TE ŌHANGA MAURI - PRIORITY #6 - FEED OUR PEOPLE FIRST

It is a profound irony that Taitokerau—a region with a subtropical climate known as "The Winterless North"—faces acute food insecurity. We produce massive amounts of agriculture, yet many of our whānau struggle to put healthy food on the table. This exists because of the "Export Trap": our best land is used to produce milk powder and meat for offshore markets like China, while our local people rely on expensive, low-nutrient food imported through a supermarket duopoly.

We call this a "Metabolic Rift". We are extracting the nutrients from our Northland soil and shipping them overseas, while paying a premium to bring in processed food from thousands of miles away. It is thermodynamic insanity to ship a banana from Ecuador to Kaikohe when we could be growing our own kai right here.