Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

July President’s Message

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michael-croft-messageGreetings all,

It’s Fair Food Week

First of all please check out the Fair Food Week website and join one of the ones in your area or create your own!  Creating your own event or happening is easy and registration is free for individuals and not-for-profits/community groups.  Oh, and ‘like’ the Fair Food Facebook page whilst you’re at it.

So what is fair food?

Fairness and the idea of a fair go is something that Australians ‘get’ instantly.  In this case we mean fair from paddock to plate, field to fork, soil to stomach, wilderness to waste or waist.  In other words fair food is food that takes into account all of the aspects that food encompasses: the environment that enables food production, the water it depends on, the soil organisms, the growers, workers, the cooks and eaters, the culture in which it is embedded, the clean air it requires, the life it enables, and the recognition that they are all inseparably linked.  If any part of the food system is unfair, the remainder of the system will suffer – including us.

Celebrity line-up

Fortunately this is a message that thinking Australians ‘get’.  So much so that we have a celebrity line up of Fair Food Champions who want to support Fair Food Week (see our first video below) – so stay tuned as there are a few surprises in store.  That said if you know any high profile Australians who would support Fair Food Week, please get in touch.

During the recent Students of Sustainability conference at the ANU, Simon Cunich, director and producer of the food sovereignty film Growing Change (insert link) caught up with rugby union star and Fair Food Week champion David Pocock, and AFSA national coordinator Nick Rose.

Our role in international negotiations about food

Now I will appear to digress from Fair Food Week for a bit.  One of the things I am working on via the Civil Society Mechanism is UN/FAO input into the Food Losses and Waste in the context of Sustainable Food Systems.  What is interesting is that at the highest level there is a belief that the current system can be made ‘more sustainable’.  I think you know where I am going with this, but either a system is sustainable or it isn’t – period.  A ‘more sustainable food system’ is just an unsustainable system that will take longer to fail, because it isn’t sustainable.  This error in logic would be funny if it wasn’t happening at intergovernmental level and perpetuating the fallacy that a partial redemption of the existing industrial food system is all that is required.

The other issue that this report raises is that the costs of the global food system and the vast amounts of waste it produces (30 to 40% of all food produced goes to waste) are all ‘context specific’.  What this means is that the solutions to waste must be local and context specific.  To me this is another example of globalised food system profits, with the costs to be paid for by the local communities.  In other words the demands of a globalised and corporate food system produces the waste, which the local, regional or industry specific is expected to fix.  It should be obvious to all that food losses and waste are a symptom of the system, and treating a symptom is not going to cure the disease.  We risk putting a Band-Aid over waste when what needs to happen is that the system should be redesigned (cured) to stop rewarding over production – ‘productionism’.

I digressed a little, but a system that produces vast amounts of waste, whilst hundreds of millions go hungry, is manifestly unfair.  So we are back to supporting Fair Food Week and entrenching it in the annual calendar of national events.

This year Fair Food Week 10 – 19 October is centred around World Food Day which is 16 October 2014.

So please get behind Fair Food Week and encourage your friends, families and communities do to likewise.  Be creative and have fun with it too, because this is meant to be a celebration of what a better food system can look like.

Best regards and in solidarity,
Michael

June 2014 — President’s Message

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m-croft-300w
Michael Croft

Greetings all.  It is early June as I write this and winter is meant to have started in my region.  However there have been no frosts and I have tomatoes still yielding which is unheard of.

Forecasts of this being the precursor for an El-Nino event is not good news for our farmers and gardeners, as hot dry conditions will prevail this summer.

There is so much happening on the food sovereignty front in Australia it really is hard to know where to start — perhaps the Northern Territory.

Fair food movement is booming

  • I had the great privilege and honour of meeting up with fair food pioneers in Darwin a few weeks ago.  What the visit brought home strongly, is how just dynamic and vibrant the grass roots fair food scene has become all over the country.  One of the things that amazes me is that no matter where you look in Australia the fair food movement is booming – it is happening everywhere.
  • Have you ever wondered what your volunteer contribution to AFSA and the common good is worth?  I mean put a dollar price on it?  Well here is just one example of our contribution to Australian civil society.  The Peoples' Food Plans National Food Plan (NFP).  We now know (thanks to a question asked in parliament by The Greens) that the National Food Plan cost taxpayers $4.5 million dollars! The Peoples' Food Plan (your effort) has contributed a similar amount to the national debate.
  • The Peoples' Food Plan (PFP) is Australia’s first ever, and is the only crowd sourced national policy document.   It can be accessed by all Australians at the National Library of Australia as well as our website.  The PFP is worth every bit as much as the $4.5 million NFP, and we continue to donate our time effort and skills to the common good – well done you!
  • The University of Queensland Press has enthusiastically agreed to publish a book edited by AFSA’s coordinator Nick Rose.  The book will be called Fair Food: the story of a movement.  Well done Nick!
  • Nick-rose-300w
    Nick Rose
    Whilst I am talking about Nick, he deserves much recognition and praise as a major driving force behind AFSA, so it is wonderful news that Nick has been awarded a Churchill fellowship.  Nick’s Churchill studies will be of great benefit to the development of fair food and Urban Agriculture in Australia, as Nick will share his findings, enabling us to pick through the world’s best ideas and projects and  apply those we deem appropriate to Australia. Nick will be away for 3 months investigating innovative models of urban agriculture in the USA, Canada and Argentina.
  • The documentary 'Fair Food' that we crowd funded is being filmed right now and should be ready for a national launch during Fair Food Week.
  • Organic food sales were up 11.5% in 2013 in the USA and we are sure by a similar if not greater amount here in Australia.
  • Councils and state governments are responding to demands for relocalised food systems.  The ACT Government’s Minister for Agriculture has convened a Food Policy Round Table with community groups to determine policy initiatives.  All this is being driven by community demands such as the drive for the ‘Capital Region Food Hubs'.  These sorts of initiatives are happening in your area so please get involved and promote the principles and values of food sovereignty to your local council, state and federal politicians and governments.
  • There have been a massive increase in interest in community funded ethically produced foods, and this is a good thing.  Some examples: Lauren Mathers, a free range Bundarra Berkshire pig producer and AFSA committee member, has been very successful in her crowd funding campaign; Tammi Jonas, producer of heritage breed Large Black pigs and driver of Fair Food Farmers United has also launched an excellent crowd funding campaign check it out and and of course Madelaine’s organic egg project was hugely successful.
  • Map-723x1024 copy (2)
    Source: Food Alliance
    The Food Alliance does great work with the ‘know your food bowl project' for Melbourne and surrounds. Two weeks ago, the Food Alliance had a double-page spread in Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper profiling their great info-graphic which shows that 40-50% of Melbourne’s vegetables comes from its local food-bowl regions.
  • Planning for Fair Food Week (FFW) is well under way and we are determined to make it as big a celebration of all things fair food as we can.  There are all sorts of extraordinary things in the making that will embed celebrating FFW in the national calendar of events –  details in our July eNEWS!
  • On the international front the big news is that International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) and the UN/FAO will establish common priority themes for a collaborative work in the fight against hunger and food insecurity.  This is important because it allows direct communication at the highest level between governments and those working for Food Sovereignty at the grass roots. AFSA is both honoured and proud to be a member of the IPC, and we see this as part of the food sovereignty ‘pincer movement’.  Tackling food sovereignty issues at the grass roots and intergovernmental level simultaneously is something only an international collective of food sovereignty social movements can do with genuine authority.

So that’s all this month folks, together we are changing the world for the better, one meal at a time!

In solidarity,
Michael Croft

April President’s Message

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Michael Croft AFSA President
Michael Croft
AFSA President

As usual much has been happening for AFSA and on the food sovereignty front in Australia.

International Recognition

Nick Rose, our national co-ordinator, was asked to contribute to this article in The Guardian - and if you haven’t seen it, Nick’s piece for The Conversation is getting international recognition.

Food Sovereignty and Food Security

David Holmgren has some interesting things to say on food security and food sovereignty. His comments on food sovereignty are incomplete, so we have asked for a right of reply/clarification with the wonderful new PIP magazine where an abridged version of was published.

Fair Food Week 2014 Fair Food Week 2014

Planning is well underway for Fair Food Week 2014 and will be launched very soon. We have some exciting developments in the pipeline and you will be the first to know as soon as they are locked in.

Free Trade Deal with Japan

As you may be aware, Australia has signed a 'free trade deal' with Japan. As Japan is a net importer of food, the trade barriers and tariffs that Japan has in place are there to protect her own farmers and food sovereignty. If trade is meant to be mutually beneficial, how does the reduction in tariffs benefit Japanese farmers? It doesn’t. A very small minority of Australian farmers might benefit from this trade agreement, but the bulk of Japanese farmers will suffer. There is no mutuality or reciprocity in this trade agreement, other than the vague and untested assertion that “consumers will benefit”.

The benefits to Australia are touted as a reduction in car and electronics prices. I am sure you are aware, but most of the Japanese brands are made in other parts of Asia, so that benefit is marginal at best. And for this marginal benefit, and the boost in profits to a handful of Australian corporate exporters, we will damage the livelihoods of Japanese farmers, sending thousands of them to the wall. This is a narrow and selfish agreement designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many and food sovereignty.

Fair Trade Deal Japan

Whilst we are on the topic of 'free trade deals', we all need to be aware that the Trans Pacific Partnership is actively undermining the potential for food sovereignty in Australia. The ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) provisions allow foreign corporations the right to sue our national state and local governments for the potential loss of profits. The coalition government thinks this is a great ‘trade deal’ but the truth is it will grant every foreign corporation the right to sue Australia – just like we are being sued over the cigarette plain packaging laws by Phillip Morris under an obscure law found in a trade treaty with Hong Kong.

I cannot stress how serious a threat the TPP is to Australia’s sovereignty and food sovereignty. If you have not signed one of the petitions to prevent the TPP, I urge you to do it asap and get your friends to do so as well. The only reason the TPP will get passed is if we stand by and allow it – please get active on this issue!

Agriculture White Paper

The Australian Government has released the Agriculture White Paper for discussion. AFSA submitted our excellent People’s Food Plan in response. Needless to say the White Paper is all about exports and a productionist agenda and our holistic food sovereignty plan is superior in every area of our food systems impacts.

International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty

And lastly, a personal story, no matter how worldly wise we think we are, there is always something else to learn. One of the things I always try hard to do is to question my assumptions.

So there I was, November 2013 Brasilia, sitting in a meeting of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, and agreeing with all that was being said. Oligarchies were being dissected and lambasted, the issues the food system faces in Australia were the same the world over, and issues I knew from papers and articles were being confirmed first hand and in real time.

header_ipc_eng

I was happy, very happy. There I was, representing the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance and Oceania, surrounded by like-minded people from all over the world and charting the course of the international movements next steps. These people were speaking my language and I was luxuriating in that feeling of being at ease and with my tribe.

So on day 3 of another 12 hour day of meetings, I am giving great consideration and nodding in solidarity with the speaker from Latin America detailing the struggles of the landless peasants. To put this into perspective one woman who spoke had her husband, brother and son killed in the struggle for the land they had occupied for generations, now being acquired by corporations by force. This was and is literally a life and death struggle, something of which we in Australia are barely aware.

The meeting breaks for a much-needed coffee, I am pulled aside by one of the more experienced participants and asked in a serious, almost reprimanding tone, "What is it you disagree with? You have said nothing!" Enter cognitive dissonance! I thought I was showing agreement and solidarity with all that was being said in all of the meetings. How could my gentle smiling nodding and silent ascent be perceived to be anything but agreement?

Culture! Our cultural preferences and hierarchy of values were different. To the cultures steeped in an oral tradition, silence can mean disapproval. Silence is seen as withdrawal from the process and the ultimate condemnation. It didn't matter that I was in complete agreement, and that my body language said so, I had to speak up.

Day 4 of the meeting and it is coming to a close, I have started to say a few words of agreement, even when I didn’t think it was necessary and thought others had more to contribute. It remained surprisingly hard to overcome the Anglo cultural norm (assumption) that being quiet and attentive means respect. In the end I was asked to address the IPC on the food sovereignty situation in Australia and gave one of the thank you addresses to our wonderful hosts CONTAG. So it ended well despite the potential for cultural blocks and misunderstanding.

I am sharing this story with members as a reminder that we may well have cultural blind spots and assumptions that can hinder progress and understanding. This is particularly relevant to Australia with a great multicultural tradition and the oldest continuous indigenous nations on the planet.

In solidarity,
Michael Croft

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