The Old Beaten Track
Title: The Old Beaten Track
We all know the risk on the horizon right? Social, economic and environmental instability are destabilising our fragmented food system. Just imagine if another disaster had happened at the same time as COVID-19. Which is not a stretch of the imagination when you look at the news and see geopolitical relations at the moment or see strange weather patterns that are creating droughts lasting into Autumn.
The real and perceived logistic breakdowns in the food chain have shown many people it is more important than ever to build a stronger local food supply, so that the food grown in their backyard, street, town or region is feeding the communities who live nearby.
Meanwhile, a 38-hectare site, which is on prime site in the central city is being used to ride horses around in circles. The Taranaki Racing Inc (TRI) pays the council $1 per annum for that privilege.
The public are being asked for their views on the future of New Plymouth's racecourse at the moment.
Four options are being offered in the survey:
- Granting a “forever” or perpetual lease to the race club.
- Granting a lease of up to 33 years.
- Creating a short-term lease of three to five years.
- Ending the lease.
I encourage you to make your opinion heard and fill in the very quick survey available through the NPDC website.
www.newplymouthnz.com...
The survey closes on July 10 and will be used to inform decision making.
Please note that I don’t want to demonise horse racing fans, we all need our hobbies. But there are plenty of country tracks where the racing can continue.
Imagine an urban food hub with orchards, community gardens, market gardens, food forests and educational sites with the latest innovative regenerative agriculture techniques being showcased.
Food is front centre as one of the four pillars of Taranaki's future economy. Justine Gilliland, chief executive of Venture Taranaki said the following in the Taranaki 2050 Roadmap Report.
“Starting now, we will cooperate and collaborate to drive innovation and
individual/collective opportunities to establish Taranaki as a respected region for premium, sustainable/low-emissions food and fibre by 2040, to achieve prosperity, environmental and social success, with the collective value of kaitiakitanga.”
Taranaki’s economy has a significant food and fibre industry. It contributes more than $1.5 billion annually to Taranaki’s economy, sustains over 10,200 jobs in 3,813 businesses and comprises more than half of Taranaki’s manufacturing base. Taranaki has the second highest food production GDP per capita in New Zealand. I think that is worth celebrating and amplifying.
Future predictions are that food is going to be playing an even bigger part of our economy going forward post COVID-19. WITT is just across the road from the current Racecourse. I know they would really appreciate a site nearby where they can engage in hands-on education for their horticulture and agriculture students.
In Melbourne, Australia the Collingwood Children's Farm is a thriving inner city site that is a great resource for schools to take their kids and every weekend it is abuzz with Farmers Markets and visitors to their farm to fork cafe.
More than 160,000 children live in households without enough food or the variety of foods that are required for good health. That is 1 in 5 children in Aotearoa. At the same time farmers have high suicide rates and agriculture is New Zealands biggest contributor to carbon emissions.
The food system is broken, but we know how to fix it, we just need to showcase the regenerative agriculture methods to this and future generations of farmers. We need to connect the dots between the urban consumers and the rural farmer. We need to show tourists that we have a vibrant food story and practice in Taranaki and New Zealand.
The path to change is lined with delicious and nutritious food. We just need to be bold and set a path that is different from the old beaten track.
Neighbourly challenge: Who can solve the daily riddle?
I have a crown but am not a king.
I'm prickly on the outside but sweet within.
What am I?
Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.
Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.
Poll: Is dumping an issue in your neighbourhood?
There's nothing worse than strolling around the streets in your neighbourhood and seeing dumped rubbish.
Have you noticed this in your area? What could we do to combat this around the country?
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43% Yes, I've seen some illegal dumping
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56.3% No, our neighbourhood is pretty good
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0.7% Other - I'll share below
Hato Hone St John - Shocktober
Did you know that each year over 2000 people in Aotearoa / New Zealand will have a cardiac arrest outside hospital care, and 1 person in 10 survives. The chance of surviving is much higher when they receive immediate help.
St John as most of us know are responsible for our ambulance service, however they are so much more than that; and today we are focusing on a service that some of us are aware of, but it is not as widely known as we would like and that there is a very important training which is FREE – This is a 1-hour session called 3 Steps for Life skills to save lives. It is very important that we all learn how we can be of help to those who we consider our community.
This month of October Hato Hone St John, for the third year in a row, are dedicating the entire month to educating as many kiwis as possible, across the motu, how to respond to someone having a cardiac arrest. They now name October Shocktober and will be out and about in the community offering education on 3 Steps for Life
You will find them at:
16th October at Mitre 10 Mega from 12 noon – 1pm
20th October at Seaside Market between 9am – 2pm
22nd October at St John Hall Hawera from 5.30pm
3 Steps for Life is designed to give all New Zealanders the confidence and awareness to take action when somebody suffers a cardiac arrest by:
1) Calling 111 – what to expect
2) Starting CPR - what to do and how you can start
3) Using an AED- (Automated External Defibrillator) -
This training session is so helpful and takes the mystery and uncertainty out of what needs to happen.
Justin, one of our Taranaki Community Educators talks with Marie and Graham on their Volly Voices show on Access Radio about how he works predominantly works in schools and how students are taught how to respond in an emergency. He works with year 1 – year 13; and from year 7 and up the CPR component is added. It is also interesting to learn from Justin about the other programmes that are available for our young ones – in total there are four different programmes delivered in schools.
Hato Hone St John New Plymouth offers full first Aid training locally too and if you are interested in joining one, Volunteering New Plymouth will be organising one in the near future so you can check with them about joining of one of their sessions or check St John online for their next available training.
Where can you learn more? If you are interested to learn more about Hato Hone St John, you can listen to:
Volly Voices live on Access Radio Taranaki 104.4fm on Sunday 13th October at 2pm when Justin chats about what is happening at St John and how they support the community and the training sessions they offer
This can also be listened to on the Monday 14th October on:
Spotify open.spotify.com...
Apple Podcast podcasts.apple.com...
Access Radio website www.accessradiotaranaki.com...
Volunteering New Plymouth website www.volunteeringnewplymouth.org.nz...
Who can you contact? If you are curious to learn more about the 3 Steps for Life programme and how you can join a session being offered near you, or how you could join St John and / or how you could become a trained trainer to deliver the programme then contact Wendy (Monday to Thursday) at Volunteering New Plymouth on 06 758 8986, Ph/Text: 022 571 4228 or Email: admin@vnp.nz.
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