Hi <<First Name>>,
It's been a quick minute since we last spoke to you all! We must admit we dropped the ball with our monthly newsletters - but that's okay because our focus has been fixed on all the great work our team has undertaken in the last half of 2018!
Heading into 2019 we are committed to continuing this work and you can read all about our pledges to you, our members and our community in our 2019 Work Plan.
First, a sober note about the sorry state of water sovereignty in Australia as we witness perhaps the most egregious example of mismanagement in history of this precious natural resource. The third fish kill in the Darling River system in less than a month has left the country reeling and calling for a royal commission into the continued pillaging of our water by cotton irrigators upstream that is sanctioned by greedy and short-sighted governments at the state and federal level. The federal government refuses to investigate as the nation watches in horror. The people of Menindee Lakes no longer have access to clean drinking water - a violation of their most basic human rights. To follow what's happening, have a look at the Darling Unchained Facebook page, where articles are being posted daily analysing the problem. And read about the damning report on the failure of the Murray Darling Basin River Plan here. And you can support our allies at the Australian Earth Laws Alliance in their work to bring a peoples' tribunal on the health of the Darling River and Menindee Lakes here.
Others things our January update brings you are:
- FARM DAY OUT! 2019 - have you heard we're hosting our first annual music fest and biggest fundraiser to date on Sunday March 17?
- Pozible Campaign success! An update on the Farming Democracy book...
- Announcement for all Victorian small-scale pig & poultry producers - Vic Gov. workshop dates
- An international update - work with our global food sovereignty allies
- Member posts - we want to share your stories via our Instagram....
- Farmer Profile - meet Daniel & Leanne from Bellasato Farm in North Queensland for this month's member highlight!
- What we are reading - our Paralegal Sarah De Wit reviews "Bringing it to the Table" by Wendell Berry
Hope you've all had a relaxing January (but let's be honest - for most of us January is just as hectic as December!). Whatever you're doing, we hope you're making it count.
Love, the AFSA team x
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AFSA are proud to present the first annual Farm Day Out! 2019....we hope that as well as being just the sweetest, good time jam you've had in a long time, it will be our bi-annual fundraiser, helping us to continue our work fostering food sovereignty in Australia while remaining independent and not reliant on sponsorship or grants.
Ticket proceeds will go towards our domestic work supporting your right to democratically determine your own food and agriculture systems, promoting a move to grow more farms, not bigger farms, and educating about the ability of agroecology to help drought-proof Australian farms and aid in climate change mitigation.
Farm Day Out is a family friendly event and we hope to see you all there on Sunday, March 17. You can read all about everything happening on the day on the Eventbrite page (where you can also grab your tickets!).
We'll also be launching our revolutionary new book Farming Democracy: Radically transforming the food system from the ground up at Farm Day Out. You'll hear from many of the eight farmers who've told their stories in this engaging, authentic read, and if you missed out on getting a copy in the crowdfunding campaign, we'll have copies for sale and signings by the authors on the day.
All AFSA members will get 10% off their ticket price! If you'd like the code please email us at: admin@afsa.org.au and we'll happily supply! If you're not yet a member or your membership has expired, head over to our website to rejoin!
Viva!
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Farming Democracy book - crowdfunding success & FD team update!
We've said it before and we'll say it again - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to our Pozible campaign to raise funds for us to publish Farming Democracy: Radically transforming the food system from the ground up. The cockles of our hearts have been warmed and the book is GO GO GO....so we thought we'd give y'all a quick update!
Our editorial team have been hard at work, with final edits complete and the entire manuscript and illustrations now with our wonderful layout artist Rastko Antic.
You’ll be moved by the stories from these eight wonderful farms – by their openness and honesty about every aspect of their systems and farming journeys. The financial transparency is truly revolutionary, as the farmers each take you through what it costs them to farm the way they do, and then shows you the bottom line. They’ve overcome adversity as diverse as loss of animals to natural disasters, to loss of entire segments of their system to unfair regulations. These legends are working out how to take control of the means of production, and their triumphs belong to all of us – every win for a small-scale farm is a benefit to their local community.
The ‘world’s most famous farmer’ Joel Salatin has written a galvanising and glowing foreword for the book, praising the authors and all like them for their pioneering efforts to radically transform the food system from the ground up.
Brenna Quinlan – the illustrator of David Holmgren’s latest masterpiece Retrosuburbia – has created the most charming array of illustrations to complement the authors’ narratives, and as we watch the layout take shape we are beyond excited to share this invaluable volume with all of you.
We’ll be opening pre-sales for the book on our website soon for those who missed the crowdfunding campaign – keep an eye out for a special newsletter soon!
Don’t forget that the book will be formally launched at the inaugural Farm Day Out on 17 March – AFSA’s major fundraiser to help us keep doing the work we do to support your right to determine your own food and agriculture systems. We’re supporting more farms, not bigger farms, and working to help drought-proof Australian farms with agroecology! If you don’t already have your ticket, buy one now via the link above!
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Public Service Announcement for small-scale Victorian pig & poultry producers!
As many of you know, AFSA has been heavily involved in the campaign for sustainable animal industries in Victoria (with plans this year to see scale-appropriate regulations in all Australian states and territories), and spent lots of time over the last two years working with the Victorian government to help craft legislation appropriate for the low-risk nature of small-scale and pastured farming systems with relation to these animals. The Victorian government have now developed a support program to assist small-scale pig and poultry producers that includes workshops to help with permit applications, outline opportunities for grants and provide information about how to manage environmental, amenity and biosecurity risks.
The workshops will be held in February and March with most dates and locations available HERE. The organisers have advised that these workshops are available to small-scale producers who have:
Pigs:
- less than or equal to 150 sows or 1,000 Standard Pig Units (SPU).
Poultry:
- less than or equal to 5,000 poultry (eggs) or 10,000 poultry (meat).
You can also access the planning support program prior to the launch of the workshops, by contacting: psai@ecodev.vic.gov.au.
They are also offering farm visits for interested producers, showcasing the key elements of low density mobile outdoor pig and poultry production systems in meeting the land use planning requirements. Producers interested in attending a farm visit should contact psai@ecodev.vic.gov.au for more information.
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International Update - work with our global food sovereignty allies....
As many of you are aware, AFSA works as a member of the International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty (IPC), a global alliance of grassroots civil society organisations that work to uphold the rights of peasant farmers, fisherfolk, rural women and youth, the landless, traditional food gatherers and eaters, pastoralists and herders, and indigenous peoples. We want to ensure our members and allies are aware of the wildly varied issues facing food producers and eaters across the globe, and how important our international work is in achieving food sovereignty. As such, we have committed to expanding our international team, which we did at the end of last year, and now we commit to bringing news of our international endeavours to you via our newsletter every month!
Up this month is our paralegal Sarah De Wit's account of her attendance at the Regional Meeting for Asia of the Land and Territory working group of the IPC in Bali, in October 2018.
You can also read about our vice president Katie Johnston's trip to Rome where she participated at the Symposium for Agricultural Innovation for Family Farmers at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, in November 2018.
We hope you'll enjoy reading about the work our team does in the global food sovereignty space - if you're interested in knowing more, you can head to the international section of our website for updates, or head over to the La Via Campesina website for a more comprehensive picture of what is happening in the International Peasant's movement! Viva!
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Let us share your stories in 2019!
We want to use our Instagram to share your stories of food! Follow @ausfoodsov and tag us in your posts so we can highlight what you're doing, what you're loving and what's dragging ya down! Come at us!
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Farmer Profile - Meet Dan & Leanne from Bellasato Farm in North Queensland!
G'day! Who are ya?
Daniel Cordner of Bellasato Farm! I farm with my wife
Leanne Cordner, our kids Adele and Hayley and Katie Knickel, who helps us on kill-day. And of course we couldn't do without Charlie, Lucy, Ralph, Yuki and Banjo - our team of maremmas!
How did you come to start farming, what inspired you?
So many things - our own health experiences and becoming knowledgable on just how some food is produced, a desire to contribute to and feed our community and having a passion for great food and times with friends and family. Inspiration came from Joel Salatin, Jeff and Michelle at Southampton, Backfatters, and going along to some true farmers market and talking to other small-scale farmers. And also travel experiences - getting out and about in the world and tasting amazing food while talking to those who grew it.
What do you love about farming?
Not a lot right now! We've had half our growing birds killed by floods last month when we got over 700mm of rain overnight, then we lost 10% of our breeding birds to snake bites in the weeks following the floods (all the eastern brown and coastal taipans moved to high ground which happens to be our breeding bird paddock!). But we do love sharing beautiful produce with our community, and it's still blows us away that we are able to grow such an amazing bird, which we breed ourselves, grow out on our paddocks, and slaughter ourselves on farm. And the promise of improving our soil, our community and ourselves, leaving behind a vasty improved piece of paradise for our kids and future generations.
READ MORE....
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Are you an AFSA member that would like to be featured in our monthly newsletter? We'd love to hear from you! Simply fill in our questionnaire via this link and we'll share your story!
Not an AFSA member? Join us today!
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What we are reading...
This month's book review comes from our paralegal Sarah De Wit! Enjoy!
Prolific poet and novelist Wendell Berry brings farming to the table in his collection of essays. Berry is best known for his criticisms of agricultural industrialisation in The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, but of his many publications, this book is an elegy about connecting responsibly with agriculture through eating.
Addressing eaters, he implores the audience to understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is undeniably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines how the world is used.
Going beyond the politics, aesthetics and ethics of food, Berry maintains that the pleasure of eating helps us to simply describe a complex relationship and a way to understand the agrarian economy using a humble list. Read this book and learn how to eat: not with ignorance, but with gratitude.
Read it if you like: Conviction and Prose, the likes of Michael Pollen and Joel Salatin.
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If you are reading something you'd love to tell us and our subscribers about, please write a short review and email it to: admin@afsa.org.au, with the subject title Book Review for Newsletter. Please include some details about yourself so we can share those too!
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THE AUSTRALIAN FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ALLIANCE is a collaboration of organisations and individuals working together towards a food system in which people have the opportunity to choose, create and manage their food supply from paddock to plate.
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY asserts the right of peoples to nourishing and culturally appropriate food produced and distributed in ecologically sound and ethical ways, and their right to collectively determine their own food and agriculture systems.
OUR PURPOSE is to cooperate to create an equitable, sustainable and resilient food system for all Australians.
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