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Diverse local and 'alternative' food networks offer a variety of context-specific responses that aim to challenge the global, conventional food system. These community-based interventions are often supported by local governments, who are attempting to engage with food issues through local-level policy and governance arrangements, most notably through food policy councils. In New Zealand, such practices are in an emergent phase and there is relatively little research on food system planning, despite the emerging engagement with food at a local level. Drawing on case studies from two New Zealand cities (Dunedin and Christchurch), this research explores the role of different actors, including planners in mediating tensions between community and government and identifies potential points of interventions for planners in attempts to transition towards more resilient and just food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris Agreement asserts that greenhouse gas emission pathways should be consistent with holding the increase in global temperature below 1.5 °C, or 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. The purpose of this paper is to assess the economic impact of this agreement on the cattle and food product sectors of New Zealand. We used a general equilibrium approach to evaluate the economic impacts, and the Global Timber Model to estimate forestry carbon sequestration. We simulated eight scenarios where we allow accounting/not accounting for sequestration, pricing/not pricing agricultural emissions, and linking/not linking the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with the European Union ETS. We found that significant negative impacts occur if sequestration is not accounted, the ETS remains unlinked and agriculture is priced. Competitiveness, in turn, is not significantly affected if sequestration is accounted, regardless of the linking scheme of the ETS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unhealthy food environments are known to be major drivers of diet-related non-communicable diseases globally, and there is an imperative for major food companies to be publicly accountable for their actions to improve the healthiness of food environments. This paper examines the prevalence of publicly available policies and commitments of major packaged food and soft drink manufacturers, and fast-food restaurants in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with respect to reducing food marketing to children and product (re)formulation. In each country, the most prominent companies in each sector were selected. Company policies, commitments and relevant industry initiatives were gleaned from company and industry association websites. In Australia and New Zealand, there are a higher proportion of companies with publicly available marketing and formulation policies than in Fiji. However, even in Australia, a large proportion of the most prominent food companies do not have publicly available policies. Where they exist, policies on food marketing to children generally focus on those aged less than 12, do not apply to all types of media, marketing channels and techniques, and do not provide transparency with respect to the products to which the policies apply. Product formulation policies, where they exist, focus mostly on salt reduction and changes to the make-up of overall product portfolios, and do not generally address saturated fat, added sugar and energy reduction. In the absence of strong policies and corresponding actions by the private sector, it is likely that government action (e.g. through co-regulation or legislation) will be needed to drive improved company performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand's reputation as a supplier of high quality food products is vital to the national economy; international consumers are acutely aware of food safety issues and markets are increasingly demanding higher standards. Filter feeding bivalves are particularly sensitive to the nature of the environment in which they are grown, and quality assurance is a major preoccupation of the shellfish aquaculture industry. With the exception of a couple of incidents, most notably theGymnodinium catenatumblooms in 2000–2003, paralytic shellfish toxin (PST) contamination has, to date, not had an important effect on the economics and sustainability of the industry. However, the dinoflagellate species responsible for producing these toxins are not uncommon in New Zealand coastal phytoplankton communities, and it is important that awareness of the potential risk is maintained. This review summarises what we know about the causes and incidence of PST contamination from research and monitoring over the last 20 years, since it was first identified in New Zealand. It describes the dynamics of major events and their consequences, and evaluates what is likely to happen in the future as aquaculture expands into new areas with known histories of this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of biosecurity measures at national borders is influenced by the behaviour and levels of involvement of travellers. Involvement is the importance or relevance of an object or situation to an individual. Involvement helps regulate the way in which people receive and process information and thus influences the extent of information searching for decision making, and information processing and persuasion. This work drew on the concept of involvement to investigate the response of individuals to New Zealand biosecurity requirements. A convenience sample of people associated with the agricultural and food processing sectors were surveyed using a five-item scale of involvement to measure their level of involvement in biosecurity. The results indicated that most respondents had medium to high levels of involvement. This implies that respondents were motivated to attend to and process information on biosecurity measures. However, not all respondents reported taking note of biosecurity information, implying that involvement with biosecurity prompts some initial information processing that may or may not continue over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent research has considered whether a range of social and physical characteristics of residential neighbourhoods are important in explaining social and spatial inequalities in health. One strand of this research has investigated the role of neighbourhood access to retail provision of healthy and affordable food. In this national study we used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to examine the association between food retail (supermarkets, convenience stores and fast food outlets) and licensed alcohol outlet locations, and an area measure of deprivation for urban neighbourhoods across New Zealand. We found that contrary to the international evidence, for all outlet types, access to a range of retail options tended to be better in more deprived neighbourhoods. The implications of this socio-spatial distribution of food and alcohol retailing in reducing health inequalities are discussed. [image omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand Greenshell mussels are currently shucked by heat processing, and this can be used as a listericidal step. Shucking by high pressure processing (HPP) has potential benefits in product quality and increased yield, but processors need to understand the effects of this technology on the safety of their product with respect to Listeria monocytogenes. L. monocytogenes was mixed with minced mussel meat, and 2 g samples (in foil pouches) were subjected to HPP at various pressures, times, and temperatures. Of 10 tested strains of L. monocytogenes, the most resistant to HPP at 400 MPa (Food Science Australia strain 2655 isolated from Australian processed meat) was selected for subsequent work. This strain showed two-phase inactivation kinetics in response to time at 400 MPa. Approximately 5 log10 cells/g were rapidly inactivated in a log-linear fashion with time while the remaining cells were inactivated at a slower rate. There was also some evidence of a shoulder in the inactivation curves. In the temperature range tested (10°C-40°C), the log-linear inactivation rates showed linear increases with increasing processing temperature at 400 MPa with a z value of 29.1 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A culinary revolution in America and elsewhere has recently been pinpointed to around 1963. Three important New Zealand cookery books were published that year, and these are investigated to characterize the worldwide shift. Was "grandma's cooking" lost or "gourmet cooking" gained? Seemingly contradictory evaluations might be reconciled in the light of major changes in the food industry. Good domestic cooks embraced successive modes and also resisted them, primarily by continuing to grow and preserve some of their own food, and then by keeping up the cooking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand's response to quality management had its roots in quality control in the export food industries. Since the 1930s, key organizations have promoted aspects of quality and quality management in New Zealand. During the 1980s the increasingly poor economic performance of the country brought quality management to the attention of senior management when it was briefly considered as a means of reversing the decline of New Zealand industry. Economic shocks in the late 1980s saw many businesses revert to short-term cost-cutting measures and genuine commitment for quality management principles declined. A separation between proponents of a 'technical' model of quality management and an 'executive' model is identified. Key factors that have influenced the adoption of quality management are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the changing relationship of a region (Hawkes Bay, New Zealand), its industries and enterprises to Asia-Pacific industrial complexes. Land-based industries in Hawkes Bay provide examples of new connections and local adaptations of production to emerging agro-food and forestry complexes, centred upon East Asia. Integration into these complexes, which has only been possible in the context of the gradual relaxation of regulatory regimes that has occurred over the past two decades, has facilitated access to new markets. In some cases, integration is an outcome of East Asian ownership of New Zealand-based nodes along the commodity chain. In others, it is an outcome of New Zealand actors producing to meet 'site of consumption' demand. The paper concludes that new dynamics in the spheres of trade, production and investment are instituted by and feed into new geographic links and interactions, referred to in the paper as a rescaling of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]