Tag Archives: Food hubs

2018 reflections

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

Bruce Pascoe in conversation with Ben Shewry, 2018 Urban Agriculture Forum

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

Alphington Food Hub Vision – Image courtesy Kirsty Moegerlein

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

NENA 2018 – Image courtesy of Russ Grayson

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.

In the era of Trump

More than a year has passed since I last wrote here. What a year, professionally and in terms of global politics.

Cardinia Food Circles, courtesy of Kirsty Moegerlein

Professional milestones

  • 21 January 2016: Sustain: The Australian Food Network becomes incorporated as a company limited by guarantee
  • March 2016: Sustain secures funding from the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation for three years, effectively covering my role as Executive Director for 2 days a week
  • April 2016: Sustain secures funding from the Myer Foundation for capacity building, supporting a) the establishment of an Australian Food Systems Directory b) the holding of an inaugural Urban Agriculture Forum c) the holding of the 21st Symposium of Australian Gastronomy d) the recruitment of a part-time comms officer and e) governance training for our Board and myself
  • May 2016: We complete the Food Hub Feasibility Study for Wangaratta, the second such study after the 2015 Bendigo Food Hub Feasibility Study
  • June 2016: Study trip to Canada to attend the Canadian Food Hubs Conference and meet with food organisations in Quebec
  • June-July 2016: Preparation for the inaugural Australian Community Food Hubs conference and tour
  • August 8-18 2016: Community Food Hubs conference and tour successfully conducted with 170 attending the two-day Bendigo event and a further 800+ attending events around the country
  • September 2016: Planning begins for the national Urban Agriculture Forum and the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy
  • October 2016: Contract signed for a multi-year food system re-design project: Cardinia Food Circles.  The first and most ambitious project of its type attempted so far as we know.
  • November 2016: The Urban Agriculture Forum takes place in Melbourne with 150 attendees, followed by events in Bendigo, Adelaide and Sydney. Cardinia Food Circles project gets underway
  • December 2016: 21st Symposium of Australian Gastronomy takes place in Melbourne, with 140 attendees, over four days of debates and feasting. The background mapping of the Cardinia Food System takes place
  • January 2017: We pause a little for breath…Discussions begin for the Alphington Community Food Hub
  • February 2017: The Australian Food Systems Directory is launched. The Bendigo Local Food Economy pilot report is launched.
  • March 2017: The Sustain / VLGA food governance position paper is finalised, articulating  the role of local government across health and wellbeing, planning, and economic development
  • April 2017: The Cardinia Food Systems profiling workshops are held in Koo Wee Rup, Pakenham and Gembrook, generating debate and passion about the current state and future possibilities of Cardinia’s food system. The Food Hub Feasibility Study for the Wyndham Food Hub is finalised and delivered to the City of Wyndham
Koo Wee Rup food system profile, courtesy of Kirsty Moegerlein

And so much more still to come! Not mentioned above of course is the launch in 2016 of Australia’s first Bachelor of Food Studies at William Angliss Institute, and in 2017 of the first Master of Food Systems and Gastronomy at the same place.

Global politics

The geopolitical tremor came first in June with the Brexit vote, with a slim majority of UK voters taking the historic decision to leave the EU. This rising tide of nationalism crested in November 2016 with the previously unthinkable election of the ultra-narcissist Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, on an openly racist platform of America-first nationalism and xenophobia directed against Muslims, Mexicans, Chinese and non-Americans in general.

Trump’s first 100 days in office have been characterised by gaffes, mis-steps, broken promises and in recent weeks increasingly brazen saber-rattling and uber-militarism. In early April, a volley of cruise missiles was fired at Syria in supposed retaliation for a chemical weapons attack allegedly perpetrated by Bashar Al-Assad against civilians in a rebel-held zone. A week later the US military command in Afghanistan decided to drop the MOAB – Mother of All Bombs – the largest non-nuclear device ever exploded.

MOAB Bomb dropped on Afghanistan, 14 April 2017

At the same time Trump has effectively put the North Korean regime on notice that it’s next, and can expect a pre-emptive strike in the near future. North Korea has responded by threatening the US with annihilation. I can only imagine what it must be like for the residents of Seoul at this time, who will be first in the firing line should Trump carry through with his threats.

Meanwhile the rhetoric against Russia and Iran has ramped up considerably, and the US has them in its sights also. France is on the brink of electing the openly fascist National Front, as the forces of fear, xenophobia, racism and nationalism seem to be in the ascendancy.

The danger of war – and hugely destructive, nuclear war – feels very great indeed. I retain my optimism and belief that we are also on the cusp of some wonderful, transformative changes, but there are days when my optimism is sorely tested.

Still, this is the sort of thing that keeps me feeling hopeful: