Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

“Victoria’s War on Sustainable Agriculture” – Blogpost by Ant Wilson

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Ant Wilson wrote this blogpost about the hostile planning and regulation environment Victorian farmers are dealing with at the moment. Ant is a future farmer who has spent the past year volunteering on a number of different small farms to learn the ropes, with great hope of getting into farming himself.

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Small scale pastured pig and poultry farmers in Victoria are at the centre of a potentially devastating shit-storm this week with the anticompetitive actions of one of two remaining private poultry abattoirs and the release of the draft changes to planning regulations.

Many small scale pig and poultry farmers in Victoria are the leaders in sustainable agriculture and often aim not only to produce ethical meat sustainably, but to produce it in a way that regenerates the environment. This style of animal husbandry is exemplified by a small scale, low stocking density, mobile infrastructure, diversified production, localised markets, ethical treatment of animals, nutrient cycling and maintenance of pasture year round. The meat produced in these systems has a high nutrition value, is devoid of questionable chemicals, and has unique terroir subtleties.

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These values are in stark contrast to intensive animal production that bows at the altars of mass production, standardisation, sterility, centralisation and export. These systems are hidden from public scrutiny for good reason – they drain resources, impact heavily on the environment, they stink and are an eyesore. These large scale permanent shed based systems reduce the lives of animals to ‘production units’ and lament the effects on revenue when they die. These systems attempt to play god by replacing the intricacies of pastured meat production with a cocktail of GM feed, mineral supplements and antibiotics. (For more info on the pork you buy in supermarkets click here).

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In a move that seems to suggest corruption and collusion between state government and corporate ag, planning regulations have been drafted that further enable intensive systems and continue to sink small scale farmers in a quagmire of bureaucracy. The changes are detailed but in simple terms they will:

  • Allow an intensive poultry farm to open a new range for up to 150,000 chickens without any of the restrictions placed on a farmer with 500 chickens.
  • Treat a pastured producer with 500 birds the same as an intensive producer with 500,000 birds in sheds.
  • Enforce 100m buffer zones from neighbouring dwellings on pastured poultry farmers with up to 450 birds and pastured pig farmers with up to about 80 pigs – rendering it actually impossible for some farmers with land that may be less than 200m wide. (To give some perspective, a minimum of 600 birds and 100pigs is usually required for viable small scale systems).
  • Allow an intensive cattle feedlot with less than 1000 cattle to be built with no buffer zone and no permits.

Basically, the Planning for Sustainable Animal Industries (PSAI) appears to have largely ignored the recommendations of the Animal Industry Advisory Commission (AIAC). Even if the PSAI had payed attention to the AIAC, there was zero representation for the small scale pig and poultry farming community. As a prominent ethical pig farmer and president of Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), which is fast becoming the voice of regenerative farmers (since the Victorian Farmers Federation(VFF) is showing its own signs of vested interests and corruption), Tammi Jonas nominated herself to be part of the Implementation Reference Group but was rejected.

To rub salt in the wounds, private abattoir Golden Poultry has recently shut its doors (the day before processing day) to small scale producers. This leaves ONLY ONE option for these farmers across Victoria – which means many famers will be hanging on by a thread while others will be forced to end their efforts to regenerate the Australian landscape through ethical animal husbandry. Private abattoirs have become nigh impossible to operate in Australia (and in other Westernised countries) as a result of centralised corporatised factory farming, and the state government continues to support these systems over the healthy resilient localised alternative. There is a string of other negative effects of factory farming but thats another blog post!

If you’d like to support small scale farmers (like I hope to be one day) and the production of wholesome unadulterated food, become a member of AFSA and please email Jaala Pulford (Minister of agriculture) and Richard Wynn (Minister for Planning) to ask why small scale regenerative farmers are not being represented and why the new regulations are suppressing them and supporting corporate ag. Is it because they see ‘sustainability’ through an economic lens? Their details are included below.

jaala.pulford@parliament.vic.gov.au

richard.wynne@parliament.vic.gov.au

Instagram – #thisisnotintensive #pasturedpoultry #pasturedpigs #regenerativeag #ethicalpork #ethicalpoultry

 

(This post was reposted with permission from Ant from his blog "Future Farmer Ant")

Victorian Government Welcomes Feedlots and Rejects Free Range Pigs & Poultry

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The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) is deeply disappointed at substance of the proposed new planning provisions from the Victorian Government’s work on Planning for Sustainable Animal Industries. Despite our efforts to assist Agriculture Victoria and the relevant ministers in understanding the practical realities of small-scale livestock farmers, the draft graduated controls don’t appear to reduce red tape for small-scale commercial farmers, nor homesteaders or hobbyists, and yet they make it easier than ever before to set up a 1000-cattle feedlot.

“It’s completely bizarre,” said AFSA President Tammi Jonas, a small-scale pastured pig and cattle farmer from Victoria. “The proposed new controls would mean that farms like mine with 12 sows and 2 boars, so about 100 pigs on 10 hectares of our 28-hectare farm at any time, would have to apply for a permit just like those with 1,000 pigs in a shed, and yet the farmer next door could put up to 1,000 cattle in a feedlot right up to our fence line without a permit nor a buffer. Whose interest does this really serve?”

Under the proposed new provisions, a hobbyist poultry grower could have up to 200 birds without a permit, but a 50m setback from dwellings on another property would apply. The next level, allegedly designed to better enable low-risk small-scale pastured livestock production in the Farming Zone, only allows up to 450 birds and requires a 100m setback – a prohibitive requirement on smallholdings that may be only 100m wide in some cases. For pigs, the ‘streamlined application process’ would only apply to farms with up to 8 sows and 1 boar plus ‘only’ their progeny, ruling out buying in new breeding stock to maintain genetic diversity, a real concern for the heritage breeds movement.

“This is a system designed to encourage huge intensive poultry farms and make it much harder for small scale, sustainable farms. It means that small farmers will yet again have to wade through huge amounts of red-tape - just the same as large-scale intensive farms. It’s just not viable,” exclaimed award-winning pastured poultry farmer Bruce Burton of Milking Yard Farm.

Small-scale farms would now become classified as Broiler Farms and be subject to the Victorian Code for Broiler Farms 2009. This means small growers with 500 broiler chickens spread across 20 hectares will be treated the same as farms with 500,000 birds in sheds.

The scheme fails to take account of the stocking density.

The scheme allows large intensive shed farms to add free range outdoor areas without any restrictions at all. It allows these farms to add 150,000 chickens to a range area without any of the restrictions placed on a small farmer with 500 chickens.

AFSA met with Agriculture Victoria prior to the public release and conducted a survey of small-scale livestock growers, sharing the 80 responses with the Department that showed how out of touch the stocking rates for streamlined applications were. We highlighted the regenerative practices many of these farms pride themselves on, such as frequent moves of animals, mobile housing and feed infrastructure, and a focus on maintaining pasture year round.

We are mystified at how poorly the draft planning provisions acknowledge the actual risks to environment and amenity presented by our members’ farms. The proposal to allow cattle feedlots of up to 1,000 cattle in the Farming Zone without a permit nor a setback from neighbours, while 100 pigs or 450 poultry in highly mobile systems trigger the notice and review process, suggests that there may not merely be ignorance of small-scale farming systems, but something more sinister at play.

We call on Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford and Minister for Planning Richard Wynne to explain why small-scale pastured pig and poultry farms are to be subjected to greater scrutiny and compliance costs than cattle feedlots, instead of being treated under the law like other grazing systems that rely on supplemental feed such as the majority of Victorian beef and dairy cattle.

Contact:

Tammi Jonas, President

president@afsa.org.au

0422 429 362

 

Joel Salatin at Jonai Farms Event Recap and Next Steps

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Words by Tammi Jonas

Photos by Linsey Rendell

Photo by Linsey Rendell
Joel Salatin (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

 

Over 450 people gathered at Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths in the central highlands of Victoria to hear the high priest of the pasture Joel Salatin (Polyface Farm) wax evangelical about the bizarre world we live in where a local, small-scale family farm is considered ‘risky’ while big industrialised food production hidden from the public eye carries on uninhibited by a perverse regulatory system.

 

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Tammi and Costa (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Tammi and Costa (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

 

Joel was joined by Australia’s beloved promoter of all things fair food Costa Georgiadis (ABC Gardening Australia), and a range of farmers who’ve been affected by unfair and scale-inappropriate regulation and planning schemes. Chair of Fair Food Farmers United Tammi Jonas (Jonai Farms) and her husband Stuart showed the crowds what farming can look like when it’s done with maximum concern for animals, ecology, farmers and eaters. AFSA President Sally Ruljancich called for a new ‘narrative of normalcy’ around small-scale regenerative farming.

 

Stuart Jonas (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Stuart Jonas (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Sally Ruljancich (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Sally Ruljancich (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Tammi Jonas (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Tammi Jonas (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

 

Joe & Antonia Gretschmann (Elgaar Farm) spoke of their two-year battle to get their licence back to produce the beautiful organic milk and dairy products for which they are famous well beyond their home state of Tasmania. Jo Stritch of Happy Valley Free Range shared her devastating story of falling foul of the outdated planning scheme that deems her small-scale free-range pig farm ‘intensive’, resulting in a forced relocation of her entire farm to another shire. And finally, Mark and Helen Tyler of Moo View Dairy brought the crowd to tears as Mark struggled to tell their story of the day the dairy regulator turned up to tell them that what they were doing was illegal and they had to stop providing fresh, clean milk to their herdshare community effective immediately. Footage of the talks have kindly been provided by Anna at the Australian Raw Milk Movement.

 

(Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Mark Tyler, Joe Gretschmann and Jo Stritch (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

 

Over $35,000 was raised on the day thanks to the generosity of the many farmers, makers, and volunteers who donated their time and beautiful produce in support of the AFSA Legal Defence Fund (LDF), established in 2016.

More than AUD$7,000 has already been distributed to three farms in critical need of support as regulators forced them to stop farming. A legal hotline that will provide urgent help to farmers is in the planning, and the next step is to collate the known regulatory and planning barriers and commence writing and lobbying for reformed, scale-appropriate legislation to support a food sovereign future where growers of ethical and ecologically-sound produce can thrive.

 

Ciderhouse String Band (Photo by Linsey Rendell)
Ciderhouse String Band (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

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The AFSA National Committee thanks:
Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths
Verde Provedores
Natasha Morgan
The Social Food Project
Sage Choice
Colin & Sally’s Organic Beef & Lamb
Red Beard Bakery
Angelica Organic Farm
Mt Franklin Organics
The Fermentary
Powlett St Ices
Danny’s Farm
Hepburn Mineral Water
Dr Chan’s Feeling Good Ferments
Captain’s Creek Organic
Holgate Brewhouse
The Cider House String Band
Costa
Matt Wilkinson
Daniel Zetah
Leif Bloomer
Donal Whelan
Jacqueline Bender
Ruby Scott
Andrew Stone
Vivien Yii
Julian Fang
Simone Luijckx
Serenity Hill
Sam Rogers
Clara Rogers
Kat Munksgaard
Paul Chapman
Mara Ripani
Mara Macs
Fiona Briers
Will Hughes
Lisa Heenan
Darren Doherty
Alejandro Coronoa
Audrey Thomas
Meg Lobb
Ruth Morris
Linsey Rendell
Emily Whyman
Penny Kothe
Jessica Donham

And of course a very special thanks to the tireless heretic farmer Joel Salatin!

 

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Joel Salatin (Photo by Linsey Rendell)

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Joel Salatin at Jonai Farms – 26 February 2017!

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The world’s most innovative farmer, Joel Salatin is back in Australia!

What would our food system look like if small scale regenerative farms were the norm?

Find out with renowned American farmer and author Joel Salatin, Costa Georgiadis from ABC’s Gardening Australia and Tammi and Stuart Jonas of Jonai Farms, leaders in the Australian agrarian movement - on Sunday 26 February 2017 at Jonai Farms, Eganstown Victoria.

“The time to defend the growing movement of small-scale food producers has come.” – Tammi Jonas, Jonai Farms

A Rare Opportunity

Master of ceremonies Costa Georgiadis will guide you through this wonderfully stimulating, thought provoking, and uncommonly delicious day.

  • Be inspired and spurred into action by stories from Joel Salatin, Tammi Jonas and a host of other amazing farmers, who are working hard to build a food system that is fair to all.
  • Hear from Sally Ruljancich, President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance about how community-supported agriculture (CSA) is growing in Australia and reconnecting people to the land their food comes from, and how farmers and eaters can work together to grow this solidarity economy in Australia.
  • Listen to powerful stories from small-scale farmers who have been negatively impacted by unfair, inconsistent, or scale-inappropriate regulation and planning and have already received funding and support from the Legal Defence Fund.
  • See how farming with nature creates a beautiful and regenerative environment for soil, animals and people.
  • Tour the picturesque paddocks of Jonai Farms, where you will be greeted by happy pigs, contented cattle and cheeky chickens.
  • Explore the Jonai on-farm butcher’s shop and commercial curing room and find out why and how Jonai Farms stopped using purpose-grown grain and now divert tonnes of organic ‘waste’ from landfill to utilize as nutritious animal feed.

BOOK NOW

“Unfair, inconsistent regulations, illogical planning laws, a lack of transparency in labelling (including ingredients, GMOs and country of origin), food deserts, lack of food literacy - these issues abound. If we do not push back against the heavy-handed regulatory creep and erosion of our democratic rights as food eating citizens, we stand to further lose a genuine farming culture and supply of food which benefits us all.” -Sally Ruljancich, President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

“There's a short chain between field and fork, and the shorter that chain is - the fresher, the more transparent that system is - the less chance there is of anything from bio-terrorism to pathogenicity to spoilage.” – Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm

BOOK NOW

Sunday 26 February 2017 - 10:30am to 4:30pm

129 Morgantis Road, Eganstown VIC 3461

Proceeds from the day at will help fund the AFSA Legal Defence Fund.

Raise Money to Defend Small-Scale Ethical Farming

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance Legal Defence Fund – constituted to help make farms like Jonai Farms the norm.

The Legal Defence Fund (LDF) was established to defend and promote the right of producers to grow, process and sell ecologically-sound and ethical food directly to eaters, and to protect everybody’s right to access local, ethical, nutritious and delicious food directly from farmers.

Food producers are copping the full brunt of abuse of power by regulators.

The issues include:

  • Communities who want access to raw milk from local dairies;
  • Farms processing on-farm, facing unfair and inconsistent regulation;
  • Outdated and illogical definitions in local planning schemes that protect industrial agriculture, while perversely punishing small-scale family farms.

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