The first phase of a food resilience project for Queenstown Lakes has found that supermarkets would only be able to supply about a week’s worth of food if the district was cut off.

In 2022 Wao launched the Food Resilience Project (FRP) and in recent months it has conducted a survey of more than 700 residents, interviewed 35 stakeholders, and developed a stakeholder registry.

Its goal is to improve food resilience, defined broadly as a food system which can withstand and recover from disruptions and supply food for all.

FRP project lead Julia Blackford said the first phase of research shows the district has lost the ability to feed itself and it is almost entirely reliant on food coming in from outside the region.

“With most of our food coming from elsewhere, we are very vulnerable to supply chain disruptions,” Julia said.

Ninety-five percent of survey respondents sourced most of their food from supermarkets (which import most of their goods from outside the region).

It would take a fully loaded Hercules aircraft landing every 21 minutes to keep the district fed if the roads were cut off, she said.

Many locals are trying to grow their own food, according to the survey.

Eighty percent of residents create some of their own food, whether that’s having chickens, a vegetable garden, or fruit trees.

“We are also fairly good at topping up our pantry with homegrown, homemade, foraged or hunted food, with 85 percent accessing food from these sources,” Julia said. 

“For most people, though, this is less than 25 percent of their total food supply.”

Julia said the survey showed three clear barriers to growing more of our own food, something which would increase food resilience.

“The first was space - so many of our community are renting. The second was around knowledge, and the loss of knowledge of how to grow food, particularly in this climate. The third was time.” 

Local food growers and producers - due to a range of barriers like cost, compliance requirements, and limited places to sell their goods - struggle to compete with larger producers.

“Based on the number of producers (rather than the volume produced), our biggest producers are those of red meat, followed by beer and wine, followed by honey,” Julia said.

She said the stakeholder interviews helped FRP understand some of the barriers to growing a wider range of food within the region. 

Julia said the region hasn’t always been so reliant on food from elsewhere.

The food system has changed drastically in the last 150 years and, up until as recently as 70 years ago, most food would have been grown within a 50km radius.

“Understanding the history of how we used to feed ourselves may provide insights into how we can do this again,” Julia said.

Following the completion of phase one of the project, the FPR plans to start the formation of a food resilience network and take other steps to increasing local food supply in phase two.

Funding and support for the FRP, which is being led by Wao, is being provided by Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC).

Read the full phase one report here.

IMAGES: Supplied