Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

Media coverage: AFSA response to the National Food Plan

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Media coverage of AFSA's comment on the National Food Plan in the Age and the West Australian

Food plan forgets small growers: alliance

The West Australian and Age newspapers, via AAP, cover AFSA's statement issued on 24 May 2013 on the release of the National Food Plan White Paper.

AFSA spokesman Dr Nick Rose said there wasn't much in the plan for small-to-medium scale food businesses, which employ most Australians in the food sector.

[quote author="Nick Rose" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/afsa_129x129.png" w="" h="" image_align=""]We are looking for a National Food Plan that is fair to Australia's food consumers as well as to family and small-to-medium scale farmers and food processing businesses and their workers", he said in statement on Friday.[/quote]

AFSA said ensuring the health and wellbeing of consumers and Australia's environmental resources should have been top of the agenda for any economically viable and nutritious food system.

[quote author="" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/afsa_129x129.png" w="" h="" image_align=""]Dr Rose said it was positive to see the government finally recognise the role of the community food sector, but the $1.5 million in grants was at best a "token gesture". AFSA has encouraged the government to look again at the allocated funds, and consider including the informal and community sector into Australia's national food system.[/quote]

 

[button_link url="http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/national/17317201/food-plan-forgets-small-growers-alliance/" class="icon-globe" target="blank" background="#98CC66" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=""]Read West Australian article—Food Plan forgets small grower: alliance[/button_link]

 

[button_link url="http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/food-plan-forgets-small-growers-alliance-20130524-2k6ox.html" target="blank" background="#98CC66" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick=""]Read Age article—Food Plan forgets small grower: alliance[/button_link]

 

 

Food Sovereignty: A social movement for a fair food system

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In the April-May 2013 issue of Arena Magazine, AFSA National Co-ordinator Nick Rose discusses the importance of food sovereignty and the People's Food Plan process for Australia.

[quote author="" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Food_Sovereignty_banner1.jpg" w="125" h="125" image_align=""]AFSA’s research shows that most Australians want something different to a food system controlled by two giant supermarkets and a handful of other less visible mega-corporations such as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midlands. National opinion surveys carried out by the Australia Institute over the past year have found the following:

 

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  • 75 per cent of Australians believe levels of supermarket concentration are excessive
  • 86 per cent say supporting our farmers to grow more, and 62 per cent say ‘protecting our best farmland from mining interests and suburban sprawl’, should be in the top two measures for guaranteeing our food security (only 5 per cent say ‘import more basic foods’)
  • Over 90 per cent say it is ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important to them that we have a thriving farming
  • sector and small-to-medium sized food businesses
  • 85 per cent want ‘support for local and regional food systems’ to be in the top two priorities of a National Food Plan.

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[button_link url="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/N-Rose-Arena-April-2013.pdf" target="blank" background="#98CC66"  style="icon-circle-arrow-right" title="Arena article" class="" id="" onclick=""] Read the full article[/button_link]

 

People’s Food Plan Highlighted in ABC News Article Nov 2012

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A new blueprint for the nation's food production is calling for 80 per cent of all Australian food to be sourced and processed within 150 kilometres of consumption.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance represents some organic farmers, market networks, consumer and health groups.

It has released its draft People's Food Plan emphasizing the importance of local production and consumption.

 

Read the full article here.

 

 

The Draft National Food Plan: Putting Corporate Hunger First

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On 19 July AFSA President and family farmer Michael Croft, and national coordinator Nick Rose, published their critique of the green paper for Australia’s first National Food Plan. The article, entitled The Draft National Food Plan: Putting Corporate Hunger First, has been read over 5500 times, republished widely, and received supportive comments from expert critical commentators such as Dr Rosemary Stanton and Dr Julian Cribb.

The main argument advanced in the article, namely that the proposed National Food Plan represents a ‘business-as-usual’ plan to suit the needs of big agri-business, major retailers and commodity exporters, was further supported by the release in early August of a brief on the green paper by the Food Alliance. Amongst other serious shortcomings, the Food Alliance says that the Green Paper has “no effective plan for improved access to nutritious food or to deal with Australia’s growing obesity problem”; and that the focus on commodity exports “represents a plan to export the Western diet and associated chronic diseases to Asian countries whose healthcare systems are ill-equipped to cope with the effects”.

What’s needed instead is visionary and transformational change, which is what the People’s Food Plan process, being led by AFSA and supported by individuals and organisations around the country, is seeking to achieve.

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