permaculture Archives - Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

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

January 23, 2016 by Alana Mann

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

Will anti-Islam link discredit Permaculture?

December 28, 2014 by Russ Grayson

Story by Russ Grayson, December 2014

A Northern NSW "permaculture farmer" calling for a boycott of halal foods and linked with an alleged far-right anti-Islamic group could bring the permaculture design system into disrepute if her beliefs are taken to be representative of permaculture.

Her move to force the costs of certifying food as halal, suitable for Moslems to eat, onto Moslems and the partially successful moves to force food companies to drop halal certification should alarm food sovereignty advocates as it reduces people's control over the food they eat by limiting their freedom of choice.

Her name is Kirralie Smith and her story was carried by the Sydney Morning Herald online on 28 December this year.

The Herald lead describes Kirralie as " …a permaculture farmer from northern New South Wales and a mother of three. She is also the public face of the virulent campaign to boycott halal food and products."

[pull_quote align="right"]We aim to Not buy halal products & services, because they fund Islamic expansion by any means[/pull_quote]

It continues: " …Smith's Facebook page Boycott Halal in Australia has 41,000 supporters. She speaks at events organised by 'Islam-critical' groups such as the Q Society, which has also been involved in local campaigns to stop mosques being built. Her Halal Choices website, she says, gets 80,000 visitors a month."

Boycott Halal in Australia says in its 'about' column's general information that: "We aim to Not buy halal products & services, because they fund Islamic expansion by any means" (punctuation reported as is).

A 27 December posting on the group's Facebook seeks to disassociate itself from Kirralie: Another article - Why halal certification is in turmoil... with lots of information from our Page - but again the False Assumption that Kirralie Smith is involved here at Boycott Halal - which she is not & she is as flabbergasted as we are by this Media confusion.

"Note that Kirralie Smith is behind the very informative HALAL CHOICES website and is featured in the excellent Q Society Video about Halal Certification which we often feature... but she is not involved here at Boycott Halal."

[pull_quote align="right"]Businesses themselves have to accept the blame for any loss and can only bring themselves discredit by choosing to be bullied by the anti-Islam lobbyists[/pull_quote]

The Herald article describes how the anti-halal movement applies pressure on Australian food companies to drop halal certification, a move successful in one instance but resisted by other food companies. A 21 November article in New Matilda this year reported that the Byron Bay Cookie Company was hounded about its halal certified Anzac cookies and that South Australia's Fleurieu Milk and Yogurt Company was forced to back out of a contract to supply Emirates airline.

There are implications in this strategy for Australian food exporters. Businesses themselves have to accept the blame for any loss and can only bring themselves discredit by choosing to be bullied by the anti-Islam lobbyists rather than stand up to them in a public way that focuses attention on the Islamophobe's tactics and agenda.

Halal foods are certified as appropriate for Moslems just as kosher foods are certified for consumption by Jews. The article goes on to discuss the halal certification process and controversies within it.

Kirralie, who has a BA in theology, says halal certification imposes costs on food for all Australians and constitutes a religious tax. She wants the Corporations Act 2001 changed so that only Moslems bear the cost of halal certification. In an October 2012 article entitled Is Halal Funding Terrorism? on australianchristians.com.au, Kirralie says that money paid for halal certification is used, partially or in whole, for the push for sharia law (the Islamic legal code) in Australia. Yet, she doesn't link the cost of certifying kosher foods to overall food prices, nor that of certifying organic foods (although that would not constitute the alleged religious tax).

[pull_quote align="right"]…certification is a "scam" to raise money for building mosques and, by implication, for funding jihad…[/pull_quote]

Kirralie alleges that halal certification is a "scam" to raise money for building mosques and, by implication, for funding jihad. The Q Society video linked to her website says that halal certification was not traditionally required of Moslems in past times and is now a means to make money.

The Herald reported that the Australian Crime Commission had found no links between the legitimate halal certification industry and the financing of terrorist organisations.

The Q Society, with which Kirralie is linked, describes itself on its website as anti-Islamic — the words are the heading of one of the website's drop-down menus. Click it, and you find this: "For too long Islam has enjoyed immunity from necessary analysis, due criticism and debate because of its status as 'just a religion'. Unfortunately, if we continue to tolerate Islam without understanding it, Australia as a free, secular democracy will be lost…".

The Society also warns against "…the systematic Islamisation of our schools in textbooks, curriculum, tuck shops, uniforms and installation of parallel rules". It describes itself as a not-for-profit "civil rights organisation… to inform Australians about Islam".

A not-always-friendly media

The Q Society and Kirralie have received extensive media coverage and for groups like them coverage is good news because it gets their messages to people who otherwise they might not be able to reach. Even when the coverage is critical, which is what much of it has been, it exposes their ideas to people predestined to think like they do and who are confused about Islamic immigration and the links between a small number of Islamic organisations and combatant, insurgent organisations like Dash/ISIS/Islamic State.

The Age newspaper on 23 June 2014, in an article entitled Far-right group spreading anti-mosque message in Bendigo, disclosed that the Society was behind the campaign against the building of a mosque in the Victorian city.

In an 26 June 2014 article on news.com entitled Revealed: The secretive Q Society’s battle against Islam, the Q society was described this way: "THEY are a group of 'concerned citizens', but are very hesitant to say who they really are. If you want to go to one of their meetings, you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

"Their only address is a PO Box in suburban Melbourne. They won’t say exactly where their money comes from and say they never will. And they are very opposed to Islam in Australia. The secretive organisation known as the Q Society has this week been linked to a noisy campaign to stop the construction of a mosque in Bendigo, Victoria."

Media coverage presents a dilemma because it exposes organisations and individuals to people ready to hear and act on their messages while meeting the media responsiblity to report on the activity of such groups. The dilemma came to public notice with the controversy over the BBC giving equal time to climate change deniers as to majority scientific opinion. The result was that the deniers were perceived to represent significant public opinion and that their argument was as valid as that of scientists warning against further climate change although the science demonstrated otherwise.

This distorts the context and proportionality of contending ideas and organisations around issues. It stems from established journalistic practices around fairness, however it ignores the reality that small groups do not represent significant public opinion. It works in favour of organisations like the Q Society.

A challenge to permaculture's reputation

Permaculture is a practice with a broad range of participants. There are Greens supporters, Labor supporters and — who knows? — even Liberal supporters. There are people from the different flavours of Left and the Right and those who seek a better way than adherence to tired, Twentieth Century ideologies. There are Christians, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, Jews and — yes, Moslems too (perhaps the most prominent being the Permaculture Research Institute's educators and consultants, Geoff and Nadia Lawton).

So it should come as no surprise that a whole range of beliefs and attitudes are present within the permaculture design milieu. What has been absent however, are those actively engaged with fringe political groups who publicly identify as permaculture practitioners. It is this that creates the difficulty with Kirralie's association with anti-Islam organisations.

[pull_quote align="right"]By late December other media had picked up on the Herald story and in most of the online links the word 'permaculture' appears in association with Kirralie's name[/pull_quote]

As an Australian living in a democracy, Kirralie has freedom of association, including with small political groups of dubious intention. She also has her freedom to express what she thinks, including about the halal industry and Islam. Sure, that will offend some but in a democracy where you can say what you like without resorting to hate speech, you're bound to offend someone, somewhere. Offence is part of democracy.

Kirralie's being linked with permaculture risks the design system being associated with her personal beliefs and anti-Islamic activities. By late December other media had picked up on the Herald story and in most of the online links the word 'permaculture' appears with Kirralie's name. It may be assumed that her beliefs reflect those within the permaculture milieu and it is this that has potential to discredit the design system. Kirralie's Pinterest presence has a page on permaculture gardening.

Another issue is that pressuring food manufacturers to drop halal certification would reduce freedom of choice for those seeking those foods. That would be of concern to Australia's food sovereignty advocates such as the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance that advocate people's control over their food systems. So too should Islamophobic bullying of Australian food businesses.

The incident also raises the question as to how seriously permaculture practitioners, and Kirralie, take the Second Ethic of permaculture that talks about care of people. Can you really care for the wellbeing of people if you seek to remove the certification of the food they choose to eat?

Food sovereignty and permaculture: A reply to David Holmgren

May 10, 2014 by Nick Rose

Story by Dr Nick Rose, National Coordinator, Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, 10 May 2014

In the first issue of pip Australian Permaculture Magazine, the co-originator of permaculture, David Holmgren wrote about food sovereignty, and the role permaculture can and does play in achieving it.

David’s vision of a permaculture-inspired food secure and food sovereign-future for Australia, made manifest in the abundance of food growing, gleaning, harvesting and sharing throughout our towns, cities and rural areas, is one I entirely embrace and fervently desire. Permaculture is a leading and essential element of the wider movement for food sovereignty in this country and beyond. Food sovereignty as a social and political movement now embraces in the order of 300 million people across 80 countries in every continent, led by the small farmers and indigenous peoples organisation La Via Campesina.

Food sovereignty, David writes, is about the "right to produce one’s own food in one’s own territory"; and hence the role of permaculture in providing a set of design principles and ethical practices that can make this right a reality. This partly captures what food sovereignty is about, but it doesn’t tell the full story.

The essence of food sovereignty

The essence of food sovereignty is the assertion of the collective right of communities and peoples to democratically make and implement the key decisions about their food and farming systems. Those decisions include critical questions such as:

Who owns the farmland?
What types of food, fibre and livestock are to be grown?
What types of production and land management methods should be used?
Into what markets, and under what conditions, will those products be sold?
What prices are the farmers entitled to?

These are structural and systemic questions that go well beyond the right of individuals to produce their own food, important though that is. They raise fundamental matters about who holds power in the food system, how it is exercised and for whose benefit.

In asking such questions, food sovereignty also makes the claim that it is an unacceptable outrage that close to a billion people continue to experience hunger and malnutrition in a world where as much as 40% of all food produced is wasted. Equally, it is an outrage that we are witnessing a pandemic of dietary-related ill-health linked to the rampant expansion of a processed and global junk food industry.

Food sovereignty asks why are these things happening, and what can be done about it. As to the first question, most democratic checks and balances have been abandoned in favour of letting the ‘free market’ make all the key decisions. In practice, this is a recipe for the unrestrained rule of a very small number of powerful corporations. The system’s overriding imperative is the making of money, not feeding all people well or stewardship of the land and ecosystems.

What can be done

In terms of what can be done, food sovereignty claims that the power of these corporations must be named and confronted. At the same time, work must begin to take back increasing portions of the food and farming system into local control and ownership, and to support production systems that care for the land and enhance its fertility, rather than degrade it.

That is why food sovereignty, like permaculture, is about food localisation and agro-ecology. It is about protecting farmland for future generations, from competing land uses such as suburban sprawl and coal-seam gas fracking. It is about fair prices for farmers, and ensuring that everyone, regardless of their income, has access to good and healthy food at all times.

This is why the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) was formed in 2010. This is the agenda we have set forth in the Peoples Food Plan, developed in 40 forums with 600 people during September-December 2012. It is why we are now campaigning for Local Food Acts in Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and other states, learning from the experience of the local food and food sovereignty movement in North America and elsewhere.

A natural affinity between permaculture and food sovereignty

There is, as David suggests, a natural affinity between permaculture and food sovereignty. The opportunity in Australia is to develop that affinity into a powerful and coherent narrative and movement for transformative change, which we all know is the challenge and calling of our times.

Fair Food Week - an opportunity for permaculturalists

From October 10 -19 this year, AFSA is co-ordinating Australia’s second Fair Food Week. Like International Permaculture Day, this is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of individuals and communities who are engaged in so many ways in the necessary work of creating a fair and sustainable food system.

Last year, 112 events were held around the country with more than 15,000 people participating.

We encourage all permaculturalists to consider holding events and activities during that period, to let the country know that the new story of food is being written and lived.

Interested in reading the longer article?

For those who are interested, I have discussed the issues that David raises in his Food for Thought article, as well as some related material from his earlier Crash on Demand paper, in a longer piece of writing that can be accessed here:

[button_link url="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Holmgren-Reply-N-Rose.pdf" target=“blank" style="" title="" class="" id="" onclick="”]Download pdf document — David Holmgren story — reply by Nick Rose[/button_link]

Green Dean Reads Poetry to Chooks! And gives generously to AFSA…

January 31, 2014 by Nick Rose

Here is a report from AFSA Committee member Dr Carol Richards, who attended the permaculture workshop run by Brisbane-based permaculturalist, nutritionist, urban farmer and cook, Green Dean, for the benefit of AFSA, in November 2013.

[quote author="Green Dean" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Green-Dean-2.jpg" w="180" h="180" image_align="right"]I’ve been working in the green scene, health and wellbeing, and personal development fields for over 20 years. I love being part of the positive change happening in the world now, and encouraging everyone I can to get on board and be part this exciting change to make the world a better place through urban farming, growing good food and empowering community.[/quote]

[button_link url="http://greendean.com.au/green/" target="" background="#98CC66" style="" title="" id="" onclick=""] To read more about his work, visit the website [/button_link]

Green Dean presenting Dr Carol Richards, AFSA Committee member, with a cheque for $550

Green Dean 2 — Green Dean reading poetry to the chooks - and don't they look happy!

Green Dean 1 — Workshop attendees learning about all the good things chook poo does for the

[quote author="Carol Richards" image="http://afsa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Carol-Richards_original.jpg" w="180" h="180" image_align="right"]

I attended Green Dean's crop swap this morning and gave a presentation about AFSA and Food Sovereignty. There was around a dozen or so people there who were really keen to learn about AFSA. At the end of the presentation, Dean, presented me with $550 cash as an AFSA donation - which he raised through the permaculture workshop a few weeks ago.

Thanks again Dean, this is a generous contribution and will go toward strengthening and extending AFSA's activities!

[/quote]