Category: Interview
Niamh Peren on taking pragmatism to Parliament
26.06.18

Niamh Peren on taking pragmatism to Parliament

Filmmaker and photographer Niamh Peren is 29 years old. Her tūrangawaewae is the south-west of the South Island, and she grew up around open spaces and lots of sheep. Her favourite bird is the almost mythical New Zealand pigeon, the kererū. When I spoke to her, she was about to drive down to see her grandmother in the Bay of Plenty after completing a series of interviews in Auckland. She isn’t running for office and doesn’t particularly want to be famous. […]
Environmental Sustainability, Interview
The Minister of Conservation on choosing mosaic over monoculture
01.02.18

The Minister of Conservation on choosing mosaic over monoculture

For 21 years, World Wetlands Day has been celebrated on 2 February. It was born out of the 1971 adoption of the Convention on Wetlands, known as the Ramsar Convention, which is a global treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands. In her maiden speech to Parliament in February of 2012, Green MP Eugenie Sage opened with an acknowledgment of ‘the rivers, streams, lakes, wetlands and aquifers throughout Aotearoa for all the life they sustain. Without clean and […]
Economic Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability, Farm, Interview, Social Sustainability
Alex Atala: He who lives, shall see. Quem viver, verá
03.11.16

Alex Atala: He who lives, shall see. Quem viver, verá

Milad Alexandre Mack Atala was born in Brazil in 1968 and during his late teens and twenties lived the life of a punk – a redheaded, fair-skinned kid, patched in tattoos, deeply immersed in music, with an appetite for drugs. That was his truth back then – the way of the anarchist – but he now describes that point of view as being too reductive: “I have no doubt that the way punks look at the world is quite singular. I’m […]
Economic Sustainability, Environmental Sustainability, Interview, Social Sustainability
Shelby Dukes on observation, organics and the disappearing family farm
Shelby Dukes on observation, organics and the disappearing family farm
18.09.16

Shelby Dukes on observation, organics and the disappearing family farm

Delaware’s official state bug is the ladybug. The state bird is the blue hen chicken, and the state tree the American holly. Its state seal has a sheaf of wheat, an ear of corn, and an ox proudly front-and-centre. The second-smallest state (by area) and the first to sign the United States Constitution, it’s also where Shelby Dukes was born into a farming family a few, short decades back. Arable, or cropping, it was. Corn, soybeans, lima beans and some […]
Interview, Organic
Danijela Unkovich on dairy, chicken coops and keeping our kids in fine feather
20.03.16

Danijela Unkovich on dairy, chicken coops and keeping our kids in fine feather

I’d never been to Papatoetoe, or not that I could remember at least. Resting just beside the motorway, the winding suburban streets with brick and tile were welcoming. Familiar. They put you at ease. I reached a cul-de-sac and at the end sprang a sweeping driveway with well-mulched trees and manicured grass. There was a speed bump, which reminded me to take it slow.  Asking for Danijela at reception, I was requested to sign in and wait. There was a […]
Dairy, Interview
Ben Shewry on family, foraging and a new take on an old idea
Ben Shewry on family, foraging and a new take on an old idea
24.02.16

Ben Shewry on family, foraging and a new take on an old idea

I heard the voice of a GPS navigation woman before Ben’s. It was 9 a.m. on the dot Australian Eastern Standard Time and Ben Shewry was en route somewhere in the city of Melbourne. In a world of ‘top tens’, Michelin stars, chef hats and reviews from anyone who eats, Ben’s Attica is number 32 in the world, right now, by the only list that counts – The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Every chef on the list does something that […]
Environmental Sustainability, Interview, Social Sustainability