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New Zealand has an international reputation as clean, green and pristine.
It’s also a country whose economy, land use and national identity are deeply entwined with animal agriculture.
And those two things deserve to be examined together.
Because animal agriculture isn’t inevitable. It’s a system supported by some powerful stories — that it’s efficient, resilient, environmentally responsible, necessary to feed people and essential to the economy.
My guest today, Paula Feehan, is working to challenge those stories — and to make the case for something very different: an ethical, sustainable, resilient, plant-based economy.
Paula Feehan is the Food System Campaign Manager for SAFE (Save Animals From Exploitation) New Zealand, and has worked at the intersection of animals, food, and climate issues for The Vegan Society, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and Action Aid in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Today we’re going to look at what New Zealand’s clean-green image leaves out, the myths that help maintain animal agriculture’s social licence, what we’re actually choosing to do with our land — and what could be possible if we chose differently.
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The contradiction: “clean, green” New Zealand.
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How different is the reality when you look at NZ through the lens of its food system?
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What are the consequences of animal agriculture that people simply don’t see?
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Has ‘clean & green’ become a story New Zealand tells the world, or a story it tells itself?
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SAFE’s strategy: disrupt, de-legitimise and debunk.
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The stories: that keep the system in place, and protect animal agriculture in NZ.
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We need animal agriculture for our economy.
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NZ is environmentally better than farming elsewhere.
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Animal agriculture is an efficient use of our land.
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We’re feeding the world.
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When something has been described as the ‘backbone of the economy’ for generations, does questioning it start to feel almost unpatriotic?
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Who benefits from keeping these beliefs alive?
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Where does political power come into this?
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What does animal agriculture’s social licence look like — and can Paula see cracks in it?
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The efficiency myth: We hear constantly that animal agriculture is necessary to feed people. Is NZ’s current system actually designed primarily to feed people efficiently?
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The alternative economy: When people hear ‘transition away from Animal Ag’, I suspect many imagine economic loss. What could NZ gain?
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Where does this change start? Government, Corporations or the individual consumer?
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What gives Paula confidence that a food system this entrenched can actually change?
What if the biggest barrier to changing our food system isn’t that we don’t have alternatives — it’s that we’ve built economies, identities and powerful stories around the system we need to change?
And perhaps that’s also where some of our power lies.
Because stories can change.
As individuals, we can question what we’ve been told is necessary. We can stop giving social licence to systems that no longer align with the future we want. And collectively, we can demand that governments and industries make better choices possible.
For New Zealand, moving beyond its dependence on animal agriculture isn’t simply about what it leaves behind.
It means protecting the extraordinary natural environment that underpins a vital part of New Zealand’s economy — tourism.
Building greater food security and resilience in an increasingly uncertain world.
Creating new industries and opportunities for farmers.
Producing abundant, high-quality plant foods and other products — for New Zealand and for export.
And, fundamentally, building a food system that no longer depends on the exploitation of animals.
Not abandoning what New Zealand values.
Building a food system that better reflects it.
Connect with Paula: LinkedIn
That’s it for this week in Healthification.
This journal and daily planner follows a twelve month format however is not dated so it is perfect to use at ANY time of the year.
With love and gratitude plant friends.
EATING PLANT BASED IS SO MUCH EASIER THAN I EXPECTED!