Tag Archives: Bellingen

Corporate control of food, Food policy, National Food Plan, Uncategorized

National Food Plan and March Against Monsanto

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25 May 2013 – a significant Saturday

Two important events are taking place this Saturday, both emblematic of different visions for food and agriculture for food and agriculture in this country and globally.

First, at 8.30 a.m., the Federal Government is launching the final version of the country’s first-ever National Food Plan. This Plan was first mooted in 2010, in the run-up to the previous federal election.

As I have written previously in this column, the Plan has been widely criticised, both for its content and for the process of its development. While a full analysis will have to wait until we’ve had a chance to read through some of the detail, early indications are that not much has changed from the Green paper, released in July 2012.

In other words, the overwhelming priority and focus of the Plan is on pumping the land and farmers of Australia harder so that we can reach the supposed nirvana of becoming ‘the food bowl of Asia’. Never mind that even if we double production and export every last calorie we will only ever feed at best 4% of Asia’s population. Never mind that the land clearing and additional irrigation required will place severe additional stress on our already fragile and depleted soils, water tables and ecosystems.

And never mind that we have a major health crisis in this country that needs strong and effective action, not wishy-washy calls for ‘industry self-regulation’. Let’s say it plainly: our children need to be protected from the sophisticated and multi-billion dollar advertising of the junk food industry which pushes its products on them at every opportunity. But our Federal government is well and truly asleep at the wheel on this issue. As is the Opposition, for that matter.

We have heard one positive announcement coming out of the National Food Plan: the establishment of a $1.5mn small grants program for Community Food Initiatives. Grants of up to $25,000 will be available for farmers’ markets and food rescue operations; and grants of up to $10,000 for community gardens and city farms. We welcome this, as a small step in the right direction.

But on the whole, the National Food Plan is really a Plan for big business. For supporting and expanding the corporate control of the food system.

This is evident through its warm endorsement of genetically modified crops. The prime beneficiary of the further commercialisation of GM in Australia will be the company that owns an estimated 90% of all GM seed globally: Monsanto.

So perhaps it’s no coincidence that at 9 a.m. on this Saturday, an estimated 250 people will congregate in Bellingen’s Maam Gaduying Park (outside Council chambers) to take their part in a global day of protest against Monsanto. The Bellingen event is one of 10 across Australia, and 470 worldwide in 38 countries.

Whatever view one takes about GM organisms – and there are many legitimate and documented concerns about the impacts on human and environmental health – for me the principal issue is one of the excessive concentration of power and control. It is dangerous to allow one company to have large and growing control over the basis of our very existence.

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Power corrupts, so it is said. Monsanto wields its power with arrogance, pursuing 80-year old farmers to the point of bankruptcy through the US courts in order to enforce its patent rights, and prevent them saving seeds. WA canola farmer Steve Marsh lost his organic certification in 2010 when his neighbour’s GM canola contaminated two-thirds of his 478 ha farm, yet his claim to compensation for his losses through the WA courts is being vigorously contested. While supporting the GM grower, Monsanto has washed its hands of any legal responsibility via a ‘no liability’ clause attached to the sale of the seed.

And earlier this year, Monsanto made the most of its considerable political connections in the US, to secure the passage of what has become known as the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’, a provision anonymously inserted into an appropriations bill which grants biotech firms immunity from successful legal challenges to the safety of their seeds. In other words, it places them above the courts: a dangerous precedent indeed.

Anyone wanting to know more should make their way to Bellingen on Saturday morning.

advocate, Bellinger Valley, Collaborative cultures and networks, Food sovereignty, Permablitzes, Self-sufficiency

Making the suburbs edible – one backyard, one school, at a time

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Bellingen Primary School Permablitz, 2010
Bellingen Primary School Permablitz, 2010

Permablitz – what’s it all about?

Nick Rose

This article was first published in the Coffs Coast Advocate, 20.11.10

First there was ‘guerrilla gardening’. In the dead of night, hard core local food activists would surreptitiously sow brassicas, leafy greens and even the odd citrus tree on urban nature strips.

Now there’s ‘backyard blitzes’ or, more commonly, ‘permablitzes’. So what is it with all these psuedo-military metaphors to describe new variants on the gentle art of gardening for food?

According to the www.permablitz.net, a permablitz is “an informal gathering involving a day on which a group of people come together to achieve the following:

  • create or add to edible gardens where someone lives
  • share skills related to permaculture and sustainable living
  • build community networks
  • have fun.”

Permablitzes are the inspiration of Melbourne-based permaculture designer Dan Palmer and a South American community group. Since their beginning in 2006, over 100 permablitzes have been held throughout Melbourne, and now the movement is spreading across the rest of Australia.

Permablitzes are typically held in a private household, and indeed half a dozen permablitzes took place in people’s homes in and around Bellingen over the last 12 months.

The Coffs Coast Local Food Alliance however decided to expand the concept by working directly with local schools, using the design and labour-sharing that a permablitz offers to help schools construct a school garden or improve and expand upon an existing one.

And so the first LFA Permablitz was held last month at the Bellingen Public Primary School. Thirty-five enthusiastic volunteers – students, parents, teachers, and the principal, as well as friends and supporters – turned out to transform the bare lawn at the school’s entrance on William Street into a food oasis. The day was a fantastic success, and it was a sheer joy to be there and just experience how much a group of people working together to a shared goal based on an excellent design can achieve.

Boys with barrow, Bello Public Permablitz Oct 2010
Boys with barrow, Bello Public Permablitz Oct 2010

Relieving school Principal Elizabeth Mulligan spoke movingly of the ‘huge community spirit’ she witnessed on the day. “It’s just so good to see parents here with their children, also community members, with no attachment really to the school, but who have come to find out about permablitz”, she said. “And then people from organisations who are here to help us to learn about the whole procedure, and how it can be useful and good for us.”

The design was prepared by long-time permaculturalist, land-carer and market gardener Charlie Brennan, together with his son Bede, a former student of the primary school. Charlie celebrates the emergence of permablitz as a new wave of permaculture community activism.

The team - Bello Publc Permablitz, Oct 2010
The team – Bello Publc Permablitz, Oct 2010

“It’s great that permaculture has come back in again”, said Charlie. “For about 5-10 years I was really involved with permaculture here in town. We had a permaculture group, we had working bees, we had events like this – then it seemed to go quiet for a while – and now it’s back with a vengeance”, he added.

Liz Scott with students at the Bello Public Permablitz, Oct 2010
Liz Scott with students at the Bello Public Permablitz, Oct 2010

The next LFA permablitz will be held in Boambee on Saturday 4th December, at a private property. Anne, the host of this permablitz, also attended the Bellingen Primary event with her partner Tim. “We’re really keen to be involved and get some permaculture happening at our own place, so it was really good to come to the school and participate and learn, and meet other people’, Anne said.

Anne Montgomery's Permablitz, Boambee, before shot
Anne Montgomery’s Permablitz, Boambee, before shot
Anne Montgomery Permablitz, after shot
Anne Montgomery Permablitz, after shot
Anne Montgomery permablitz, the team
Anne Montgomery permablitz, the team
Anne Montgomery and daughter, enjoying the harvest
Anne Montgomery and daughter, enjoying the harvest

A short video of the permablitz at Bellingen Primary, put together by local short-doco maker Mick Parker, can be viewed at the LFA website – http://coffscoastlocalfood.ning.com/.

advocate, Backyard Gardening, Bellinger Valley, Seed saving, Self-sufficiency

Seed saving – the foundation of a democratic food system

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Preserving the Genetic Base of Tomorrow’s Food – the Bellingen Seed Savers Network

Nick Rose

First published in the Coffs Coast Advocate, 6.11.10

If a system is going to endure long periods of time, i.e. be sustainable, then it has to be able to withstand external and internal shocks, i.e. it must be resilient.

Dealing with the lack of resilience in a globalised food system structured largely around the processed products of corn and soy is one of the biggest challenges we face.

A resilient system is diverse, and that’s why diversity – and diversification – are central to the transformation of the food and agricultural system that is now underway.

One manifestation of this transformation is the recovery of the traditional farmers’ practice of seed-saving. While an estimated 1.7 billion farmers still save their seed, they’re now supported by local and national seed-saving initiatives, such as the Navdanya project in Uttrakhand, Northern India. Founded in 1984 by Dr Vandana Shiva, Navdanya has conserved over 5000 crop varieties and set up 54 community seed banks in 16 Indian states. It’s also trained over half a million farmers in seed and food sovereignty, and sustainable agriculture.

In Australia, the Byron Bay-based Seed Savers Network was founded by Michel and Jude Fanton in 1986. The SSN website lists 76 local seed saver groups around the country, including in Coffs Harbour (CROPO), and the Bellingen Seed Savers Network (BSSN).

Established in 2008, the BSSN is coordinated by Irene Wallin. Irene, herself a relative late comer to food growing, fell into the role of coordinator almost by default, when the first volunteer for the job had to pull out.

Under Irene’s guidance, the group has prospered. It now has a ‘core’ of 30-35 members, and an email list of 150 people who want to stay informed of its activities. The members come from Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo, and Valla Beach, as well as the various valleys around Bellingen.

A key moment was when a number of keen and experienced local growers and gardeners joined the group – like Peter and Beryl Judd, from Dorrigo. They were able to supply a good stock of seed to share with the other members.

The Judds hosted one of the group’s first garden visits. “It was amazing”, says Irene. “[There were] huge, long rows of everything.”

When it comes to sustainable living, the first step is simply to begin. “You’ve got to make a start”, says Irene, “and we have. Here we are, two years later, and when I think about the number of seeds that we had to share with people at the Bellingen Plant Fair this time [September 2010], we’ve made really good progress.”

The group’s main focus is to collect and share seeds. “Our main objective is to get the seeds out and moving among the community”, says Irene. “The seeds we’re focusing on are edibles, and companion plants. It’s all to do with future food security”, she adds.

The loss of diversity in edible food crops is a real concern, and a key motivation for the group.

“You can look at the catalogues of the seed companies over time, and see how the seeds have just disappeared”, says Irene. “It’s the concern about the availability of food for everybody – it’s also about finding the varieties that will grow well here, and growing them, so they will adapt to the conditions.”

The visits to members’ gardens, and the informal sharing of seeds and knowledge that takes place during them, is the cornerstone of the group, and what has made it so popular.

“The host will talk about what’s working for them, and what problems they’re having, and how they’re overcoming them”, says Irene. “We all love being in one anothers’ gardens, it’s so interesting”, says Irene.

advocate, Bellinger Valley, Community gardening, Self-sufficiency

Herbal wisdom in a community garden

Recovering the Wisdom of the Herbs in a Community Garden

Nick Rose

This article first appeared in the Coffs Coast Advocate, 23.10.10

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When we think of sustainability, we think of the environment. Yet it’s personal sustainability – of our own health and well-being, mental as well as physical – that’s increasingly challenged by the nature and pace of modern life. According to some estimates, the incidence of major depression has increased 10-fold since 1945.

Without in any way denigrating the vital role that primary health care and pharmaceutical drugs play once we are ill, preventative health care is based, above all, on a healthy and balanced diet. Herbs, like parsely, basil, coriander and sage, are an essential part of that diet. These herbs don’t just add flavour to our food; they are full of beneficial nutritional – and medicinal – properties that augment our physical and mental health.

Then there is the huge diversity of the purely medicinal herbs. At the North Bank Road Community Garden in Bellingen, local resident Penny Burrows has been working hard on creating a diverse medicinal herb garden since February 2010. In a space about 6 metres square, she – with various helpers – has planted an astonishing range of medicinal herbs, from lavenders, thymes, echinacea, evening primrose, rosella and parsley to borage, motherwort, valerian, Californian poppy, tansy, mugwort, yarrow, mullein and angelica.

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Obtaining many of her seeds from a specialist supplier near Lismore and Eden seeds in Beechmont, Penny has propagated the vast majority of the herbs herself, with the help and generous donation of time and seeds of local permaculture expert Aleasa Williams. “It’s been incredibly satisfying to see [the plants] all the way through, from seeds to harvest, and now be drying the flowers, and making remedies”, says Penny.

The flowers Penny has been drying recently are chamomile and calendula, which is a popular remedy for wounds, rashes and various skin complaints. She is making a calendula salve at home, drying the flowers in a dehydrater and soaking them in almond oil, then mixing the product with beeswax.

“It’s really beautiful, and fantastic for insect bites and stings, and skin rashes for the kids – I’m always using it for that sort of thing”, says Penny. “[Also] as a tincture it’s great to put on cuts, scrapes and sores, [as] it has cleansing/ disinfectant properties.”

Nearly all the herbs are multifunctional. Take borage, for example. Borage, says Penny, “is a good adrenal tonic – the classic saying is, ‘Borage for Courage’ .” It can be taken – like most of the herbs – as an infusion, using either fresh or dried leaves.

Then there’s chamomile, which “is really good for calming and soothing, and one of the reasons for that is because it’s quite high in calcium”, says Penny. She adds, “People [also] take it for cold and flu symptoms, [and] pain relief – it’s [also] great for the digestive system.”

Recently planted in the garden is the common herb sage. This herb has a reputation for enhancing mental acuity. It is an excellent gargle for colds, and is good for breastfeeding mums who want to cut back on their supply of breastmilk. Then there are herbs which stimulate the supply of breastmilk, like thyme, fenugreek, and cumin. And those herbs have other properties: thyme is good for sore throats and coughs; fenugreek helps with respiratory complaints and is also a nitrogren-fixing legume; and cumin is both a digestive tonic and is also a remedy for colds.

A lifelong gardener since her late teens, this is the first opportunity Peny’s had to really dedicate herself to growing herbs. “One of the things I love about this garden is that I have the luxury to grow the herbs because other people grow the food.”

Penny’s motivation, she says, is to create a diverse root stock of medicinal herbs for the area, sharing the knowledge and the benefits.

““[I want to] make sure that all these herbs are growing and available to us in this area. So many of the medicinal herbs used in Australia are imported.”

“The other thing about the herb garden which I really love is just the effect it has on people. Being involved in the gardening process is a therapy of its own”, says Penny. “Even if they’re not involved in the hands-on growing, just being here and hanging out – it’s a beautiful place to be, whether you’re involved in the gardening or not.”