Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

Declaration from the 2018 Food Sovereignty Convergence

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We representatives of small-scale farmers, fishers, agricultural workers, indigenous peoples, women, youth, eaters, and NGOs came together from across Australia to meet on the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal, Ngambri, and Ngarigu peoples, paying our respect to elders past and present. At the 2018 Food Sovereignty Convergence we celebrated the opportunity to meet each other to continue weaving alliances, building solidarity, and strengthening our commitment to defend our right to democratically participate in food and agriculture systems.

We recognise the Original Owners and their role in caring for this land for over 60,000 years, their long history of growing food in ethical and ecologically-sound ways, and their careful maintenance of biodiversity before and since Invasion. We re-affirm our support for the Uluru Statement from the heart, which asserts that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under their own laws and customs.

We affirmed our commitment to food sovereignty, which promotes everyone’s right to access culturally-appropriate and nutritious food grown and distributed in ethical and ecologically-sound ways, and our right to democratically determine our own food and agriculture systems.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) today celebrates an historical achievement as we unanimously voted to amend our constitution to make AFSA explicitly farmer led. While in practice we have for some years been an alliance of farmers and allies with a clear focus on radically transforming the food system from the ground up, the new constitution gives farmers control of decisions that have a material impact on their efforts to grow food ethically and ecologically. If you’re not a farmer, you must be an ally, and if you’re not an ally you have to ask yourself why not? AFSA’s farmers are not interested in the old silo mentality – we work in solidarity with the full range of other actors in the system for the radical transformation so desperately needed.

Agroecology is recognized by the UN as the best way to feed the world. In Australia, regenerative farming is on the rise, and AFSA hopes to support an evolving conversation that acknowledges agroecology’s potential to extend the movement’s progress on ecological improvements to farming to also include social and economic improvements embedded in the principles and practices of agroecology.

Small-scale farmers are struggling to maintain access to critical supply chain infrastructure that is owned by a shrinking number of corporations. AFSA is committed to supporting communities to take control of the means of production, and are helping farmers and allies to network and develop cooperative models to build supply chain infrastructure such as abattoirs, grain mills, and other collaborative processing and storage facilities. We see this work as essential to the project of building a new food system that will ultimately make the old one obsolete.

AFSA champions the work of leaders such as farmer and agrarian intellectual Charles Massy (author of Call of the Reed Warbler), who is supporting an underground insurgency of broadacre farmers transitioning to more regenerative and agroecological models of farming. We applaud the many farmers across the country who are developing practices that are creating resilient systems so needed in the face of the negative impacts of climate change. We extend a message of care and concern for the farmers suffering from the devastating impact of the current drought who are trapped in the industrial system, and hope they receive more than just bales of hay that don’t address the core issues with industrial production methods that have left them so vulnerable.

Solidarity is critical to any movement, and AFSA re-affirms our commitment to working productively with the many excellent organisations acting for food sovereignty in Australia and globally, such as but not limited to Open Food Network, the Right to Food Coalition, the Victorian Farmers’ Market Association, Melbourne Farmers Markets, Regrarians, Sustainable Table, Friends of the Earth, Food Connect, Gene Ethics, ActionAid, ORICoop, the many Slow Food convivia around the country, and internationally the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC), La Via Campesina, and Urgenci: the International Network for Community-Supported Agriculture.

We recognize the important role played by local councils in supporting their farmers, makers, and distributors of food, and commit to developing ‘ideal council guidelines’ to assist them with a food sovereignty framework to help guide their decision making around matters spanning from verge gardening to capturing rainwater for drinking to having animals on smallholdings and safely converting home kitchens to commercial kitchens for cottage industry.

On World Food Day we celebrated the recent UN Human Rights Council’s ratification of the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas. We bear witness to the Australian Government’s retrograde vote against the Declaration, an egregious undermining of the rights of the world’s most oppressed peoples who do the world’s most critical work to grow more than 70% of our food globally. The Declaration defines peasants as:

a man or woman of the land, who has a direct and special relationship with the land and nature through the production of food and/or other agricultural products. Peasants work the land themselves, rely above all on family labour and other small-scale forms of organizing labour. Peasants are traditionally embedded in their local communities and they take care of local landscapes and of agro-ecological systems. The term peasant can apply to any person engaged in agriculture, cattle-raising, pastoralism, handicrafts related to agriculture or a related occupation in a rural area. This includes Indigenous people working on the land.

The farmer members of AFSA identify with the definition of peasants as we work the land, caring for our agroecological systems embedded in our rural communities. We look forward to strengthening social relationships and opportunities for farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing with regular gatherings of ‘Peasants at the Pub’ across the country.

The movement is diverse, and we recognize the particular struggles some of our members experience because of discrimination or lack of recognition. We affirm our support for Indigenous Peoples, rural women and youth, and queer and gender diverse people, many of whom are leaders in the new farming movement.

The forces we’re struggling against may have the money, but we have the people. We’re looking for more food sovereignty warriors to help do the work before us – volunteers are essential to our ultimate success in radically transforming the food system. Whether you are good at writing letters and petitions, providing website support or graphic design skills, have legal experience or could help prune fruit trees to free up our committee members to take their activism off their farms and into the halls of power, the food sovereignty movement needs more people to get active in creating the future we wish to see.

We acknowledge the ecological devastation caused by industrial agriculture since European invasion, and commit to ongoing conversations with communities of Indigenous Peoples as we work towards deeper understanding and genuine relationships with the Original Owners. We are conscious of the risk of hollow acknowledgements of country, and commit to supporting our members to seek stronger ties to Indigenous communities and work towards a day where everything we do is in connection and mutual accountability with community.

All this and more we commit to in our struggle for food sovereignty locally and globally. We have again democratically elected a committee of farmers, food workers, educators, and academics to lead the important work ahead of us.

Viva la revolución! Viva la via campesina!

Statement from the National Committee of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

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Over the past two days the National Committee of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) met for our annual mid-year retreat, an important gathering where we come together to review progress and renew commitments to our work as active optimists in the local and global food sovereignty movement. We are farmers and allies from across Australia, all committed to working collectively to democratically determine our own food and agriculture systems, and for everyone’s right to nourishing and culturally-appropriate food produced in ethical and ecologically-sound ways.

We reviewed our strategies to continue working with state governments to reform the planning schemes to better enable small-scale agroecological farming. We celebrated our victories in Victoria, where we are nearing agreement on much-improved land use guidelines that acknowledge the lower risk of small-scale pastured livestock farming compared with our industrial intensive counterparts. We also celebrated the Victorian Government’s recognition of AFSA as the voice for small-scale farmers, and their public commitment to working with us, as well as to the new Artisanal Agriculture and Produce program launched by Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford at Cloud 9 Winery recently, which will provide $2 million in funding to support small-scale farms.

We also look forward to working more closely with the NSW State Government as they work through their planning reforms, and by participating in the upcoming hearings for the Parliamentary Inquiry into Fresh Food Pricing.

Internationally, we have been very busy with our comrades in the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC) at the General Assembly in South Africa in March, renewing our solidarity and global strategies to radically transform the food system. We were delighted to have the Director General of the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) request a copy of the 2015 book Fair Food, which has contributions from many of our current and former committee members, and his subsequent gracious expression of appreciation for our contributions at the Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Fiji in April. And we look forward to participating in the regional conference of La Via Campesina in Timor Leste at the end of July.

The Committee developed positions on the increasingly topical subjects of high tech food such as lab-grown meat and a sugar tax that we will test with all members at our annual Food Sovereignty Convergence in Canberra on 15/16 October 2018. We reject the productivist paradigm and specious ‘feed the world’ narratives from philanthrocapitalists such as Richard Branson and Bill Gates (and their partners – Cargill and Tyson – two of the biggest industrial meat producers in the world) that there is a need for technocratic solutions to technology-driven problems.

We renewed our strength to fight all undemocratic false solutions to the problems of industrial food systems, including the continued rise of genetic modification, and our commitment to promote seed sovereignty and water sovereignty for all.

The Committee discussed and lauded the efforts of small-scale livestock farmers across Australia who are taking control of the means of production and building micro-abattoirs to close the loop on the entirety of a highest welfare system of raising animals. From Queensland to Victoria, Tasmania to WA, farmers are building abattoirs on their farms and cooperatively in their regions to regain control of the value chain and ensure their animals are slaughtered in the most humane way possible.

Some of the AFSA National Committee members are today enroute to the annual gathering of small-scale agroecological farmers and allies – Deep Winter – where hundreds will come together to share knowledge farmer to farmer, and nourish each other as we feast on the collective bounty of delicious ethical and ecologically-sound produce.

We look forward to the second annual Slow Meat Australia Symposium to be held in Daylesford, Victoria again in September, where farmers, chefs, butchers and allies will discuss, debate, and devour the movement to help everyone eat better meat, less often.

The year will culminate with the fourth annual Food Sovereignty Convergence in Canberra on 15/16 October, where Australia’s leading activists will share their successes and failures, their worries and wishes, and again renew our commitment to working democratically towards a food sovereign future.

It is no longer enough to simply vote with your dollar, nor even to grow food ethically and ecologically. We must be more than connected to food production – there is so much at stake that we must collectivise, mobilise and act for the future we want to see and be. Join us!

Viva la revolución!

AFSA – response to the Turnbull government’s rejection of the The Uluru Statement from the Heart

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AFSA's national committee members were saddened to hear of the rejection of The Uluru Statement from the Heart, and as such, have released the following response. We believe the rejection of the report's findings is a step backwards for reconciliation with the Traditional Owners of this country. As Bruce Pascoe recently reminded us at the Food Sovereignty Convergence, conciliation will take time - people will get hurt, and it will be hard...but it is necessary. We reckon this would have been a pretty good start.

 

 

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) urges the Prime Minister to reconsider his response to the findings of the Final Report of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples.

The Uluru Statement from the Heart proposed the inclusion of Australia’s Traditional Owners’ voices via an Indigenous advisory body in parliament.

This body proposes to offer non-binding advice on relevant matters.

The outright rejection of this modest proposal is a step backwards for reconciliation, and disrespects both the people, and the process, which entailed a long period of consultation and collaboration among a broad cross-section of Indigenous Australian communities.

Top down approaches have failed to reverse the disadvantage of Indigenous Australians. National representation and self-determination are essential steps in moving beyond the gross injustices of the past.

As stewards of the land, our farmer members are endeavouring to work with the original owners of this country to create a more socially equitable and ecologically sustainable nation, and a truly food sovereign future.

Through AFSA’s ongoing engagement with the international organisation, La Via Campesina, we stand in strong solidarity with the global movement for recognition and inclusion of indigenous and First Nation Peoples everywhere, without whom there can be no true food sovereignty.

We support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognising “the urgent need to respect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples affirmed in treaties, agreements and other constructive arrangements with States”.

AFSA wishes to remind the parliament of the encouragement in the Declaration that “States comply with and effectively implement all their obligations as they apply to indigenous peoples under international instruments, in particular those related to human rights, in consultation and cooperation with the peoples concerned”.

We therefore implore the parliament to revisit its decision, and to begin implementation of the recommendations of this historic report and statement.

Fair Food is about Fair Work by Emma Kerin, National Union of Workers

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The Fair Food campaign is being run and led by workers in the fresh food supply chain who are members of the National Union of Workers (NUW).

Thousands of workers in warehouses that supply to the major supermarkets are long-time members of the NUW. As a result, it is common practice that workers in this section of the supply chain have access to safe workplaces, living wages and decent conditions.

Unfortunately this is not what we are seeing at large numbers of workplaces where workers are producing the fruit and vegetables that are transported through the supply chain to Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA Metcash.

The NUW is frequently confronted with small contractors who underpay, intimidate and steal from produce workers. At other very large facilities workers remain on the minimum wage without any chance to have a say about their pay and conditions, while the corporations they work directly for turn over millions every year and have a massive share in the market.

Workers are standing up and declaring things need to change. Workers in regional communities should have the right to decent jobs. From the glasshouse and packing shed, to the warehouses and cold stores and into the supermarkets, workers are organising for secure jobs to support their families and participate in their communities.

Up against the might and economic power of the two major supermarkets, many workers and producers understand that cooperation and support must underpin a new conversation about what is sustainable and what is fair.

Find out more about the Fair Food campaign for workers at http://www.fairfoodaustralia.org

Smart thinking can drive local food network in Beechworth

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By Jamie Kronborg. First published in the Ovens & Murray Advertiser, Beechworth, May 27, 2015.

WOORAGEE lamb producer Anne Stelling believes that it would take just a little co-operative smart thinking to work through some regulatory ‘roadblocks’ for the North East to develop a significant – and diverse – local food network.

Anne and her sister Fleur produce first cross lambs, geese, eggs and wine grapes on a 75-hectare farm north of Beechworth and have established a local market for their lamb. But it is a market stitched together with ingenuity that enables the family to maintain all of the benefits of ‘small’ in an industry traditionally geared to large-scale production.

The Stellings turn off 50-60 first-cross lambs a year – most of which are sold in the Corowa saleyards. But Anne has also worked hard to build a local market for their Suffolk-cross meat branded as ‘Weeping Grass Creek’ lamb.

Anne has drawn on Wangaratta abattoir’s willingness to kill small lots of a few animals and the skills of Beechworth’s Luke Whybrow to butcher each carcase to buyer requirements without breaching a strict food regulatory regime.

“I’ve been on this farm since 1997 and we started selling lamb direct to people probably eight years ago,” Anne said.

“It was just serendipity because we usually just breed them and take them off to market, down to Corowa in the trailer.

“My cousins came out one day from Albury for lunch and said: ‘How can we get some of this lamb?’ - and I said ‘Well, you can get it from me’.

“Then I thought there are probably other people who might like a farm contact so I told them if you know anyone else who wants some, then we can look at ways of supplying them.

“I’ve since been trialling all these ways of managing it, and that’s when I really started to get interested in local food.”

One of the challenges has been a regulation that prohibits the sale of meat directly from farmers to would-be customers.

Anne can sell only a live animal but has developed a local market for her lamb by arranging to have it slaughtered and butchered to her customer’s requirements.

“So I sell a live lamb but people pick them up in from the butcher in a box,” she said.

“(Luke) is very good and some people are quite particular about how they want their lamb cut up, or maybe they want it marinated, and he can do all of that – so that’s what we do.”

Anne’s development of an ‘order-by-email market’ enables her to arrange processing of just eight lambs because that’s the limit of the Whybrows’ butchery capacity. But it’s dependent on the willingness of the Wangaratta abattoir to slaughter small lots – and it’s also a potential risk to her developing business.

“I’ve got a philosophical bent towards producing and supplying local – and no doubt I could sell it in Melbourne, but it would be a big step up for me and probably I haven’t enough lambs to supply that anyway,” Anne said.

Australian agriculture in the past 50-60 years has not been geared to supplying a local market.

“It’s exactly the opposite. It’s all geared to this so-called ‘feeding the world’ and big agriculture and exports and economies of scale which make it quite difficult.

“But in other countries this happens.In Laos 86 per cent of food is provided by subsistence agriculture, which is local people feeding their families and village communities.

“So it’s not impossible. Yet it’s derided as subsistence and the question is asked: ‘Why would we want to do that?’”

Anne believes a strong local food market would certainly build local food security.

“I would really like to see local, state and federal governments give an equal focus to empowering local (food) networks, looking at it in terms of real food security and trying to set in place the systems that will help that rather than hinder it,” she says.

“I’d like to see how we could get some co-operative ownership of equipment, like an olive press – so people with three or four trees could have their fruit crushed – and if there was some way to have a mobile abattoir that would come to my place and we could process the lambs here and have it done by a butcher.

“Being able to have local multi-purpose, multi-species mobile or processing facilities close-by would be very helpful.”

 

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