mad to the bone

So here's what i have been up to! Its what made me an absent blogger. I have my own facebook and blog and job and life and 3 kids and a garden and stuff to do. Chuck about 8 hours worth of meetings a week, data integrity and management for a 'start up', managing subscriptions, generating interest enough for near on 600 facebookers and a website with posts to write and pics to take, edit and down and upload, email outs for each weeks new subscribers to manage and send and merge and you can see possibly why I'm not blogging much. AND Im on holidays!(waves at Simon the enterprise co-ord from Food Connect who reads this blog- well used to read it when I actually wrote anything- who started FC here and doesnt hear me whinge - i kindly save that for you online folks).

Food Connect Adelaide launched this week and after nearly 6 months of involvement it all came to fruition this week. We started deliveries. 70 this week, 30 more next week and 50 the week after and from there, who-ever joins up. The success of Adelaides first real CSA style organic food network has been unpredictable- its so totally taken off, blown us all away and is 100% excitement. For this here ethicurean its been 100% rewarding being so involved in this fantastic organisation. Its all my principles and beliefs in action and its so truly connecting. im loving it and especially loving being admin for our facebook community; these guys really get involved! So this week, I did the full caboodle. I went down to the warehouse to help pack the fruit and veges, I then loaded up my car with 100% pure organic and local (any idea how bloody incredible and difficult that is) produce (except the organic QLD bananas)and drove home to unload ready for my 11 subscribers to turn up and collect their produce boxes. A thoroughly rewarding day and some amazing produce. Best bit, when a very active facebooker; a switched on ex orchardist grandma turned up with her excited grandkids to experience ' a new way of shopping' who all proceeded to unpack her box in my driveway into take home bags. Community in action. I really LOVE it. I just wish I was going to be here every wednesday for subscriber pick up!

Tomorrow, the state election! Will I have a Bloke or not?

ps. In the midst of all this, I managed to kill the mother.

teach every child about food

I have been meaning to post this excellent lecture for a while. I love Jamies passion; pacing like a caged animal, full of feeling about the terrible state of disconnect humans have with their environment, ie: with the food that feeds us. A discord. A lie. A sleight of hand most humans have been dealt. Bad food. Poor quality food. Poor food education and instruction in home economics. After a full weekend at the Plains to Plate Food Convergence; the Future of Food in South Australia (what a great conference!) packed with discussion about food security issues, housing issues, system issues, foraging, gardening, community (most of you blog readers would have LOVED it!) and inspiring people, Ive come home very bouncy! So, to echo the passion, here's Jamie. Winner of the TED. If you've never seen a TED lecture, bookmark TED.com, brilliant contemporary stuff from some of the world best thinkers. Grab a cuppa and get inspired!

Hahaha! I bet
you thought I had forgotten.
Nup. Just working hard.

consuming passions

If i thought that one blog, one FaceBook and one Twitter account wasn't tricky enough to juggle amidst the chaos that is my life right now, I have taken it upon myself in the last fortnight to say 'Yes' to FoodConnect Adelaide's request that I take on 'marketing and communications' (a far more responsible and glamourous title than is required) (shit, well Im hoping it is as I never envisaged myself in the champahgne role) which has entailed blog creation and management and authorship responsibility, twitter activities and FaceBook administrator. I'm pretty excited at being invited to participate in the set up of Food Connect here in Adelaide ( a community supported agriculture venture) as its an organisation that I really believe in. Giving farmers a much better deal, cutting out the monolithic Stupormarkets and giving consumers back freshness and connection to produce they consume not to mention cheaper prices. Better get the FoodConnectAdelaide Blog looking spick and span quick smart. Sharing any interesting food politics, food security blogs, updates or links, particularly Aussie ones, you have stashed away in your elecronic files would be really appreciated too. In between The Thing, work and other stuff, researching up to date info on food politics and security is a huge task. Id love your help. Join us on Facebook (FoodConnect Adelaide). Wordpress learning curve about to explode. Blogging really can change you life, huh?

An inspirational Sunday in the church of food

Last Sundays FoodConnect workshop in Adelaide was fantastic, The Mad Gnomes kindly picked me up on the way. My tired brain may not do it justice but I'll give you some emotions and basic reflections that are sitting pretty close to the surface. The afternoon was;

:: informative. It clarified what the non-profit CSA organisation is all about and how we, the consumer and interested and supportive city based community can help to get it up and running. It also re-defined the concept of 'producer'/farmer as besides playing trade with commercial producers, FoodConnect will also take your home grown glut and pay for it, you just need to call them and let them know! No producer to small. Incredible. Connecting. Obvious. Fantstic. Cost comparisons were also given, the takehome message being that prices fluctuate but on average you pay 20% less to equivalent to supermarket prices!! Irresistable huh? The deals provided for farmers outstanding, fair and just. I saw one dairy farmer gasp! New business/economic models in action.

:: community building. I can't tell you how exciting it was to be amongst a group of farmers who also want to step out of the modern food production and distribution system and to sit with other dedicated consumers/supporters of such change. I seriously wanted to jump up at one point, tears flowing and say thank you to everyone for caring about this and for DOING something about it and WHAT MORE CAN I DO TO HELP IT SUCCEED ?( no, Im not premenstrual nor pregnant and I hadnt 'had a few' either) Weird. Meet the farmer trips are planned periodically for 'city cousins' and consumers. Feedback is that everyone involved LOVES these.

:: expansive. I must confess to being worried that a SA based system like this may have found its environmental climate a bit tough for the restricions on producers placed by the FoodConnect boundaries for producers (loca rules). Not to worry. The bounty the farmers had listed ( 60-80% anticipated organic) was extensive and went beyond my wildest dreams. A cornucopia of fabulousnes in a fruit, veg and dairy box; a foodies dream. Those CSA boxes are shaping up to put home gardening out of business.


:: clarifying. the role of the 'city cousin' was defined. City cousins form the drop of point for regional/local distribution (essentially making them 'the loca shop' without any cash changing hands) where customers can pick up their boxes at a designated time and day. Involvement in socialising optional (you dont even have to be home) but for me this is an exciting part of being a 'city cousin' is the networks and community building it offers with likeminded local people. 'City cousins' also get good discounts on produce, so if you need an incentive, this may be it. 15-20 customers per cousin seemed about the norm. Very managable in terms of storing boxes and traffic. If you're interested in being a 'city cousin' its not to late. Check out the Food Connect Adelaide website and fill in an expression of interest form.

:: Food Connect Adelaide is anticipated to launch in the early new year of 2010. The Adelaide group are inspiring and have done an incredible job. Im very appreciative we have people like this around.

Get involved. Food Connect Adelaide needs people like you and me to help it succeed!

Haiku Friday

We stand in line, hot
sweating, patiently waiting.
Ice cream from the Gods.

Michael Pollan Talks- Bioneers conference

If you've ever wanted to hear Michael Pollan (In defense of food and The Omnivores Dilemma fame) talk and not had the chance, here it is. A live recording from the Bioneers conference held in San Raphael, California this weekend. This is Mr Pollans Plenary address where he adressess issues around the industrialised food system. Enjoy, and have a look at some of the other conference presentations while you're there.

Im so excited. CSAs have finally arrived!

Im so excited i dont even know where to begin this post. OK all you Adelaide Taurus Rising readers. Time to come out of the woodwork. Time to support the local food movement! CSAs are coming to town!
CSA (community shared agriculture) is a grass roots food movement (Google it) and food production and distribution system that has been practiced in the USA and canada for years and is a relative newcomer to the Australian food market. CSAs have been operating in the lush regions of NSW and QLD for a few years but none so far have operated in Adelaide.

Essentially, a CSA works on the consumer 'purchasing' in advance a committment to buy produce from a group of local farmers for their weekly fruit and vegetable needs. Its like a share system, investing directly in the primary producer. If youre interested in helping to set up this system - becoming a 'city cousin' (the person with some city responsibility to pack or distribute the goods) then this meeting is for you. Attending and giving a workshop on the finer details of CSA with growers and customers will be Robert Pekin, founder of Food Connect (Brisbane)

Main Hall, Clarence Park Community Centre
72-74 East Ave, Black Forest, Adelaide
sunday, November 1
1.30pm - 5.45
Afternoon tea will be provided.

To RSVP and for more information contact Sally Fisher info@foodconnectadelaide.com.au by 28/10/09

Help make sustainable and local food sytems prosper and help our local food and consumer communities connect, flourish and grow. See you there or comment me and we can go together!

of land and labour

peel your carrots and potatoes?

toss out bread crusts?

throw out processed food thats just gone past its 'use by date'?

dont plan weekly meals or have no real idea whats in your food stores ?

choose takeout once a week?

dont care about food waste?

Bad news. Chances are you're contributing to the staggering estimte that a whole quarter of the worlds food supplies is wasted annually. Thats not including the costs of the waste of water used to grow it, the enery used to produce it, transport and store it and the loss of quality and literally lives to those denied it. I have a new favourite quote, it comes from John Locke, a 17th century political/social philosopher.

But if they perished in his posession, without their due use; if the fruits rotted, the venison putrified, before he cold spend it, he offended against the common law of nature, and was liable to be punished...if either the grass of his enclosure rotted on the ground or the fruit of his planting perished without gathering and laying up, this part of the earth, not withstanding his enclosure, was still to be looked on as waste and might be the posession of any other...

He was only to look, that he used them before they spoiled, else he took more than his share, and robbed others. And indeed it was a foolish thing, as well as dishonest, to hoard up more than he could make use of. If he gave away part to anybody else, so that it perished not uselessly in his posession, these he also made use of. And if he bartered away plums, that would have rotted away in a week, for nuts that would last good for his eating a whole year, he did no injury; he wasted not the common stock; destroyed no portion of goods that belonged to others, so long as nothing perished uselessly in his hands...the exceeding of the bounds of his just property not lying in the largeness of his posession, but the perishing of anything uselesly in it.

John Locke, Second Treatise of Government (1690),v.37-38,46

food waste

Tristam Stuarts book Waste is currently under review and living on my bedside table. I havenet read for months (you may have noticed my currently reading links have not been updated for a while!) as I have been busy with my business and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall during my normal reading hours! I was going to finish reading the book and write a review before I posted anything about it, but the pics on the Waste website i find are just so telling and interesting that I thought Id provide a link for those who are interested. Some of those displays look just like our weekly veg shop! Why food waste is so passionate a concept to me i have no idea. Food politics in general just gets my juices flowing. You?

FROM PLAINS TO PLATE: THE FUTURE OF FOOD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

FROM PLAINS TO PLATE: THE FUTURE OF FOOD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS

From climate change, salinity, and the peaking of world oil
production, to issues of trade, urban planning and public health,
securing sustainable and just food systems in South Australia is
facing growing challenges.

In February 2010, “From Plains to Plate: the Future of Food in South
Australia” will be held in Adelaide. “From Plains to Plate” will seek
to build networks between active communities, government and industry
to strengthen South Australia’s food system in the face in these
intensifying environmental, social and economic challenges.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from farmers,
gardeners, planners,
activists, permaculturalists, cooks, community
workers, health professionals, teachers, policy makers and others to
participate by offering workshops in your field of interest.

If you:
- are involved with projects that aim strengthen local food systems,
(including community gardens, co-operatives, cow-shares, fruit and
vegetable exchanges, guerrilla gardening, community-supported
agriculture or more); or
- have practical skills to share, (including on gardening, design,
composting, livestock, preserving, roof gardens, community building or
more); or
- have a food-security concept that you would like to initiate or
share; or
- can offer a professional or community perspective on food issues and
challenges
We want to hear from you!

For more information, or to register your interest in presenting,
please forward your name, organisation, contact details and a short
summary of your proposed topic
to joel.catchlove@foe.org.au.

ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT
While “From Plains to Plate” has been initiated by community
environment group Friends of the Earth, it is growing into a broad
coalition committed to developing local responses to food production
and security. We are currently seeking organisational support and
partnerships, please contact us for more information.
For more information on “FROM PLAINS TO PLATE”, visit Friends of the Earth