures.

WINTER GARDENING ATTENTION COUCH POTATOES! • He kai kei aku ringa – there is food at the end of my hands. This winter, take this far-reaching piece of wisdom literally. July and August may be a time for rest and enjoying the fireside, but they are also months that call for planting, sowing, cosseting, and the intelligent harvest of cold-season crops.

A taniwha IN THE GARDEN • Living willow sculptures can add fun, exploration and even legendary creatures to a garden, as Jen Rodgers discovers during a project at Warrington School, north of Dunedin.

Working with willow

Maramataka for Pipiri and Hōngongoi

Maramataka for Hereturi Kōkā

Organic meal IN A BOX • A simple cardboard box turns out to be lot more than just an intentionally plain and brand-free box. Not only is it full of healthy organic food, but the box also represents an alternative to the global commercialisation of food production and consumption, as well as being a symbol of environmental and personal health and wellbeing. But it’s what’s on the inside that really matters, says Clinton Chambers, owner and manager of Dunedin’s iconic Taste Nature organic store and café. Guy Frederick tells the story in words and pictures.

Hua Parakore principles

Free-range food AND MEDICINE • Aotearoa New Zealand has an abundance of useful plants growing wild that are freely available – if we only know what plants to forage for. Johanna Knox can help with that – her book The Forager’s Treasury has just been republished in a handsome updated volume with colour photos to help with identification. She lists many edible plants, where to find them, how to harvest and use them, including over 60 delicious food recipes, and more than 30 recipes for natural medicine, skincare, dyes and perfumes. The following is just a taste – extracted from The Forager’s Treasury: The...