How we can make food fair with a Local Food Act for Victoria
As the saying goes ‘it’s been a long time between drinks’ – Well overdue, the prompt to get active with this blog again is this week’s second national Fair Food Week. It follows last year’s inaugural Fair Food Week, the idea for which came about after the successful nationwide consultations for the development of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance’s (AFSA) People’s Food Plan discussion paper.
To date there are more than 80 events organised and underway around the country with themes including: Beyond the trolley; Support your community fair food projects and groups; Grow our urban agriculture and Support gasfield-free communities.
Locally we have some great events – in Bendigo we have the annual Spring Fair at our local Old Church on the Hill community garden hub, where the proceeds will add to the funds for establishing a shared feast space and community kitchen.
In Harcourt the Mt Alexander Fruit Gardens folk are holding a free fruit-growing workshop.
We can make food access fairer with a Local Food Act. AFSA and the Food Alliance in Victoria have been lobbying for an Ontario-style Local Food Act for Victoria. Its objectives are:
• Support our food economy, our local farmers and food businesses
• Increase access to healthy and local food for all Victorians
• Provide healthy food education for Victoria’s children and youth
• Enhance ecosystems by supporting sustainable farming practices
• Protect our fertile food bowl regions and
• Connect people to food via funding for a wide range of food initiatives
And you can sign our change.org petition in support of action.
A substantial Victorian Local Food Fund, part of the Local Food Act advocacy, might support innovative local food initiatives such as:
• Local producers selling into local markets – ‘Farmers Markets / Food Hubs and Community Food Centres / on-farm diversification’ etc
• Urban agriculture and related initiatives
• Local Food Networks, education and food literacy initiatives
• Community food kitchens, Emergency Food Relief, financial assistance programs, fundraising events, social enterprise and other forms of food security empowerment initiatives
This investment can better support our local food farmers, create job opportunities and stimulate economic development, particularly in regional Victoria. Here in Bendigo the emphasis needs to be significantly focused on enabling people experiencing disadvantage to have improved access and availability of fresh and healthy produce. With a third of the community living below the poverty line the challenges of eating well are being discussed and solutions sought. Support for local producers and Local Community Food Initiatives can play a major role and will go a long way to achieving the goal of access to fresh and healthy food for all.
Want to learn more about what can be done to support people in need of emergency financial assistance? For further information and resources, check out this useful guide from GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/c/blog/emergency-financial-assistance.
Remember to stay tuned to our website for future updates about similar events that are designed to raise funds for people living in poverty.
Maison Bleue – a winter’s tale turned to spring
They say that the best laid plans often come unstuck, and so it has been at Maison Bleue this year thus far. Planned autumn gardening activities have become the winter catch up due to an ‘event’ that means we now have a large amount of floorboards and building materials that have provided a new ‘palace’ for The Girls (now minus one, unfortunately). It is not a lot of fun when random construction has to happen in your home, but as long as you use the best companies that can help you sort it out, like https://www.doorsplus.com.au/store-locator/melbourne-doors/, then you are okay on that end. Sporadic egg production has proved that we are indeed lucky with such beautiful eggs when they are on the lay, nothing else compares really. During my catch up period, I have been able to plant a lot more plants than I originally anticipated and even discovered some new beauties too, like the Mare’s tail pond plant. It seems like the unexpected accident has lead to some very good outcomes.
Honestly, I absolutely love buying new things for my garden. I actually get a lot of my gardening equipment from Home Depot. They have so many amazing things on the garden center section of their website. I could spend hours browsing through all the lovely landscaping supplies. Plus, the last time I placed an order, I even got a chance to use a home depot promo code that my friend had sent to me. Using promo codes is a fantastic way to save money when online shopping so I always try to use as many discounts as I can.
As for the crops in my garden though, the weather plus our absence meant a prolonged season of garden greens and late picking of the last of the beetroots and Tuscan kale. Since then, thanks to our WWOOFer Maria, who launched energetically into assisting with the renewal process and preparation of beds for winter plantings. The carrot seed I planted then has done so well that the thinnings are looking great in their mounded rows interspersed by the garlic. Spring plantings have seen us with a steady supply of salad pickings, including dandelions and fennel, so handy for the digestion. I have snuck in a few tomatoes, all the while watchful for the hasty cover-ups required when a frost is forecast.
The fun does not end there though. A few of our fruit trees are in desperate need of pruning so I think I am going to reach out to an arborist for some advice. I was speaking to a friend of mine about my trees the other day and he gave me the contact details for the best tree cutting company sydney has to offer. So, yes, watch this space. By the next time I share an update, our fruit trees might finally look a little tidier.
Anyway, hot on the heels of our unplanned house renovation was my two week soujourn in Timor Leste with CERES Global. Once more horticultural activities were to the fore and many discussions had with the locals about food growing in such a different climate. Its a poor country and the expected ‘hungry months’ each year when the food runs low led me to investigate their traditional food preservation practices.
As in Australia water is frequently the limiting factor when planning for food growing, whatever the scale. With predicted dry conditions looming at home, we are now looking to our watering system and a much larger provision for storm water capture from our block. Winter has allowed for planning so that now in spring we are in the process of The Backyard Pharmacy at Maison Bleue being less water hungry and vulnerable to the conditions to come.