Gardening – Growing pains

This week I would like to talk about growth. No, not the sort of growth that one would normally assume I would be talking about, but rather the expansion and intensification of urban growth. It’s an area that I have a deep interest in due to my horticultural and real estate background. Now let me start by saying there are as many different views on the costs and benefits of urban growth as there are people on this planet. I don’t expect everyone to agree, this is just my perspective.

Growth is inevitable, unless by some miracle (or the implementation of an authoritarian government decree) people are restricted to producing less than two children per couple. Growth is further spurred by the thousands that immigrate every year, as New Zealand is seen as such a desirable place to bring up families. These extra people all need somewhere to live and the growth itself adds to our GDP, which in turn adds to one quite important aspect of quality of life for all – a  healthy economy.

However, growth also comes at a cost; increased congestion on roads and amenities, added pressure on services and the environment, and so on. But most importantly from my perspective, and possibly not noticed by most of the population, is the permanent removal of highly productive land from horticultural areas. The world is not overendowed with high quality soils. We can’t afford to keep losing more every year. Across the world, this has been going on for centuries. Auckland is a good example. Suburbs such as St Johns, Otahuhu, Mangere were all built on exceptionally productive volcanic soils. Here in northern Rodney and Mangawhai, we’re not exactly blessed with good soils. Aside from a few pockets such as Tapora, some of Tomarata, Omaha Flats and the Tara Road area in Mangawhai, most of our soils are heavy clay, not ideal for most crops.

I find it quite distressing to see these areas get chopped up into ever smaller pieces, eventually becoming so small that they are useless for anything but an unproductive lifestyle block or worse, a new residential subdivision. This is an issue that only central government can really deal with. Unless Grade 1 and Grade 2 quality blocks of land above an economic size are forever protected from development by statute, the inevitable destruction of this vital food producing land will continue. Until one sad day, we wake up to a country that can no longer feed itself.

Andrew Steens