Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

Nominations for 2016 AFSA Committee

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The following nominations have been received for the 2016 AFSA Committee. The AFSA AGM will be held at William Angliss Institute, 555 La Trobe Street, from 3 pm to 4.30 p.m. on Sunday, 18th October.

President

Tammi Jonas

Current AFSA President Tammi Jonas is re-nominating for President for 2016 to continue her involvement in the fast-growing fair food movement and lend her strong female farmer’s voice to the fight for food sovereignty in Australia. Tammi considers herself an ethicurean farmer, mindful meatsmith, and agrarian intellectual. Along with her hypercompetent husband and three #orsmkids, she raises pastured rare breed Large Black pigs and a motley crew of cattle at Jonai Farms; Meatsmiths in central Victoria.

Former vegetarian academic Tammi does whole-carcass butchering on the farm (thanks to two very successful crowdfunding campaigns to build a boning room, commercial kitchen, & curing room), and sells their ethical pork and beef predominantly through a thriving CSA (community-supported agriculture, a membership model). Jonai Farms is an ‘ethically viable no-growth model’ – Tammi often says we need to multiply our farms, not scale them, to support more people working the land fairly and to revive rural communities and local food economies.

Tammi has been writing about food culture, ethics and politics since 2006 at her blog TammiJonas: Food Ethics, and speaks regularly on food sovereignty at public events, on radio, and in print media. She is also a founding member of Fair Food Farmers United (FFFU), a producers’ branch of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA).

Jonai Farms features in Australia’s first food politics documentary Fair Food, and Tammi also has a chapter in the new anthology Fair Food edited by Nick Rose. As President this year she has been actively involved in fighting for fair and consistent regulation of the food system, and is leading a process to establish a Farm to Consumer Legal Defence Fund to protect and promote the right of people to determine their own food and agriculture systems.

Vice-President

Nick Rose

Nick is the co-founder and has been the National Coordinator of AFSA since its inception in 2010. He led AFSA’s engagement with the National Food Plan (2010-2013) and jointly led and co-ordinated the development of the People’s Food Plan, Australia’s first crowd-sourced food policy document. He helped conceive and co-ordinate Fair Food Week, now in its third year, which has become a focal point for the food sovereignty movement in Australia. He is the Content Director of Australia’s first food politics documentary, Fair Food.

In 2014 Nick secured a contract with the University of Queensland Press to edit an anthology of Australia’s Fair Food movement, titled, Fair Food: Stories from a Movement Changing the World. With this publication and years of writing and speaking on food sovereignty and food systems topics, Nick has played an important role in developing an expanding awareness of the need for broad food systems transformation.

Nick is a Churchill Fellow, with a particular focus on the role and potential for urban agriculture to address critical food security and livelihood issues for low income and vulnerable urban groups in Australia. He is also the Executive Director of Sustain: The Australian Food Network, which is working with local governments and other institutions to support a policy and research agenda in favour of healthy, fair and resilient food systems across the country. He is one of the founding members of the Australian Food Hubs Network, and a former Director of the Food Connect Foundation.

Nick has previously worked as an employment lawyer, researcher, whistleblowing campaigner and in the field of human rights with indigenous, farmer and women’s groups for many years in Central America. His PhD investigated the transformative potential of the global food sovereignty movement, in the face of the intensifying crises of the globalising capitalist food system. He also holds a Masters in International and Community Development.

Nick has a long-term relationship with Julie Tucker, and they have two boys, Camilo (14) and Jude (10). They recently moved to North Melbourne after many years in the mid-north Coast of NSW. Nick is standing for Vice-President of AFSA in order to continue to support the building of the food sovereignty movement in Australia through continued campaigning, awareness-raising and alliance-building.

Secretary 

Chris is a first generation farmer. Starting with a small herd of Hereford’s, Chris has expanded his paddock to plate business (SageChoice) to run a sustainable business supplying ethically raised grass fed beef and lamb through a network of like-minded farmers to the local community.

Passionate about ethical livestock farming and ethical meat consumption – you will find himat VFMA markets talking and advocating the need for people to understand where their food comes from and how consumers have the power to change the food paradigm for the better.

Chris comes from a corporate background having worked in a large pharmaceutical company for over 18 years. Now having left the corporate life behind, Chris is primarily focused on the farming and food production. Trained and educated as a scientist, Chris is also passionate about continual education having recently completed a MBA, he brings fresh thinking to traditional farming. Years of business, management and science experience is being used to help improve and create a sustainable farming future.

Communications Officer

Alana Mann

Alana Mann is nominating to return as Communications Officer in 2015-16. She is a lecturer and researcher in communications and international relations at the University of Sydney and lives in the inner city suburb of Newtown. A Queenslander by birth, she is a proud Cowboys fan. A passion for food citizenship, social justice and alliance-building drives Alana’s work with AFSA and her research on food sovereignty. She published a book on La Via Campesina campaigns in Europe and Latin America called Global Activism in Food Politics: Power Shift in 2014.

At the University Alana is a member of the Sydney Environment Institute (SEI) research node ‘Food, People and the Planet’ and the global food security and nutrition node within the Charles Perkins Centre for cardiovascular health and nutrition. Her current research projects focus on the social movements opposing land-grabbing for resource extraction in Brazil and Australia; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander conceptions of food sovereignty; and the socio-cultural dimensions of food security for inner-city residents of Sydney.

Ordinary Committee Members

Sophie Lamond

Sophie Lamond is the co-leader of the Youth Food Movement Melbourne. YFM is a national volunteer-led organisation that aims to build the skills, knowledge and experience that young people have around food. She founded the Melbourne chapter after working the organisation in Sydney.

Sophie is currently undertaking her masters in sustainable food systems, researching corporate responsibility in international nutrition and environmental politics. She has recently returned from the World Food Systems Summer School at ETH Zurich where she explored challenges in the global food system with students from nineteen countries. She has a keen interest in connecting eaters to their local and global food environments and making living well and eating ethically and sustainably an affordable and livable reality. Sophie is interested in how institutions formulate sustainability policies and empowering people to advocate for change in the systems in which they live. Sophie writes about food issues and campaigns for the development of sustainable food policies in tertiary institutions with the Fair Food Challenge.

Michele Lally

Michele Lally is a passionate driver of branding ethically produced food and connecting farmers with consumers through education and relative product marketing. She lives at their award winning property Savannah Farm in the Clare Valley in South Australia with her husband Phil and 12 month old daughter Zara.  Together, Phil and Michele created their branded lamb product, Savannah Lamb in 2009 after being faced with an unexpected succession plan that meant they had to find a viable operation that could sustain them living on the farm and continuing the Lally family’s 150 year farming tradition.

Previously cereal croppers and wool growers, their options were to get big quick and go into large ag debt, or niche market and change their farm to be what reflected their own values and ethics as people and regenerate it for their children’s future and the community’s sustainability. Michele spent most of her twenties and early thirties training, unbeknown to her at the time, to be a regenerative fair food farmer in management level corporate roles of marketing, sales, events, IT and business consulting.   She has been a leader in the South Australian Food Industry creating food events and media attention of ethical meat production, regional small producers and utilising animal psychology, modern technology and traditional flock shepherding to increase the quality of meat products on the plate.  As the project manager of Australia’s first licensed multi species mobile abattoir, her passion for local accessible supply chains and the opportunity for all farmers to set their own pricing structures, is evident, by offering new branding and sales opportunities in regional areas, where in the past, traditional sales have been the only option.

Michele has been a guest speaker at numerous sustainability and food events.  She is a passionate advocate to increase the perceived opportunity of the ‘daughter in law’ on farms and wants to see family farming continue as the leading industry structure into future generations of the industry in Australia.

Michele has been key to the Clare Valley’s food industry by hosting numerous high profile food and farming events.  She has been one of the drivers that has created a new reputation for the Clare Valley as a food producing region by mentoring other farmers to brand their products and designing new co-operative selling groups.  She was a founding member and driver of the Clare Valley Alliance (bringing food, wine and tourism together in the region) and was nominated as a finalist in the Young Leader Category in the South Australian Food Industry Awards in 2011.  Michele has a Degree in Tourism Management from the University of South Australia, Advanced Diplomas in International Business and Le Cordon Bleu and has led Savannah Farm with her husband, to win South Australian Food Industry Awards Most Sustainable Food Business 3 years in a row.  She is a champion at networking, thinking outside the box and creating collaborative partnerships with likeminded people and organisations.  Michele’s can do attitude and enthusiasm for sustainable change and strategic direction has led her to be a highly respected and ethical operator in the South Australian Food Industry and she hopes to motivate and instigate increased consumer awareness to build a strong and resilient fair and ethical food model in Australia.

Gavin Williams

Gavin Williams was a founding member and secretary of Canberra City Farm who played a number of key roles in the establishment of the farm, including public speaking, building a social media presence, newsletter editing, fundraising activities and workshops. Gav is also a member of Slow Food and a committed advocate for good, clean and fair food. Through a long public service career Gav has a background in policy and program implementation and a strong understanding of government processes. Gav also brings a consumer perspective backed by by engagement in food planning processes at the federal and territory (ACT) government levels.

Ben McMenamin

With a Bachelor of Environment & Society and 10 years experience as a professional chef, Ben has a particular passion for fair food and ethical restaurants. In 2013, Ben started a student project called Greening RMIT, with the goal of promoting sustainable food and gardening on campus. Over the past two years, Ben has experience hosting events, sustainable cooking workshops and facilitating urban greening projects. From May 2015, he has been working with Nick Rose and Sophie Lamond on developing the Fair Food Challenge as a way to engage students and youth as active change agents in the broader Fair Food movement. In his role with Greening RMIT he has recently attended and spoke at numerous national and international student and university sustainability conferences and meetings, bringing to the attention of many the opportunities offered by the Fair Food Challenge.

AFSA Office Bearer Reports, 2015

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2015 President’s Report

Tammi Jonas

It’s been an exhilarating and challenging year as President of AFSA as I’ve worked with an amazing team of committed fair food activists to further the interests of food sovereignty in Australia.

Part of the focus for the five-year-old Alliance this year has been to improve our internal operations with clearer processes for decision making and communications, and better financial management. I am delighted to be finishing the year with a surplus and a healthy bank account, largely thanks to the fundraising made possible by the Fair Food documentary screenings, DVD sales, and generous support from the City of Melbourne. As at the end of the 2014-15 financial year, the doco had profited AFSA $6,679.

Both the Fair Food doco and anthology edited by AFSA Secretary Nick Rose have greatly helped spread the word of the good work happening across the country as producers, chefs, connectors, knowledge workers, local governments, and activists build a new, fairer food system for all. We have hopes of crowdfunding a second documentary focusing on the plight of farm and food workers in Australia, and how these systems of exploitation prop up the duopoly and concentration of power here and globally. Watch this space.

The year has seen AFSA leading the fight for fair and consistent regulation of the food system, with participation at the Regrarians-led #EatBuyGrow rally a highlight. Speaking alongside lunatic farmer Joel Salatin on the many ways in which ‘folks, this ain’t normal’ and the need to contest the orthodoxy of industrial food was both an honour and a great opportunity to amplify the message locally.

We’ve worked to spread the word of the plight of dairy farmers in Victoria affected by the Government’s hasty decision to make it more difficult to sell raw milk, as well as the difficulties faced by livestock producers in processing and distributing their produce, especially in Victoria, where we’ve helped trigger a review of the meat regulator PrimeSafe (yet to report). I visited the Executive Director of the America Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund in Kentucky to learn how we might build such a fund here, and work is well advanced towards the establishment of a legal defence branch of AFSA.

I’ve already recounted the #epicfairfoodtour I made of the US in June, where AFSA’s food sovereignty relationships and networks were further developed with some of the most popular voices in the movement, including Joel Salatin, Temple Grandin, Dan Barber, and Michael Pollan.

Back home, I was delighted to host the inaugural Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering(conceived by fabulous farmer Fraser of Old Mill Bio Farm in NSW) in August with the able assistance of local Sarah Chignell. Two days of discussing the issues and opportunities in production, connection, regulation, and regeneration of the food system were heralded by fair food pioneer Costa Georgiadis as ‘the Woodstock of Australian agriculture’. We recounted and plotted, feasted and posited, and frankly talked fair food ‘til the cows came home. The high proportion of young farmers and future farmers was especially encouraging – just goes to show how much more appealing fair food farming is than industrial agriculture! I’m already looking forward to the next one (perhaps somewhere a tad warmer…)

In the first week of September I had the honour and privilege to attend the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) meeting in Gujarat, along with my comrade Nick Rose. You can read our separate report on the outcomes of the meeting here. In short, the meeting clarified the need for AFSA to stand up to our own government in solidarity with our comrades in the Global South, to protect them as well as our own producers from the ravages of free-trade agreements that benefit nobody except large, transnational agribusiness. The impact of cheap imports is devastating for farmers everywhere – from fruit growers in Victoria to small-scale beef producers in Kenya.

Our involvement with the IPC has also connected us to the ongoing dialogue with the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN, where we can add our voice to the global movement for agroecology and the fight against industrial livestock production, amongst the many other issues.

In spite of the continued centralized control of our food system, especially by the duopoly Coles & Woolworths, and in spite of the burdens and unfairnesses of regulation for small-scale, transparent food production, and even in spite of the ongoing exploitation of the labour of farm and food workers across Australia, I feel hopeful.

I feel hopeful because more people are choosing to buy directly from farmers and leave the duopoly out of their shopping bag. I feel hopeful because we’ve got the regulators’ attention, and reform seems possible. I feel hopeful because of the work of Four Corners to expose the treatment of farm workers and the tireless work of the NUW to support workers everywhere. I feel hopeful because I’m a tragic optimist who takes every tiny grain of hope and plants it deeply in the rich soil of this fecund movement.

I am especially grateful for the work and support of Secretary Nick Rose, Communications Officer Alana Mann, Memberships Officer Michele Lally and our wonderful intern Katarina Munksgaard, who have contributed tirelessly all year.

Thank you also to Vice President Jeff Pow, Treasurer Nadine Ponomarenko, and Louise Abson for your contributions, and finally thank you to the members who resigned earlier in the year due to challenging circumstances, Clare Richards and Michael Croft. And of course thank you to long-term volunteers and co-founders of AFSA Russ Grayson and Fiona Campbell for your many years of work to build and support the movement through the website and AFSA communications with members.

So long as we all continue working together, we’ve got this. Here’s to another great year for the fair food movement!

Viva la revolucion!

Secretary & National Coordinator

Nick Rose

2015 saw AFSA celebrate its fifth anniversary. When I think back to where we were in July 2010, when the concept of a national food sovereignty alliance was first being discussed, it’s amazing just how much has been achieved. As a 100% volunteer-based organisation, with a small core of committed activists, these achievements have been all the more remarkable. At times it’s been far from easy, but five years in, we’re here, and working hard together to build the fair food movement in Australia. Our networks and relationships are spreading and strengthening, both in Australia and internationally.

This year has seen us make enormous strides, thanks in no small part to the enormous passion, energy, commitment and leadership of AFSA President Tammi Jonas, ably supported by the National Committee, in particular Communications Officer Alana Mann and Memberships Officer Michele Lally. I stand in admiration of them all, and feel grateful that AFSA is in such strong, experienced and capable hands – this is a great legacy for both myself and all the previous Committee members and long-time volunteers that have worked for AFSA and the cause of fair food in Australia.

So much of what we have done has been as a team. This has been especially the case regarding the coordination and screenings of the Fair Food documentary. With the support of 263 people and organisations that crowd-funded $32,675 in September-October 2013, and in collaboration with the Field Institute, we produced Australia’s first food politics feature-length documentary. It premiered to a sell-out audience of 200 at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on 2nd December, 2014. From February to October 2015, over 40 public screenings have taken place in community venues around the country, in a diverse array of rural and urban settings, most recently in Mildura (Victoria), and in Lakeland and Cooktown (Far North Queensland). We estimate that the film has been now been seen by over 3000 people, and several screenings are scheduled for Fair Food Week. AFSA representatives have attended more than half of these screenings, and I personally have attended and spoken at 18. On every occasion, the documentary has met with an enthusiastic response, and has provoked sustained discussion and debate about key issues facing our food and farming system. Common themes have included the lack of abattoirs and regional processing and distribution facilities; the continuing exodus of farmers from the land in the face of ongoing consolidation and corporatisation, as well as increasing foreign ownership and control; the difficulties faced by small-scale producers and artisanal food businesses as regards food safety and related regulatory regimes; and the exercise of concentrated corporate power, above all the supermarket duopoly.

Importantly, the screenings have also provided the opportunity for local community members to share stories of grassroots initiatives and leadership, generating inspiration and hope amongst those present. The screenings have been universally positive experiences, with many groups and individuals thanking AFSA for our leadership and vision in making this resource available. We have no doubt that many positive initiatives and projects are already underway as a result of discussions following screenings, and so the documentary has already made an important contribution to the building of a fairer food system.

Another significant milestone this year was the publication of the Fair Food anthology: Australia’s first volume documenting the emergence and growth of a national food sovereignty movement through personal stories of several of that movement’s leading actors. I am the editor of the book, and it contains chapters by past and present AFSA Committee members, including current President Tammi Jonas, and so in several respects is also a history of AFSA itself. The book, published by Queensland University Press, was launched at the Melbourne Writers Festival on 26th August, and again at Avid Reader in Brisbane’s West End on 10th September. It has been reviewed favourably in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Saturday Paper and Pip Magazine, amongst other print and online media; and during September reached No.1 in the Independent Category in the Courier Mail’s listing of new books. The book is being stocked in airports around Australia, in mainstream bookstores like Dymocks, as well as in a wide range of independent bookstores. We expect it to be an important and permanent resource that will inspire existing activists and supporters to strengthen and deepen their engagement with the Fair Food movement; and that will encourage and inspire new and younger people to join the movement. As the SMH review concluded, “These heart-on-the-sleeve manifestos have something urgent and important to say.”

Fair Food Challenge
Inspired by the Real Food Challenge, an initiative launched and led by university and college students in the United States in 2008 with the goal of getting higher education institutions to pledge to source 20% of their food from ‘real’ (i.e. local / ethical / sustainable / fair) sources by 2020, in June 2015 AFSA began working with students leaders at RMIT (Ben McMenamin) and Melbourne University (Sophie Lamond) to develop a similar campaign here. A campaign website was built (www.fairfoodchallenge.com) and launched in July 2015, garnering the immediate support of organisations like 3000 Acres, Open Food Network, Youth Food Movement, Melbourne Farmers Markets, and many others. Relationships have been established with the coordinators of the Real Food Challengeand the aligned Meal Exchangecampaign in Canada; extensive outreach has taken place with students at many other campuses in Australia; and meetings and presentations have taken place with university sustainability officers and managers. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. In June 2015 AFSA submitted a grant application to the City of Melbourne for $20,000 to resource the campaign in 2015. Next steps will include a detailed examination of the meaning of ‘fair food’, so that we can begin to develop criteria which can guide purchasing decisions within the higher education sector, and beyond (e.g. local government, health, schools).

Food Sovereignty pilot, Cook Shire, Far North Queensland

This visit was undertaken from 23-26 September at the invitation of the Cook Shire Council and Cape York NRM, and in collaboration with Kym Kruse of RegenAg, as well as Sustain. The significance for AFSA is that the Cook Shire Council is, as a result of this visit and ongoing discussions, committing itself to a review of local laws with the aim of preparing a food sovereignty by-law, the aim of which would be to exempt small-scale producers and local food businesses from certain labelling, inspection and licensing requirements that inhibit the expansion of the local food economy: see MR_CookShireFoodSovereignty_121015_vf. This would be along the lines of the Food Sovereignty Ordinances (16 of which have now been passed by Councils in Maine), the Wyoming Food Freedom Act (passed in January 2015) and the 2013 Californian Homemade Food Act. We see this as a highly significant development that supports the AFSA regulation campaign (see Tammi’s report) and will likely set a precedent for other local councils to follow – as well as being a resource for other AFSA / FFFU members and fair food supporters to use to push for change at the local level.

IPC and Fair Food Week

As mentioned in Tammi’s report, and in our separate report to members (forthcoming), I attended with her the 2015 meeting of the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty, (in Gujarat, India). An inspiring experience that made us realise we are truly standing on the shoulders of giants, and following in their footsteps, in our work to build the food sovereignty movement in Australia. I have also worked with Alana Mann in getting Fair Food Week off the ground in 2015, and it’s exciting to see that as of the writing of this report, nearly 50 events have been listed from every state and the ACT, including for the first time a National Fair Food Convergence. Significantly this year we have commenced discussions with the National Union of Workers around joint work and collaboration on their major Fair Food Campaign (www.fairfoodaustralia.org), targeting Coles and Woolworths over the exploitation of farm and food system workers in Australia. Through existing relationships we secured $2000 sponsorship for FFW from the City of Melbourne, and in-kind support worth $3000 from the William Angliss Institute (WAI). In addition to the Fair Food Convergence, AFSA is jointly hosting (with WAI and Sustain: The Australian Food Network) a unique one-day workshop on 19 October, Democratising Food Systems.

Speaking and media

As detailed in the reports of Tammi and Alana, AFSA continues to build its profile in the media and in community, government and professional forums and debates. I have spoken at more than a dozen this year as well as given many radio interviews. Highlights include the Municipal Association of Victoria’s Local Food Forum (Melbourne, 10/9), the Real Food Festival in Maleny (12-13/9), EATology panel discussion about a Food Plan for the ACT alongside ACT Minister for Agriculture and Regional Development, Shane Rattenbury, and AFSA/FFFU member and local producer Penny Kothe (Canberra, 30/9), and the Great Southern Sustainability Festival in Albany, WA (4/10).

Communications Officer

Alana Mann

This year 2015 has been a period of transition for AFSA and the Communications area has been no exception. Key tactical activities have included:

  • the promotion of screenings of the Fair Food documentary and the Fair Food edited collection
  • the updating of resources including the AFSA printed flier and the Fair Food Week artwork (by volunteer Sharon Lee)
  • publication of news releases and position statements on hot issues including the food safety regulation and the Trans Pacific Partnership
  • rich content on social media including key events such as the highly successful Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering.

Fair Food Week (Oct 16-25) is promising to be a success with the partnership of the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network (ACFCGN) and Permaculture Australia (PA) who are ably promoting the Week around Australia.

Work in progress

The handover of web assets from long-time volunteer Fiona Campbell has been on ongoing process that has highlighted the need for a multimedia editor/web manager. This role is currently ably filled for the Fair Food Week website by volunteer Kate Raymond but the AFSA web site is still without technical support. A new hosting arrangement for the site is in train.

The future

The next steps for the Communications Officer include the development of a comprehensive communication strategy based on outreach to target audiences, including community-based food organisations and individuals in remote areas such as Northern Australia. Research into the needs and expectations of these stakeholders is needed. The development and timely delivery of rich multimedia content for subscribers is a high priority that will be facilitated by a skilled multimedia editor.

Memberships officer

Michele Lally

What a delight it has been to work with a group of passionate fair food advocates and farmers. In my first year on the National Committee, my passions to lead in membership and communications as well as utilise some of my commercial and branding experience for the group has been both rewarding and challenging.

This year’s KPI to increase membership by 30% was like eating lemons and drinking lemonade all at the same time. While both challenging and fruitful, with a final increase in membership by 50%, delivering this KPI well above what was expected has not been by chance. Our team located around the country has worked hard and with much enthusiasm, to bring a united message of leadership by advocating directly and using social media to involve and encourage participation from new areas that have not yet been exposed to AFSA. We have all utilised the Fair Food Documentary and other events to inspire more eaters to get closer to their food sources and highlight the advocacy our group participates in. With increased activity and interest from outside of usual channels comes more interest and membership to our wonderful organisation, and thus, a strong increase in membership has been realised.

Our challenge in the membership space was our system and process. Our systems have not geared up just yet to provide a seamless and viable option to be run by busy volunteers, and the next project that will be undertaken, includes seeking a membership system that has increased automation options to provide an enjoyable and professional experience for all of our members. This will link in further with increased participation through events and communications and will then provide the framework to offer more to our members and provide a valuable resource to our committee for targeted campaigns and communications release in a timely manner.

With South Australia as my locale, I have worked hard to bring several screenings of Fair Food to our state, as well as engagement with several food groups and advocacy groups who are feeling the pinch of decreased voluntary availability. I continue to advocate and work on creating South Australia into a more resilient Fair Food state, although, we are several years behind the passion that is seen along the Eastern Seaboard, participation and interest will be the key to the coming 12 months.

I have also been involved in the Legal Defence Fund, inspirational Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering, involved with a new Poultry producers Risk Management strategy and looking further at indigenous food security as corporate centralised food distribution continues to make high quality food unavailable to some in remote areas.

It’s been both inspiring and uplifting to have the opportunity to be a part of such a dynamic and innovative team and connect with such passionate and inspiring people in our peer group. Thanks must go to Tammi, Nick and Alana who have supported me so professionally in my first year with AFSA.

Fair Food screens around the country to enthusiastic response

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Story by Nick Rose, May 2015

ff_sidebarAustralia’s first food politics documentary, Fair Food, has been screened over 20 times since February this year to a combined audience of 1700 people. AFSA co-produced this documentary with Melbourne-based food publishers The Field Institute.  We have been delighted with the response it has received to date.

The film features farmer innovators, social enterprise leaders, urban agriculture dynamos, and leading researchers and thinkers. It presents a sharp critique of the dysfunctional nature of Australia’s food system, and shows pathways to a fairer and more hopeful future.

The film has been screened in diverse locations including Canberra, Wagga Wagga, Albany, Seymour, Daylesford, Upwey, Launceston, Hobart, Byron Bay, Sydney, Ballarat, Lakes Entrance, Coonabarabran, and Brunswick. Upcoming screenings include Mildura, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Maitland, Perth, Temora and Mornington Peninsula.

Everywhere it’s been screened the film has sparked intense and passionate debate and conversation amongst highly engaged audiences. Topics for discussion have included the need for regional abattoirs, how a local high school is growing hundreds of kilos of corn for local foodbanks and selling to the local IGA, questions about food literacy and food education, issues facing local artisanal producers and Council red tape, questions about the impact of free trade, and how good food can reach people in lower income brackets.

The film can be screened at a suggested licence fee of $300. We are hugely grateful to all groups and organisations that have supported our work by screening this film, as it has helped us raise over $4000 so far.  For those members with the time and capacity to assist further with fundraising, DVDs can now be provided for sale at selected screenings at a price point of $20 each.

Interested in hosting a screening?

If you are interested in screening the documentary, and/or would like some copies of the DVD to sell, please get in touch by leaving an expression of interest via www.justfoodfilms.com, or simply email admin@afsa.org.au.

 

System change needed

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Story by Tammi Jonas, President of AFSA, May 2015

Fair labour requires a fair food system

Most farmers work hard to grow food in a way that they believe is fair. They’re usually surprised and even hurt when someone suggests they’re exploiting natural resources, animals, or their workers.

Even with a bit of practice under my belt, my heart rate still increases when the vegan abolitionists call me unethical, a murderer and a profiteer. But then I breathe deeply and carry on solidly in the belief that what Stuart and I are doing at Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths is right.

Tammi with her 'Meat Grrls' at the Jonai Farms on-farm butchery and boning room
Tammi with her ‘Meat Grrls’ at the Jonai Farms on-farm butchery and boning room

But what if the allegations can’t be dismissed as simply a contrary ethical position? It’s hard to acknowledge that your food might be unfair, but that’s the realisation farmers who are using unscrupulous labour-hire contractors are facing after last Monday’s expose on Four Corners.

If you haven’t seen the episode, it’s a grim look at what’s behind the Down Down and Cheap Cheap campaigns of the duopoly (Coles & Woolworths). Brutally long working hours, systemic underpayment and pay delays, and stories of verbal and sexual abuse abound amongst those interviewed. Young men and women on the 417 working visa weep at times as they tell their stories and share the hopelessness they feel at ever escaping systemic exploitation on Australian farms.

Labour-hire contractors are held up squarely to blame, with many farmers professing not to really know what the conditions are for the workers the contractors bring them. While there are a couple of farmers accused of being repeat offenders themselves, the picture we get is that most of these farmers have outsourced their human resources needs to independent contractors, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, this has led to a culture of exploitation by those keen to make an easy buck off the labour of others.

But while we may point fingers at labour-hire contractors, farmers, or the duopoly – all of which must bear some responsibility for the part they play – we should ask what are the structural issues here? It’s systems that create opportunities for such exploitation, and people then exploit systems.

We must question the orthodoxy of productivism and ‘growth’

In a system that values growth and profit over people, animals, and soil, exploitation is a given. The reality is that multinationals are mining the land for a short-term gain, people are confining pigs and poultry in the ammonia of their own excrement in the name of efficiency, and others are exploiting vulnerable migrant workers to ensure there’s enough chicken on the Coles rotisserie to feed the insatiable hunger of our convenience culture.

There have been calls for a task force or a Royal Commission into the exploitation of migrant labour. Many (including me) encourage us to boycott the duopoly. These are worthy ideas, but where is the call to question the contemporary orthodoxy of growth? The industrial orthodoxy of productivism – grow more for less… if you can’t, you must not be efficient enough (if you can, what are you paying your workers, how is your soil, are your animals in sheds, and are you one of the majority of Australian farmers with off-farm income?). The government tells us we must export more, that the nation’s well being depends on growing markets overseas… but are we even feeding our own sufficiently?

As long as our governments are beholden to the coffers of miners, the major supermarkets, and growing our exports, we cannot systematically address the problems of exploitation – not of labourers, not of animals, and not of our precious soil.

We farmers need to be vigilant for fairness in our system at all times. When it comes to labour, that can be challenging, especially in more knowledge- & labour-intensive agroecological systems like those proliferating in the fair food farming movement.

Help us build the connected, fair food system

Buckminster Fuller famously said that “You never change something by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

The fair food movement is trying to do just this. We’re trying to grow food that is fair to soil, water, air, plants, animals, and people, and we’re doing it through connectedness. The old food system is killing us with its invisible ingredients, obscured animal welfare practices, and hidden social costs. The new system values transparency and connection, wholeness and wellness.

So while individually we can boycott some of the major culprits, we can’t fix the unfairness of our food system alone. Collectively we can work to protect the rights of workers on farms and elsewhere in the food system, and to improve the welfare of animals in agriculture, and to ensure our soils and water are nourished and regenerated. We can vote with our wallets every day, with our farming and hiring practices, and we can effect systemic change by joining the food sovereignty conversation to work together for a fair food future for Australia.

On 17 April 2015, dairy intensification is not the way to a fair food future

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Community unites with farmers in resistance to dairy expansion in Bass Coast Shire

The proposed multi-million dollar expansion of Kernot Dairy, owned by the Chinese corporation Ningbo, is raising the ire of farmers and local residents in Gippsland on a day that commemorates the struggle of small farmers internationally.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) and Fair Food Farmers United (FFFU) are supporting the campaign against the expansion of the dairy in solidarity with the local community and the worldwide family farmers’ movement La Via Campesina, which celebrates the International Day of Peasant Struggle on April 17.

While Australian farmers and food workers do not experience the physical intimidation and violence that many small-scale farmers face world-wide, AFSA says they are subject to the same negative impacts of the increasing power of foreign multinational companies.

The plans to expand an existing dairy on Loch-Kernot Road include the construction of a bottling plant, storage facility, a feed-pad barn to house 1,000 dairy cows, and an effluent treatment plant on prime agricultural land.

Residents and local producers are concerned about the economic, social and environmental impacts of large-scale industrial farming on the region.

“We are consistently told that this type of investment will bring jobs to the region,” says Sylvia Collett, owner of Bass Coast Farm.

“Yet where I have a farm at Glen Forbes, 34 family dairy farms have closed down over the past 25 years in a five kilometer stretch of road.

“These family farmers left the dairy industry as they were told either ‘get big or get out’.”

Issues of animal health and welfare in the proposed intensive farm rearing systems have also been raised, along with the environmental risks to the Bass River catchment.

“The myriad of hidden costs to the environment which allow for ‘cheap’ milk are unloaded onto local communities and the broader community,” says Sylvia.

Foreign investment has seen large segments of the Australian food industry absorbed by multinational agribusiness that take profits offshore:

  • Four firms control over 72 per cent of the milk and cream markets in Australia. Three are multinationals: Lion (Japan), Parmalat (Italy & France) and Fonterra (New Zealand). The fourth is the Murray-Goulburn co-operative.
  • Primo Meats, a subsidiary of the world’s largest meat supplier JBS (Brazil), controls 50% of the Australian smallgoods market, with George Weston Foods (owned by British-based multinational Associated British Foods) holding 20%[1]
  • Two firms now control 49% of all meat processing in Australia: JBS-Primo, and a Cargill-Teys (United States) joint venture[2]

Meanwhile, Australia is losing its farmers. Nationally, the number of dairy farmers has declined from 22,000 in 1980 to less than 7,000 by 2012.

Take action: make your views known!

We call on all AFSA members and supporters, especially those living in and near Gippsland, to express your views about this proposed development to Bass Coast Shire, by writing to basscoast@basscoast.vic.gov.au, and referencing the development application: http://www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/Services/Building_Development/Planning/Statutory_Planning/Planning_Issues/Planning_application_140368_-_Kernot_Dairy_proposa

We also invite all readers who support our vision of a fair and democratic food future for Australia to join AFSA.

Media contacts:

  • Tammi Jonas, President, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance: 0422 429 362
  • Sylvia Collett, Bass Coast Farm: 0409 252 373

[hr]

April 17th: History and Background

April 17th, the International Day of Peasant and Family Farmer Struggle is an occasion to recognise the negative impacts of the industrialised food system on small-scale agriculture, and to remember those who have died fighting for their right to food and the freedom to produce it.

On this day in 1996 19 members of Movimento dos Trabalhadores Ruralis Sem Terra (MST) were killed in Eldorado do Carajas, Brazil, while fighting for land and justice.

La Via Campesina’s central message is the importance of food sovereignty – the right of communities and nations to decide their own agricultural production regimes, with priority to local production and consumption.

Via Campesina argues that food is much more than a mere commodity to be traded for profit and speculation, without regard for the livelihoods of those who produce it. On the contrary, it is fundamentally important to human health and well-being, and the long-term sustainability of ecosystems; and as such demands priority recognition in our political, economic and legal systems.

Via Campesina, in common with many analysts and experts around the world, including the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, attribute the crippling hunger of close to 1 billion people to the domination of the global food system by corporate agri-business and an unjust international trade regime that squeezes the livelihoods of small- and medium-scale producers.

 

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