Emily King
on Transforming Aotearoa's Food System
For Emily King, sustainability is a dandelion. Hardy, resilient, and routinely misunderstood — it keeps showing up despite the odds. It's a fitting metaphor for someone who has spent more than a decade working to shift how Aotearoa thinks about food, often in the face of indifference or slow uptake. "I know that once people cotton on to it there will be a shift and we will all be better off," she says. "I am getting impatient about how long that is actually taking though."
Emily is the founder of Spira, author of Re-food — the go-to book on food systems change in New Zealand — and one of Food Tank's top 20 global food leaders under 40. Her work spans municipalities, central government, community food groups, and international organisations, yet her deepest ambition is closer to home: a national food vision for Aotearoa that people genuinely love and collectively work towards.
Her path into this work was shaped by grief. When a close friend died, Emily realised life was too short not to be doing what she loved. She's been doing it ever since.
The challenge she returns to most is awareness. Food systems thinking isn't yet widely understood, and much of Emily's energy goes into education — explaining what the food system is, and why a systems approach can transform both community health and the environment. As a practitioner, she holds what she describes as a bird's-eye view across the full system, constantly asking who is missing from the table and drawing connections between farming, manufacturing, distribution, and communities.
Her whakataukī captures the spirit of that work: Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi — with your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive. Collaboration, she believes, is what takes us beyond survival into prosperity.
Emily sees Aotearoa's superpowers as Māori, connected communities, and the ability to grow great food across diverse climates and soils — and importantly, she sees these three as inseparable.
Her advice to rising change-makers is quiet and steady: tenacity and continuously showing up is what will ultimately get you places.
Read Emily's answers to Blooming Sustainability to explore her vision for a food system that nourishes people, communities, and the environment across Aotearoa.
BLOOMING Sustainability Questionnaire
Name: Emily King
Company & Title: Founder of Spira
Website & LinkedIn Profile: www.spira.nz | www.linkedin.com/in/emily-king-a76959a
* Guiding Values | Kaupapa
If sustainability were a flower blooming in your life, what would it look like? What nurtures it?
A dandelion: hardy and determined, resilient and brave, against the odds with labels like ‘weed’ and toxic sprays thrown at it, the dandelion remains. The beautiful flower is global, its roots and leaves are medicinal, and it’s a nutrient dense plant filled with vitamins and minerals; the clocks form then share seeds widely. To some the flower is the sun, the clock is the moon and the seeds are the stars. We can all be inspired by reframing and seeing the beauty in that. Something sustainability could do with – reframing and people understanding its beauty and wider purpose with a more resilient distribution.
A quote, personal motto or whakataukī that reflects your vision:
Whakataukī: Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi
With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive | working together can take us beyond survival and into prosperity. We need this more than ever in sustainability (generally) and food systems change specifically. I also love working with people!!
If you could mentor a rising change-maker in Aotearoa, what advice would you share?
Tenacity and continuously showing up is what will ultimately get you places.
* Leading Change | Arataki
A key moment in your journey that shaped your path:
A close friend died and I realized life was too short not to be doing what I loved. Here I am. Doing what I love.
What’s the main challenge you face in driving sustainability within your sector?
People don’t ‘know’ about the food system or necessarily ‘get’ it. So, a lot of work goes into education and training to explain what it is, and how a food systems approach can help us to transform the health of our communities and our environment. I know that once people cotton on to it there will be a shift and we will all be better off as a result. I am getting impatient about how long that is actually taking though!
An area you need more support with:
Creation of meaningful projects at a national level in Aotearoa New Zealand. There is plenty going on internationally in my field — and I spend a lot of time there — but we really need national support for food systems change in our own country. I’d rather be doing my work in Aotearoa than having to consult internationally!
An Indigenous perspective you admire and want people to be mindful of:
My food systems-sister is Dr Jessica Hutchings. Her work as a Kaupapa Māori researcher and activist is so important as we understand what a better food system could look like in our country. Together we complement each other well in our respective mahi, both driving food systems change.
Your best approach for engaging stakeholders in meaningful dialogue about ESG:
Food systems transformation requires stakeholders from across the food system to be present, from farming and growing through to manufacturing, distribution, sales, and then ultimately communities and health working on access to food and getting healthy food to people. As a systems practitioner, this means I need to be across ‘all the things’ but retain a manu| bird like perspective on the full system. Having me join the dots and see those connections is important to shift the dial. I therefore need to understand and have empathy for all those actors in the food system in order to get them engaged in making change. Constantly asking, who is missing? Is key in ensuring everyone is at the table.
What do you think is Aotearoa’s superpower in creating a sustainable future?
We have many super powers! Māori are our #1, followed closely by our connected communities and also our ability to grow great food across the country in many different climates and soil types. Those three are not separate.
* Surfing the Green Wave | Kakariki
Books, podcasts, courses or other resources that profoundly shaped your approach to sustainability:
Agh! So many, life is one long learning journey of many parts.
Recently, being an IMAGINE Leader (founded by Valerie Keller and Paul Polman) out of Oxford University has really inspired my approach to leadership and food systems transformation at a national and international level.
My studies: MESPOM (MSc from Lund, Manchester, Aegan and CEU universities in Europe) and LLB/BSc from Victoria University.
All the places I’ve ever worked – specifically Lund University, ICLEI, The Sustainable Business Network, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was the first ‘environmental’ book I ever read and it has always stuck with me, both the beauty of her writing and the cause for which she wrote.
A sustainable initiative or project in Aotearoa that deserves more attention:
All of the regional food networks across our country deserve way more recognition and understanding, they really are the grass roots of change for our national food system.
If your work could plant one seed of change for the future, what would it be?
A national food vision for our country that people love and all work towards in order to make it happen. (You can read more about that in my chapter on this in the book Kiwis in Climate, which is out this week!).
The leader(s) you endorse for a future edition of Blooming Sustainability:
Izzy Fenwick, recently took on being CE at the New Zealand Climate Foundation. It’s not an easy time to found anything, let alone a climate foundation but the best things in the future come out of the turbulent times of now and massive kudos to Izzy for starting this much needed organization.
* One actionable takeaway for our readers to make a change today for a brighter tomorrow:
Support Aotearoa New Zealand growers and farmers who are growing things in a better way: regenerative, organic, biodynamic, hua parakore.
