The passage of another year. Time for some further reflections on professional milestones and global politics.

Professional milestones

2018 was another big year for me and Sustain. They have mostly been captured in Sustain’s 2018 Annual Report, but I want to mention some of the main ones here too.

2nd national Urban Agriculture Forum, 23-24 February 2018

Undertaking events is always a major commitment, and this was no exception. But it was certainly worth it. Over 200 people attended this event held at William Angliss, and the range of presentations demonstrated the wonderful scope and multi-dimensionality of urban agriculture. A significant gap still concerns political support, recognition and government resourcing for the growing of food in urban spaces, and there is much to be done here. Still, momentum is building strongly at local government level, and I feel it is only a matter of time before state governments are forced to acknowledge and fully support this growing sector.

Kitchen table talks for Cardinia Shire’s first-ever Community Food Strategy, February-May 2018

I am utterly convinced that a lack of democracy throughout society is one of the greatest issues facing us. From lack of effective action on climate change leading to ecosystem collapse, to the tolerance of grotesque levels of inequality in which a tiny fraction of humanity have captured for themselves vast amounts of wealth, our political decision-making prioritises the interests of big business over those of the mass of the population, and of non-human life. Indeed the political-economy is accurately characterised as oligarchic, and is actively preventing us from taking the necessary decisions and actions to avert collapse, a dynamic that Kevin McKay describes and analyses very well in is book, Radical Transformation: Oligarchy, Collapse and the Crisis of Civilization. That is why, if we are working to transform the food system, we must simultaneously democratise it. And that is why this process we led in as part of the Cardinia Food Movement, as partial and imperfect as it was, constituted in my view such an important step in engaging with over 500 residents about their views and priorities for a better food system.

Initiation of the Melbourne Food Hub

Following on from a visioning day held in May 2017 with 50 representatives from 43 organisations, and then a successful application to the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation for an Innovation

grant, we launched the Melbourne Food Hub in Alphington as a joint venture with Melbourne Farmers Markets in mid-May 2018.

The first six months was a period of planning and laying foundations, for the construction of an above-ground urban farm, a community and commercial farm, and a food distribution business. Significant progress was made in 2018 with the launch of the well-attended Alphington Farmers Market and the securing of funding to run a Food Business Boost program supporting migrant women realise their food business aspirations.

3rd National New Economy Network Conference

I am a big fan of Michelle Maloney and her amazing energy and dedication to the cause of ecological and social justice, first through the establishment of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance and more recently with the establishment of the New Economy Network Australia (NENA).  So it was a pleasure and privilege to work with her and the rest of the NENA team in co-hosting the 3rd NENA national conference at William Angliss Institute in Melbourne. We had over 200 attendees on all three days and it was packed program that was intellectually stimulating and politically satisfying. I was especially pleased to have food systems and food sovereignty embedded as a key theme throughout the program, with great contributions from Eric Holt-Gimenez, Charles Levkoe and Jose Luis Vivero Pol amongst many others.

Global politics

With the benefit of hindsight and distance, 2018 was a year of relative stasis compared to the social and ecological explosions that are now unfolding towards the end of 2019 (which I will cover in another post). It was a year of continued consolidation of the far-right globally, with the election of the authoritarian Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, and the explicit incorporation of xenophobia into domestic politics in the US with the attacks on migrants from Mexico and and Central America, and the hardening of the southern border. The Brexit crisis rumbled on in the UK. Conflicts in Syria and Yemen continued, with the Syrian government consolidating its grip on power as it gradually gained the upper hand in its battles with US-backed hardline Islamists in the north.