Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

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About

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The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) is a farmer-led civil society organisation of people working together towards socially-just and ecologically-sound food and agriculture systems that foster the democratic participation of Indigenous Peoples, smallholders, and local communities in decision making processes.

FOOD SOVEREIGNTY asserts the right of peoples to nourishing and culturally appropriate food produced and distributed in ecologically sound and ethical ways, and their right to collectively determine their own food and agriculture systems.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is a not-for-profit association, incorporated in Victoria.

AFSA’s programs of work include legal advice for smallholders, working with all levels of government for legal reform to enable an agroecological transition in Australia, supporting young farmers for land access and tenure, promoting agroecology as a practice, a science, and movement, and promoting First Peoples’ sovereignty and struggle for voice, treaty and truth. AFSA supports localised food economies that put control locally, valuing producers who work with nature to produce food for people, not profits.

We are part of a robust global network of civil society organisations involved in food sovereignty and food security policy development and advocacy. We are members of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), and La Via Campesina – the global movement of peasant farmers, which gives us a regional seat at many meetings of the United Nations, including the Food & Agriculture Organisation and many of its governing bodies.

AFSA is also a member of Urgenci: the International Network for Community-Supported Agriculture, and we also work with Slow Food International and its Australian chapters. We also support the Australasian representative on the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM), which articulates to the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).

Our vision is to enable agroecological and regenerative farms to thrive. Australians care now more than ever about the way their food is produced, including its social and environmental impacts. Food produced on small-scale farms is increasingly in demand, and government is bound to heed changing community expectations and facilitate and encourage the growth and viability of agroecology and regenerative agriculture, thereby protecting the environment and human and animal health.

In 2016 AFSA formally constituted the Legal Defence Fund in response to the number of small-scale producers across Australia seeking assistance in dealing with inappropriate-to-scale regulations and planning schemes.

The Legal Defence Fund:

  • provides legal advice for farmers and eaters so that nobody is left to fight alone;
  • compiles and analyses casework to lobby for legal reform where necessary to support the growing food sovereignty movement;
  • develops factsheets and templates for food producers and local councils around regulatory requirements and best-practice planning; and
  • provides support when small farms are caught up in a trial by media.

If you’d like to learn more, visit these pages:

  • AFSA History
  • AFSA National Committee
  • Member Organisations

If you would like to join the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, become a member here.

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Recent Posts

  • AFSA denounces misinformation from the far right in response to the Victorian Government’s ALA Bill
  • AFSA urges the Federal Government to change its definition of primary producers, to include smallholders seeking critical disaster recovery funding
  • AFSA is expanding: Join our National Committee or sub-committees and working groups
  • AFSA response to the National Biosecurity Strategy
  • Global perspectives: An update on AFSA’s international advocacy

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Latest submissions

AFSA responds to the ACT Capital Food and Fibre Strategy

  AFSA recently responded to the call for submissions to the ACT Capital Food and Fibre Strategy, which will “be a roadmap to delivering social, environmental and economic benefits based on secure, climate-resilient food and fibre production across in the ACT; and respond to the need to mitigate climate challenges via adaptation and diversification. It […]

A Licence to Sell Lettuce? ASFA Submission to FSANZ Proposal

  For three years FSANZ has been working on a proposal to more tightly regulate the production and sale of berries, leafy vegetables, and melons after several outbreaks of listeria, e coli, and salmonella from large monocultures. AFSA has provided feedback from the beginning on the need to approach any changes with a scale-appropriate lens […]

Protecting farmers and preserving farm land: Submission on the Protections within the Victorian Planning Framework

In October 2021 the Victorian Legislative Council tasked the Environment and Planning Committee to inquire into and report on: “the adequacy of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and Victorian planning framework in relation to planning and heritage protection”. Particular terms of reference were outlined for the Committee to address and AFSA provides its submission […]

AFSA supports proposed changes to landscape rehydration infrastructure planning rules in NSW

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) supports the proposed changes to landscape rehydration infrastructure planning rules and applauds the NSW Government’s initiative to allow farmers to restore streams on their property through landscape rehydration techniques, without the need for council approval. AFSA represents small and medium scale producers and our vision is to enable regenerative […]

AFSA opposes JBS acquisition of Rivalea

The proposed acquisition raises a number of concerns for AFSA and our directly-affected members—small and medium-scale pastured pig farmers in Victoria. The concerns centre around the certainty of continued access for service kills and a lack of choice, reflective of a lack of competition, in the state for small-scale farmers accessing service kills. At a […]

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Recent posts

  • AFSA denounces misinformation from the far right in response to the Victorian Government’s ALA Bill May 13, 2022
  • AFSA urges the Federal Government to change its definition of primary producers, to include smallholders seeking critical disaster recovery funding April 8, 2022
  • AFSA is expanding: Join our National Committee or sub-committees and working groups April 1, 2022
  • AFSA response to the National Biosecurity Strategy March 21, 2022
  • Global perspectives: An update on AFSA’s international advocacy March 17, 2022

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