OUR ROLE The role of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is - PDF document

1 OUR ROLE The role of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance is education for a better and a fair food future, and to advocate food sovereignty for Australians — the right to free choice about the food we eat, how it is grown and how it is distributed in ways that sustain the livelihood of farmers, Australia’s food processing industry and those who eat and use what our farmers produce. We focus on advocacy to infmuence political policies because they have the potential to protect those food systems we value and to create opportunities for Australia’s businesses, farmers and citizens. An unintentional organisation IT WAS THE ANTHROPOLOGIST and author, food business and the community food movement then Margaret Mead, who said that small groups can expanding in our towns and cities. This we did, expecting initiate big changes. The Australian Food Sovereignty to gain a dozen or so co-signatories to the letter. We got Alliance might be an example of what she said, that dozen, and we got the more than 100 unexpected however it wasn’t what stimulated its launch. That was others, and we sent the letter to the minister just before unintentional. the 2010 federal election. To locate the launch of the Alliance we need to look All of this was organised in a matter of a few weeks back to the latter months of 2010 when the then- before the election. People had contacted us: “Where’s federal agriculture minister announced his intention your website? I can’t fjnd it”. That was because we didn’t to create an national food plan for Australia. Some of have one, so over a weekend close to the election our us realised that the proposed food plan would likely website maven created an Australian Food Sovereignty be written to benefjt mainly export farmers and would Alliance website. probably be a classic neoliberal document of greatest Letter sent. Job done. Now we could dissolve this benefjt to big corporate farmers and retailers. unintentional organisation we had created, though we With this in mind, we hatched the idea of writing better ask those who signed out letter to the minister to the minister and suggesting the inclusion of fjrst, we thought. This we did. Their response: No, you can’t smaller farmers producing for Australia’s domestic shut down just because you’ve done the job you set out market, Australian-owned food processors, smaller to do — writing to the minister. You have to keep going.

2 australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org Now we realised that there was quite a body of The Alliance has set out to work together to create interest our there on the farms, in the towns and in Australia’s fair food movement, a fair and tasty food the cities of Australia, a body of interest, we realised, future. You and your organisation are welcome to join that constituted a still-sleeping but incipient social us. movement around fair, local, Australian food and WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH farming, a movement with potential to act in the national interest. AUSTRALIA’S FOOD SYSTEM? • market dominance by the supermarket duopoly Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance sees its role and the way their buying practices affect as bringing together this diverse group of people Australian farmers and food processors and the who want a better food future and a better deal for food choices of those who buy what they offer, Australia’s farmers, food processors and for those who and their stifming of opportunity for smaller eat and otherwise use the products of our country’s food businesses the risk of disproportionate fjelds. competition to Australian farmers and food So it was that the Australian Food Sovereignty processing businesses from cheap and subsidised Alliance came into being, an organisation born foreign agricultural products imported through unintentionally to act on a rising social mood around international trade treaties sale of Australian what we eat and how we obtain it. The Alliance is agricultural land to foreign buyers made up of people — individuals, small food business, • an estimated more than a million food insecure farmers, community associations, academics and Australians who cannot guarantee their families others... people who want a better food system for receive regular, wholesome meals our country, a better deal for farmers, a tastier and • the contribution of the fast food industry and affordable deal for Australia’s eaters, a secure food foodlike products to Australia’s obesity epidemic system for our country and the right of sovereign • the loss of prime farmland on the urban fringe choice over what we choose to feed our families of our cities to urban sprawl the effects of coal and where we get it from... a fair food future for all seam gas mining on agricultural productivity, Australians. farmer livelihoods and natural resources. Cause Effect Prioritise local & national A fair food system Social, livelihoods economies & market s e s regional aspirations come first r e s i l i e n t , r e g i o n a l f o o d e c o n o m i h e a l t h y f o o d distributors producers eaters using regional resources, knowledge, skills culturally appropriate e m p l o y i n g l o c a l w o r k e r s fair income to farmers a secure & resilient food system produce regionally for regional market first FOOD SOVEREIGNTY production sustainable production nutrition s e e d s freedom to choose agricultural systems s regional control e c r u agro-ecological farming o s e freedom to choose food r l a r u t a n Environment Control Ideas

OUR INITIATIVES 3 Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance members and November 2010: Letter to the supporters. agriculture minister The idea that started the Australian Food Sovereignty Fair Food Week Alliance — asking the federal government to include Launched in 2013 when it attracted an estimated the interests of farmers producing for the domestic 15,000 attendees to more than 110 self-organised market, Australian food processors, smaller food fair food events around Australia, Fair Food Week is retailers and community food initiatives such as now an annual event. Organisations plan their own food co-operatives, community supported agriculture fair food-related events according to the theme of schemes, organic food buyers groups, community Fair Food Week, co-brand them with the Australian gardens and other community food enterprises in the Food Sovereignty Alliance and list the events on the proposed national food plan. Alliance’s website and social media. Submissions to government Local Food Act enquiries and proposals In 2014, the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance in Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance makes Victoria, Tasmania and NSW stated to look at local submissions to promote a fair food system in food Acts of Parliament to create the legislative Australia and in the interest of small to medium scale and policy basis that would create opportunities food business, farmers and eaters. and improve livelihoods in Australian farming, for Australian food processors and those who eat Education what they produce. In taking this initiative, Alliance Through our website and social media, through members were inspired by Canada’s Ontario participation in events and through hosting the provincial government’s Local Food Act and Local annual, national Fair Food Week, the Australian Food Fund. Food Sovereignty Alliance educates for a fair food system for Australian farmers, food business and food Participation in international food consumers. organisations Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance president, The Peoples’ Food Plan farmer, Michael Croft, serves as Australasian delegate The Plan is a manifesto produced when Australian to the Civil Society Mechanism of the United Nations Food Sovereignty Alliance members realised that Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Committee the then-proposed National Food Plan would not on World Food Security, the most democratic and adequately address the interests of non-corporate, participatory of all UN mechanisms. community, small to medium scale farmers and the Australian food processing industry. Originally Michael is also Australian representative on the civil devised as an alternative plan for a better food future society International Planning Committee on Food for Australians, the Peoples’ Food Plan remains as Security, which includes representatives from 60 a statement, with policy proposals, of the vision of countries. THE PEOPLES’ FOOD PLAN A common-sense approach to a fair, sustainable and resilient food system.