Growing Change

There’s a new plan for change for Australia’s food system and its based in community…here’s Growing Change’s ten ideas for food policy

As momentum and interest grows for communities to participate in decisions around what food they are to eat and how it is produced, the issue of Why we need to change the food system is being discussed at a range of forums around the country. These are in response to the Australian Government’s National Food Plan process, which has seen a discussion policy draft, a green paper and several community consultations. Unfortunately the enthusiastic response in submissions from a range of community and research interests were not acknowledged in the green paper and as a result the idea for a democratic, inclusive process to formulate a People’ Food Plan was born.

Inspired by the process used by the People’s Food Plan project in Canada to formulate their Resetting the Table policy document, a draft discussion paper has been compiled by the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance to initiate discussion about the values, principles and best practice of a plan for our food system that has everyone’s interests at heart, and not just industry. As Costa Georgiadis says in his foreword to the discussion paper, ‘Food is the one activity that brings us all together’.

One intention is for the forums to provide the impetus for Kitchen Table Talks around the country over the next few months, and the ideas generated and discussed will feed into the People’s Food Plan to be further developed early in 2013.

Drawing on the excellent Canadian work, Growing Change has a vision of forward-thinking policy for the food system that contains the following 10 points:

1. Work with the whole community to create a vision of a sustainable, resilient, and healthy food and farming system locally that celebrates local foods and diverse food cultures

2. Support and protect current ecologically sustainable food sources, such as good culture, subsidizing growers of locally distributed and consumed seasonal fresh produce.

3. Support people’s rights as citizens entitled to a nutritious diet, with all community members actively participating in key decisions that affect the food system and in tackling excessive concentrations of corporate power at key points in Australia’s food system

4. Develop regional food strategies overseen by a Minister of Food and Local Food Policy Councils

5. Audit land suitable for food production and protect peri-urban land from development for food production

6. Reconfigure existing infrastructure in empty housing, neighbourhood and community centres, schools and churches and utilise railway and state owned land to establish Community Food Centres, organising these in regional food clusters that provide employment and training

7. Fund a national peak body for the community food sector or a Centre of Excellence in Food Systems Research, focused on agro-ecological approaches to food production and integrated food systems functioning, to provide support for proactive multi-purpose food projects and approaches to making communities more self reliant at maintaining and developing food systems that address food and nutrition issues in the community

8. Enhance climate change and food literacy in the whole community, schools and adults via curriculum development and funded national programs

9. Invest in skills development of a new generation of food producers and re-skill farmers in the transition to expanded agro-ecological production with a living wage, that re-integrates environmental priorities into production decisions

10. Implement food production, processing and trading processes that reduce waste and develop innovative methods of nutrient reuse eg. Large-scale compost production facilities with associated energy production. This could also include investing in food processing equipment such as Reindeer Machinery flour mills with a low environmental impact and no wastage. To learn more about the benefits of using Reindeer Machinery flour mills, go to: https://www.reindeermachinery.com/flour-mill-atta-chakki-manufacturers/.

Change does require courage and strength and focusing on food is the fuel to drive that change. Being part of a conversation about what we want from our food system provides communities with opportunities to participate in transformation needed for a sustainable food future.

Who would have thought that in the new millenium all things to do with food would become cool? Growing, preparing, sharing and writing about it. Plus a new generation of foodenistas have welcomed a lifestyle with a lighter footprint. However, beyond the modern, youthful and emblematic ‘Eco-frugalist’ way of life there lies a deeper concern. One yearning for connection, sustenance and wellbeing, driven by a deep conviction that a changing climate will see an end to much that a consumerist society takes for granted.

While this social evolution has captured the imagination of a growing section of our community, new opportunities are needed for those less well resourced, those experiencing some sort of disadvantage, to tap into this food-focused revolution. Turning the tide of modern day physical and mental maladies, we are increasingly discovering, requires tools. These tools for change are present in our communities and are available to everyone. Take, for instance, the quick ability to find cooking lessons using a website similar to CocuSocial for a class you’d be interested in, with the food you’d enjoy, as well as bringing the community together!

They take the form of unused infrastructure in places such as community and neighbourhood houses and churches. These spaces are steadily becoming repurposed as Community Food Centres, with great examples such as The Stop in Canada, recreating community through the power of food.

Possibilities for community activity abound where there is space to establish a garden for the community to grow food, sell it at a market, swap it, collect and swap seeds, create a compost or raise chickens. It involves better use of kitchens where food rescue groups can redistribute fresh food and people can come together to learn to cook, preserve and share it around a communal table. And language is no barrier when it comes to food. Its a place where everyone has a right to a place at the table.

Its a place where kids can spend time after school in the garden or kitchen and those with spare hours, but not spare cash can connect, learn, be inspired, find services, and make friends. Social enterprise also has a home in a location where inspiration and hope drive creative ways to learn and earn through food.

By creating space for a just, sustainable and healthy food system Community Food Centres can be the greatest investment in preventative medicine a government, large or small, can make. All it needs is some enthusiasm for new possibilities, collaboration, an available location and the kick start of funding. These food hubs for healthy eating can become a source of community pride, an example for planners, and part of the fabric of a more resilient and equitable society, one where prevention of illness and the driver for wellbeing occurs via community connection.

The increasing community interest in food systems is often attributed to concerns about climate change. Questions such as Local food – an environment for change? are becoming evermore common. Research is now Connecting the Global Climate Change and Public Health Agendas and aiming at encouraging and enabling people to eat healthier, locally produced foodstuffs claimed to deliver individual health benefits and reduce climate impacts of the modern food system.

The future modeling regarding climate change in Australia and its impact on availability of healthy foods is highlighted in the Our Uncashed Dividend report by the Climate and Health Alliance claiming that ‘the biggest healthcare challenges today, and the greatest drains on the public purse, are preventable chronic diseases associated with carbon-intensive lifestyles’. In the report’s chapter on Eating our way to better health (and a safer climate) the rapid worldwide growth in meat consumption is said to be driving greenhouse gas emissions growth and contributing to the incidence of obesity. Moderating consumption of meat and dairy products is recommended as one way of lowering the incidence of obesity. The economic benefits, plus the health and environmental benefits of cutting emissions in the agricultural sector will require researchers to look beyond economics to locate the potential health benefits of such action.

The development of a national strategy for health in relation to climate change would not only affect health risks of obesity but also promote health via emissions reductions. A preventative health public policy response that incorporates food system issues such as the production and distribution of foods locally, in order to mitigate climate changing greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints would be an integrated strategy across areas such as transport, and the broader food, agriculture and land use sectors.

Some countries have been leading the way in fertilizing innovations in the food system. The US Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program  precedent of national funding for community food initiatives makes community food grants available for proactive multi-purpose food projects and approaches to making communities more self reliant at maintaining and developing food systems that address food and nutrition issues in the community. Projects are funded from between $10,000-$300,000 for a period of 1 to 3 years. This support enables outcomes that can further the goal of healthy eating, while at the same time addressing issues surrounding climate change and the sustainability of the food system.

What a stroke of genius – health, environmental and economic benefits all in one – what an opportunity for this example to be replicated in Australia. The question is – who has the courage to show the leadership to make it a possibility? The Australian food growing sector is not only interested, but has working prototypes of every style and scale of local food growing initiative currently operational and gathering huge community support. In addition the number of people who have trained in permaculture, urban agriculture, social enterprise, production horticulture and biodynamic farming is both a skills bank and a workforce in waiting. And the research capacity is sitting in our institutions, largely underutilized, with the ability to drive a refreshed research agenda for a positive food future for Australia. All it will take is a coordination of effort with funding of a peak body to coordinate a government investment in preventative health for a revitalized food system with a resilient food future as its focus.

It used to be the norm. According to our grandparents the backyard garden and neighbourly food exchanges were a part of our way of life. Click through to the twenty first century to a different everyday scenario. The connection with homegrown and unspoiled an alien notion, replaced by the easy convenience of drive thorough supermarket pickups and homes built without kitchens. The pace of modern life has been an endorsement of clever and speedy food solutions.

Then something began to change. What was the trigger? Did we get sick of the tasteless flavour of forced tomatoes? Did climate change concerns overwhelm convenience? Or was it just a longing for a simpler way of life, better connected to community and friends? Were these all reasons people now consider Why we need to change the food system?

People the world over are returning to favouring local foods. It is a movement that is at once cool and useful. Who doesn’t benefit from local food producers keeping control over the quality and identity of their produce, and making a fair income? New marketing channels have opened up, fed by those who enjoy not only the fresh and tasty quality local produce of farmers markets, but the community contact and social connectedness that springs from seeing the person who has grown your dinner or provided you with the elements to do so?

Those who dig further into the issues around the food system claim that the preference for local food over the industrialised food system, whose products grace the supermarket shelves, helps the local small retailer and local economy. http://sustainableagriculture.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/market-forces-report.pdf

Then there are the perceived health benefits of ‘just picked’ and chemical free produce and interactions with those with dirt under their fingernails.

Those who don’t profit are those who operate with a different strategy, focused on trade and volume sales.

Returning to the benefit question and we see the startling arguments mounted by the Australian Farm Institute (AFI), who are asking  Will locavores destroy the planet?  Indeed the fact that enthusiasm for local food production has been conflated with being a locavore does not deter those who would try to argue based on flawed assumptions that the future will look much the same as the past, that farm incomes will be higher when more food is produced and that the benefits need to be prioritised towards large agribusiness and retailing corporations. Spending on increased access to fresh local food production is a minnow compared with global food trade figures, yet is described as a risk that could cause a national retreat from globalised agriculture markets.

It is indeed difficult to understand how nations who have avoided major famines over the years are said to be those who have embraced the globalised, industrialised, internationally-traded food system and reduced their reliance on local food as the AFI argue. Additionally they claim that policies that foster local food systems, while at the same time restricting new technologies like genetically modified foods, the health impacts of which are unproven in the longer term, are much more likely to do more harm than good. How so? I would like to ask. How so when to date the touted ‘greatest success stories of humanity’ of industrialised agriculture have produced a generation so obese they may be the first not to outlive their parents? What if a quadruple bottom line decision making considered not only economic outcomes for food business, but also health, social and environmental considerations for the planet? Would that destroy the planet?

Seeing cherries from the US for sale in July reminded me of the folly of eating foods just because we can, not because they are locally ripe and tasty. It is a modern phenomenon that neglects the real cost of produce flown in from another country, where the social, health and environmental impacts are not counted. I guarantee they don’t compare with the cherries famous in our family’s collective memory, the ‘popping’ cherries, bought in Young on one long gone summer holiday.

This year our seasonal harvest in Northern Victoria has once more gone wrong. TV news recently showed the tragedy besetting farmers in the Riverina with footage of tonnes of oranges being dumped from a processing plant, uneconomical for the juicing market and further reports of 30 tonne a day being discarded elsewhere. By rough estimate those 30 tonne of oranges alone have enough Vitamin C to provide the recommended daily intake and seasonal immune enhancement for over 20,000 people.

Cherries and oranges, both examples of the failures of a free market responsible for their being sought after or forsaken and indicative of Why we need to change the food system. Dumping so much fresh produce is wrong on many levels and what is also clear is the disrespect for farmers. Where drought and financial difficulty reigned over the last decade, those resilient enough to continue their citrus farming are now paying the price.

It is a shameful addition to the estimated household food waste of over $5 billion/ year in Australia  https://www.tai.org.au/index.php?q=node%2F19&pubid=696&act=display That doesn’t include the waste from produce that never reaches the distribution networks, such as the orange fiasco, the misshapen bananas and crooked carrots that consumers will supposedly reject and additionally what the supermarkets throw out.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation’s recent report Global Food Losses and Food Waste http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e00.pdf explains the difference between pre and post farm gate waste.

The difference between loss and waste is that food loss takes place at production, post-harvest and processing stages of the food supply chain. Waste refers to the end of the food chain, the retailers and buyers’ behaviour. The report reveals that one third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally.

Globally the wealthier countries have a higher level of waste and the poorer countries have greater food losses.  However, climate change and food security issues will eventually force solutions to this situation to emerge.

Waste of the resources used to grow food, particularly water, is difficult to justify, http://www.environment.gov.au/wastepolicy/publications/pubs/food-waste.pdf In addition, waste of resources used in food production brings with it the problem of emissions caused by production of food lost or wasted.

So how can we better make use of what is currently lost? If food losses could be reduced there is potential to affect the entire food system. Laying the framework for the sustainable food system of the future the production, distribution and marketing of food will, by necessity and with community input, require change.

Local community innovation is often the answer, with enterprising people like Eric Wright and the Nangiloc PS’s idea to sell oranges as fundraisers as an alternative to the chocolate drive  http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/article/2012/07/07/506045_farm-news.html Now at nearby Sunny Cliffs PS the students are starting a business selling oranges.

This could be a case study of the benefits of seasonal food. The story of oranges brings the opportunity to illustrate how seasonal and locally grown food taste better, costs less when in plentiful supply and has higher nutrient levels than produce harvested prior to ripening naturally. Then there is the story of reducing emissions from food going to landfill and the wasted water and other resources used to produce the food.

There is a resurgence of interest in the preserving of seasonal produce as those of a new generation appreciate its value and those of an older generation reprise lost arts. How many ways can one preserve an orange’s goodness? Could this case study be seen by social entrepreneurs as a ‘juicy opportunity’ to perhaps create a market for the forsaken oranges and bring a bit of Riverina sunshine into the homes of communities who don’t have access to the wonders of citrus? What needs to change to prevent this waste happening in future?

This is the first in my blogs about Why we need to change the food system. The signs are many that there is a growing change in attitudes to the food system. Research just published for the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance undertaken by the Australia Institute backs that up with 53% of the community surveyed growing or raising some of their own food. Of those around 60% have begun doing so in the past 5 years and 20% in the past year. To read the full report Awareness of Food Security Amongst the Australian Adult Population go to http://australian.foodsovereigntyalliance.org/blog/2012/07/02/australia-needs-a-food-literacy-campaign/

The reasons for this new food growing movement and interest in Local Community Food Initiatives, sometimes described as Urban Agriculture, are numerous and underline the need for food literacy to explain its importance and to demystify food security and access issues in Australia. This will be the subject of future blogs. Watch this space.