Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

MEDIA RELEASE: Australia’s first Slow Meat Symposium! Daylesford 3-5 September 2017

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MEDIA RELEASE
Date of release: Tuesday 1/8/17

Australia’s First Slow Meat Symposium in Daylesford 3-5 September 2017

The Slow Meat mantra is 'eat better meat, less'. Australia’s first Slow Meat Symposium will bring together supporters, enablers, and enactors of the Slow Meat philosophy to discuss and debate all things around the ethical and ecologically-sound production and consumption of meat. Farmers, butchers, chefs, restaurateurs, retailers, administrators, and anyone interested in how animals are raised for meat are welcome.

The Slow Meat Symposium will be held in Daylesford 3-4 September 2017, with farm visits, butchery and cooking demos, feasts, and of course stimulating plenaries, and debates around how to progress the slow meat and food sovereignty agendas in Australia and globally.

There is an optional extra day (5 September) for the many farmers across Australia keen to see a revival of regional abattoirs in the face of steadily declining access to processing for small-scale, pastured livestock farms, led by international guest Amanda Carter, owner of Cool Hand Meats and operator of North Carolina leading small-scale poultry abattoir Foothills Pilot Plant.

The 2017 Slow Meat Symposium is a collaboration between Slow Food Central Highlands and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA).

Matthew Evans, host of SBS’s Gourmet Farmer and For the Love of Meat, and author of nine books on food, will present his vision for a slow meat future at the Symposium.

River Cottage Australia’s Paul West will MC the main day, and discussions around the ethics & ecological impact of the production and processing of meat will be led by local regenerative livestock farmer and butcher Tammi Jonas of Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths, and purveyor of ethically-raised meats Grant Hilliard of Sydney’s acclaimed butcher’s shop Feather & Bone.

Gary Thomas, Leader of the Slow Food Central Highlands Convivium, has said, “Slow Meat is a philosophy for living now, and a vision for the future. The Slow Meat Symposium with AFSA will be an exciting and positive exchange of what we are doing, and how we can do it better”.

AFSA Interim President Tammi Jonas said, “AFSA is delighted to host this event with Slow Food Central Highlands. We welcome the opportunity to gather people and have serious & delicious discussions around the ethics & ecological impacts of producing & consuming meat."

Those interested can register at: https://www.trybooking.com/QYPQ

Contact:           Tammi Jonas - President, AFSA 0422 429 362

Gary Thomas – Convenor, Slow Food Central Highlands 0448 483 616

MEDIA RELEASE: Education, Not Impulsive Legislation, Required in Dairy Industry

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Rowen Carter who runs Huon Valley Caravan Park, risks losing his family business because the Tasmanian Dairy Industry Authority (TDIA), considers fresh milk tasting, as part of the farm stay, an illegal activity. (ABC News, 11 November).

Hopeful, Mr Carter today met with the Member for Franklin, Nic Street and Acting Chairman of the Tasmanian Dairy Industry Authority (TDIA), Mark Sayer. At the meeting, it was explained to Mr Carter, that even sharing raw milk with friends at his own kitchen table would be in breach of the Act, because even though he would not be 'selling' raw milk, he would still be 'distributing' it.

"I can legally allow you to sit at my dining room table and offer you a can of coke and a cigarette but I am unable to offer you a glass of fresh (raw) milk and a scone with clotted cream."

"How can you put your argument across when there is no room for negotiation? The bottom line is the government think they have the right to take away your freedom of choice," said Mr Carter.

This comes on the back of a difficult period faced by Vicki Jones from Mountain View Organic Dairy. In 2014 Labor Minister Jane Garrett and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services made an impulsive decision to taint unpasteurised milk in response to an investigation into the death of a toddler, as a result of suspected E-coli.

Initial media reporting censured Mountain View Organic Dairy, however, recent Coroner’s report findings (24 October, 2016), appear to have softened the public reproach and found no fault with Mountain View.

Vicki Jones from Mountain View Organic Dairy said, “Our heart went out to the family involved because the situation would have been unbearable. However, we followed government regulation to the letter and were not found at fault by the Coroner’s investigation.

“Unfortunately, the government and Minister Garrett did more than taint the taste of unpasteurised milk, they tainted the reputation of our business by failing to work with us or support us during this difficult period,” said Ms Jones.

Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) President Sally Ruljancich asks, “Why do governing bodies continually shift responsibility onto producers? What has happened to the consumers’ right to choose and the responsibility of government to educate consumers?”

“Decisions like these by government do not have the interests of consumers or local farmers at heart. Instead heavy-handed legislation means the government can simply shut down situations that otherwise might require proactive action. Because that is easier than working with us, to empower consumers and assist them making informed purchasing decisions.”

“We support a renewed conversation between raw milk producers, raw milk drinkers and the government. Raw milk is consumed safely around the world; what is needed is safe, fair regulation, otherwise the raw milk drinking community will continue to exercise their choices in an unregulated market,” said Ms Ruljancich.

Celebrity Chef and star of River Cottage Australia Paul West is a vigilant campaigner for local producers, and asks government for further industry support.

“Our local food industry needs backing from governing bodies to assist consumers to make informed decisions, not impetuous reaction that threatens to foreclose local agribusiness,” said Mr West.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance has been running a campaign to raise funds for a Legal Defence Fund to protect farmers’ and eaters’ right to determine their own food and agriculture systems. To find out more visit: afsa.org.au

 

Contact:

 

Sally Ruljancich

President, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Ph: 0404 490 035

 

Tammi Jonas

Legal Defence Fund

Ph: 0422 429 362

Farmer, activist & chef to join forces for Fair Food Campaign

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Chef Guy Grossi, farmer and president of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance Tammi Jonas, farmers market founder Miranda Sharp and Fair Food editor and campaigner Dr Nick Rose will join forces on February 13 for a live forum in Melbourne titled “Beyond the Supermarket: fair food in a disconnected system”.

The forum is being presented as part of the Sustainable Living Festival's Big Weekend to celebrate the launch of Pip Permaculture Magazine's “Fair Food” issue which explores the campaign for food sovereignty in Australia and beyond.

“We live in the age of the supermarket duopoly and yet we see people flocking to farmers markets and community gardens, yearning for a stronger connection to their food,” said Dr Rose.

“We're seeing our movement gaining momentum each year, and this forum will bring together some really fantastic people, with a wide variety of perspectives to discuss how we can transform our food systems into a fair one for eaters, growers, processors and makers.”

“We have chef Guy Grossi, who will bring us the perspective of business and the food industry, which is huge in Melbourne. We'll have Tammi Jonas, from her crowd-funded farm just outside of Daylesford bringing her perspective as a producer and Miranda Sharp from Melbourne Farmers Market will bring us perspectives from the consumers and growers who frequent her events.”

“We're really excited to be devoting an issue of our magazine to the campaign for fair food championed by Nick Rose and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance,” said Pip Permaculture founding publisher Robyn Rosenfeldt.

“Fair food is integral to what Permaculture is all about. Our three central permaculture ethics of fair share for everyone, earth care for our environment and people care for our society as a whole are really embodied by the fair food campaign.”

“Our fair food edition explores in depth the issues within the food system as well as larger systemic solutions, and down-to-earth change you can make in your own backyard by growing your own food, all of which will be really intresting to discuss at the forum,” she said.

Beyond the Supermarket: fair food in a disconnected system will be presented by Pip Permaculture Magazine and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance to celebrate the launch of the Pip #5 Fair Food issue and will be held at the Sustainable Living Festival in "The Shed", Birrung Mar, 13 February 2016, 3pm.

For media enquiries contact: Maude Farrugia maude@pipmagazine.com.au 0417303389

Fair Food: Stories from a Movement Changing the World

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Reviewed by Jennifer Richards
We all need stories and narratives to help us make sense of the world. Fair Food is a collection of the personal stories of regular people who live out the change they want to see in the world around them. It is the primer for anyone wanting to jump into Australia’s Fair Food movement. Edited by AFSA’s National Coordinator, Nick Rose, it operates as the handbook to the food sovereignty movement in this country.

It outlines how the seed of an idea, if watered by imagination, hard work and lots of long conversations over lunch, can grow into a movement for social change.

At a glance it outlines both the players who have brought the food sovereignty movement to the place it is now and their collective and individual achievements.

After enthusiastic forewords by chef Guy Grossi and concerned eater/Rugby player David Pocock, Rose allows each individual to tell their own story in their own words. It is the breadth of experience in these pages that is inspiring. Farmers, academics, home-makers, eaters, policy-makers and permaculturalists fill these pages with their own variations on a common theme: A realization that there is something desperately wrong with the food system then a determination to forge a path to change it in their own way.

The stories document both the hardship and hope involved in the little steps that make up the larger movement. Inaugural AFSA president Michael Croft gives an account of stepping from his farm straight into the dizzying world of international food politics. Tammi Jonas charts her journey from a Twinkie-munching kid through politico-vegetarianism to her place as farmer, ‘activist omnivore’ and current AFSA president. Kristen Larson tells her story of becoming so disillusioned with the slow pace of change she broke out and started building open-source software resources to serve the greater goal of change. Carol Richards gives her perspective as an academic; Fran Murrell speaks as a GM campaigner; Cat Green is a radical homemaker passionate about her role in her community. Social entrepreneur Robert Pekin, permaculture expert Angelo Eliades and farmer Charles Massey are the other voices in this fair food chorale, the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts.

In his introduction Nick Rose makes the point that for many of these players food-activism is the place they choose to concentrate their efforts because it is an area where so many social inequities are present.

What they really want is wide-spread social change into a fairer, more equitable world.

While I love the optimism associated with this ideal, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the revolutionary aspect of this might limit the wider appeal of these stories. Do I have to, I wondered, follow Cat Green’s amazing example and roll my own oats and produce my own honey to be effective in bringing about change? Would that idea appeal to enough of the vast numbers of people who would need to change from mindless consumers to active food citizens to have a real impact on the system? Is there a middle ground I can emulate or does such compromise just reinforce the injustices of the system? Green certainly believes that it is impossible to be ethical in an unethical system and the majority of other writers have come to that conclusion too.

Fair Food demonstrates the impact that individuals can have when they are seen as part of the wider push for change. If you are looking for your path in food activism in this country or if you need a snapshot of the Australian Food Sovereignty movement, this book will provide both insight and inspiration.

Fair Food: Stories from the Movement Changing the World is published by University of Queensland Press. Available now.

Jennifer Richards writes about sustainable food, ethical eating and supermarket-free shopping at Beyondthetrolley.com

Winter ‘Woodstock’ heralds revolution in Australian agriculture

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Revolution was in the air last weekend at a remarkable gathering that ABC Gardening host Costa Georgiadis has coined ‘the Woodstock of Australian agriculture’.

The first Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering, held in the central highlands of Victoria, was attended by 150 farmers, connectors, communicators, educators and eaters collectively striving for a fair food system that operates in the best interests of producers and consumers.

To achieve their goal of developing truly integrated agroecological farming systems, they pledged to share resources and work together to support each other in diversifying their farms.

"The need to build a food system that includes true cost of farming – the social, ecological and regenerative costs of farming – has never been greater" said Robert Pekin, founder of Brisbane-based food enterprise, Food Connect.

The multiple dimensions of food production, distribution and connection addressed at the Gathering included the increasing incidence of ‘food fraud’ committed by some restaurants and providores.

Many farmers gave examples of their produce being named on menus of restaurants they were not currently supplying.

“Our efforts to maintain high welfare animal husbandry systems are being coopted by unscrupulous chefs or, in some cases, their suppliers” said Michele Lally of Savannah Lamb and Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) National Committee member.

“Accordingly, consumers who are aiming to make ethical choices and support the growth of the regenerative farming movement are also being duped.”

Producers called for solidarity in fighting fraudulent claims, and the burden of disabling regulations.

Food safety regulation, topical of late in Victoria where complaints by small producers and butchers have triggered a review of Victorian meat regulator PrimeSafe, was flagged as a major impediment to growing local food economies and rural communities.

Victorian producers face specific challenges as all other states and territories possess integrated food safety authorities.

“PrimeSafe has lost sight of its mission to support innovation in the industry. From all appearances, it only knows how to regulate Big Food, and is totally bewildered by the emerging fair food movement. It labeled small, transparent producers’ systems ‘novel supply chains’ in a recent consultation exercise” said Tammi Jonas, free-range pig farmer, butcher and President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA).

“A regulator that thinks it is ‘novel’ to sell food directly to people and allegedly more risky than long, industrial supply chains has lost sight of where the real risks to food safety are,” said Jonas.

Poultry farmers also expressed concerns over the narrow options available to them in processing their products. Many indicated their willingness to work with government authorities to build acceptance of safe, on-farm micro abattoirs such as that at Southampton Homestead in Western Australia.

Labour on farms was identified as another critical issue that concerns not only affordable wages and fair conditions but the need to ‘grow the next generation of growers’ in rapidly ageing rural communities, where the average age of the Australian farmer is 52.

The Gathering highlighted the role of connectors or ‘ethical middleman’ throughout the food system such as Open Food Network, Food Connect, co-operatives and farmers’ markets.

These innovative, community-building ventures were celebrated as promising alternatives to the systemic disconnection embodied by the duopoly of Coles & Woolworths (‘Colesworth’) which dominates 80 per cent of the grocery retail market in Australia.

In facing the challenges of developing a fairer food system those who attended the inaugural Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering demonstrated a spirit of optimism, engendered by the deeply practical work they do every day to connect people to fair food in their communities.

Paulette Whitney of Provenance Growers in Tasmania summed it up this way. “I've come home with knowledge, ideas and inspiration, and best of all with some incredible, true new friends, but most of all I've come home with a fire in my belly to fight the paradigm that says efficiency is dollars per acre, when for me it's health, happiness, and good land stewardship that is true efficiency. ”

Contact: Tammi Jonas, AFSA President 0422 429 362

‪Tweet: #‎winteragrarian ‬‬‬‬‬‪#‎deepwinter2015‬‬‬‬‬

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