[Pil-pc-oceania] Food Security Day - Thursday 22 March 2007

[Fiona Campbell]

Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network 
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2007...
WHEN: 20-25 March 2007
WHERE: Collingwood Town Hall, Melbourne
Day 3: Food Security
Thursday 22nd March
To register go to www.communitygarden.org.au

Plenary SpeakersMorningHelena Norberg-Hodge
Going Local * Making the shift from globalisation to localisation.Helena Norberg Hodge is the founder and director of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, a non-profit organisation concerned with the protection of both biological and cultural diversity, and education for action: moving beyond single issues to look at the more fundamental influences that shape our lives. ISEC runs programs on four continents aimed at strengthening ecological diversity and community, with a particular emphasis on local food and farming.
Helena is a co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization an alliance of sixty leading activists, scholars, economists, researchers and writers formed to stimulate new thinking, joint activity and public education in response to economic globalisation.
http://www.isec.org.uk/www.ifg.orghttp://www.ifg.org ( http://www.ifg.org/ )
 David Holmgren Can a Permaculture Makeover Save the Suburbs
Permaculture is a design system that has influenced nearly three decades of action toward a society able to adapt to resource depletion and climate change. The permaculture approach sees these threats as opportunities for redesign of the food supply system as the most urgent priority in that adaptation.  Evidence for this priority is presented that so far is not well understood or incorporated in current mainstream environmental thinking let alone public policy.
The single most important element in redesign of the food supply for energy descent is the relocalisation of food production and consumption to where people live, most notably in cities and towns. Evidence is presented that garden and urban agriculture in Australian cities could, over time supply all the food for those populations with a fraction of the energy, water and environmental impact of current systems.
Drawing on permaculture design principles and the history of alternative food supply systems over the last thirty years, a series of strategies and priorities are presented.  These strategies are a contribution to more public discussion of food security as a society wide public policy issue of the highest priority within the larger debates about climate change, peak oil and geopolitical stability.David Holmgren is best known as the co-originator with Bill Mollison of the permaculture concept, following the publication of 'Permaculture One' in 1978. Since then he has written several more books, developed three properties using permaculture principles, conducted workshops and courses in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Japanand North America. Within the growing and international permaculture movement, David is respected for his commitment to presenting permaculture ideas through practical projects, and teaching by personal example that a sustainable lifestyle is a realistic, attractive and powerful alternative to dependent consumerism. Most recently he toured Australiawith Peak Oil expert Richard Heinberg to present permaculture solutions for an 'energy descent' future.
http://www.holmgren.com.au/
http://www.archive.org/details/holmgren_energy_descent
 
Dr Beverley Wood (Food Security Project Officer, Victorian Local Governance Association)Water and food are basic human rights.  Whose responsibility?
Beverley has been participating in various aspects of food security since her participation in the Fitzroy Street Market, which Margaret Cox began from the Fitzroy Community Health Centre in 1990.
She is currently moderating the e-based Food Security network for the Victorian Local Governance Association.  This work is part of VicHealths commitment to encourage capacity building and the development of strategies by local governments to address systemic barriers to food security for all across Victoria. AfternoonMalaika Edwards 
Increasing access to healthy affordable foods in urban areas - Best practices from Food Justice organizations in the U.S.Malaika Edwards is a co-founder of the People’s Grocery, a mobile natural foods market, garden, and youth business training program in West Oakland, CA. Peoples Grocery is working to find creative solutions to the food needs of West Oaklandby building a local food system and a local economy. Malaika is a recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, Food & Wine Magazine Tastemakers Award and the Flywaway Productions 10 Women award. She was chosen by Utne Reader, San Francisco Magazine and Organic Style Magazine as a young visionary and environmental leader. Malaika’s life goal is to create positive change through love, service, and creative expression.
 Book LaunchIan Lillington Ian will launch his new book, The Holistic Life: Sustainability through Permaculture.This book is a great place to start for anyone wanting to live more sustainably. Ian Lillington fulfils a need for a simple and up to date introduction to permaculture. He highlights how our own behaviour is a central issue in permaculture design with concrete examples of how living permaculture reconstructs our world. This overview of the scope of permaculture solutions is especially made real through Ian’s own experience in a wide range of locations. Beyond this down-to-earth and practical approach, Ian’s simple explanation and interpretation of permaculture ethics and design principles provides an accessible insight into the theory of permaculture. * David Holmgren
Ian Lillington first heard about permaculture when working on an inner-city farm in Liverpool, Englandin the 1980s. Soon he was involved in the international permaculture network, applying its principles and practices to house and garden design and community development. Ian began teaching permaculture on a Permaculture Design Course in 1992 (in Manchester, UK), and then moved to Hepburn Springs, Australia to work with David Holmgren (co-originator of the permaculture concept), and continued teaching at his demonstration home in Willunga and at the Food Forest, Now living in Castlemaine, Central Victoria, Ian is active in a town where ‘re-localisation’ is well underway, with a very active Sustainability Group, and is employed as a project manager to assist with the development of small-scale housing clusters and other sustainability initiatives.  Morning Breakout SessionsBreakout1CamWalkerFood security * meshing the local with the global
'Food security' is an unfamiliar term for many Australians * we assume that there will always be food on the shelves when we need it. Yet much of the world's population not only struggle for sufficient food on a day-to-day basis, they are also seeing their agricultural systems threatened by climate change, food dumping under the guise of 'aid' and the conversion of traditional sustainable agriculture to monoculture, often for export to foreign countries.
This workshop will seek to present the idea of food security and, through the combined work of Friends of the Earth International and Via Campesina, the world's largest grasssroots network of traditional and indigenous farmers, highlight the positive ways consumers in nations like Australiacan support the survival of traditional sustainable agriculture in the majority world.
Cam Walker, campaigns co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth.
Camhas worked with Friends of the Earth (FoE) since 1989. Since 1991 he has been a national liaison officer for FoE Australia, representing the federation in national forums with responsibilities in policy, campaigns, advocacy, fundraising, and liaison with other sectors. He has worked extensively overseas,  especially in Latin Americaand Africaand was responsible for helping co-ordinate FoE Internationals GMO and food security work between 2002 and 2004.
 Breakout2
Joint presenters:Dan PalmerPermablitzing the Suburbs 
History of and introduction to the Permablitz movement
PhD in psychology and philosophy, PDC with Bill Mollison/Geoff Lawton.  Director, Permaculture Solutions (http://www.permaculturesolutions.com.au/)And
Glenda Lindsay
Luscious Lane Neighbourhood Foodgarden: an example of shared re-localised urban foodgrowing possibilities.
In a future of climate change and dwindling non-renewable fuels, current broadscale food production far from centres of population will become increasingly untenable ecologically, socially, economically.
Ensuring access to nutritious fresh food for all in areas of dense population calls for resourcefulness, creativity, community collaboration and diverse solutions. 
In an inner urban backyard - under what was once a 120yr old bluestone laneway beside old stables - is a rambling organic foodgarden shared by neighbours and children from the nearby community school*what possibilities might there be for foodgardening in under-utilised backyards in your area?
Weaving together qualifications and work in theatre, design, marketing, holistic therapies, and a sense of awe for the complexity of natural systems, Glenda’s love of good company, good food, a good sing and physical work drew her into grassroots campaigning, project-managing the energy-efficient renovation of the family home and garden, volunteering in community gardens and CERES market garden, helping organise  Stillness in Action retreats for social change workers, and talking her partner into sharing foodgrowing space with ‘friends they hadn’t met yet’ In her spare time, she tries to get better at foodgrowing, sings and sleeps.
 
Breakout3Caitlin Marshall, Sarah Varley and Russ GraysonFood Fairness Alliances
A presentation on the complex and successful partnerships formed in Sydneyand Wollongong, followed by a brief workshop on diverse groups finding common ground and working together for social change. 
Sarah Varley has worked for many years in the food and nutrition industry in a variety of different community settings and roles including diet aide in both private and public hospital settings, own private catering business, service manager of a Meals on Wheels and Food Service and as a community development worker.  She is a passionate and committed advocate for improving local community food systems. She has a BSc Population Health and Nutrition from the Universityof Wollongongtogether with qualifications in Home Economics and Dietary Practices. She is presently working on a Community Food Access project at WollongongCityCouncil.
Caitlin Marshall is a community development worker at Healthy Cities Illawarra, a Wollongong-based NGO part of a worldwide WHO initiative. The aim of Healthy Cities is to create a safer, greener, healthier, and more caring Illawarra. Caitlin has a background in grassroots development and support work, primarily in the women’s sector, and homelessness and housing field.
Russ Grayson is a member of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance(www.sydneyfoodfairness.org.au ( http://www.sydneyfoodfairness.org.au/ )) communications and education teams as well as doing communications work for the AustralianCityFarms & CommunityGardensNetwork. He also works in communications for the international development consultancy, TerraCircle (www.terracircle.org.au) and their food security programs in the Solomon Islands.
Russ provides workshops in sustainability topics for local government education programs.
 Breakout4
Pamela Morgan
Planning ProductiveCities- urban agriculture integrated into urban planning; case studies from Havana, Cubaand Rosario, Argentina.
Both these cities have integrated urban agriculture into their social, physical and economic landscapes. In this session we will explore how this has been done, with particular reference to the role of local government in finding urban land for agriculture, negotiating security of tenure for producers, managing health and environmental issues, and supporting the marketing of local produce.
Pamela Morgan was manager of the Collingwood Childrens Farm for many years, growing it from the initial concept to the treasured community feature of Melbournethat it is today. Later she worked in Cubaon permaculture based urban agriculture projects. Pamela is currently researching successful models of urban agriculture and has recently returned from a trip to Cuba and Argentina, exploring developing models in this area.
 
Breakout5
Kerry Wise, Maggie Fooke & Asha Bee Abraham
The Art of Slow: A detox food miles workshop for petrol addicts.
This challenging and inspiring hands-on workshop uses a group technique to explore our society’s current addiction to speed * plotting the dubious connections to the dealers and suppliers of our food supply. Begin the long, slow path of recovery to a surprisingly joyous and liberating oil-free life.
Kerry Wise and Maggie Fooke from the Art of Slow consultancy, first joined forces in the ‘80s under the Participatory Design Network banner and have since worked across projects in public art and landscape design, green building and education (Solar Sisters), planning, horticulture, community arts and documentary film making. More critically relevant than ever before, their current work in community engagement and public education focuses on positive and practical community responses to peak oil and climate change.
Asha's recent Latrobe honours thesis on Peak Oil and Food Relocalisation, vital work on a local food security action plan with Melbourne Food Network (honoured in Moreland City Council's International Women's Day Awards 2007) and food miles research for CERES frame her ongoing passion for seeding participatory social change and shared foodgrowing.
 
Breakout6 
Joint presenters:Kate McCluskeyCommunity Kitchens * Fun, Food and Friendships
Community Kitchens are an innovative approach to promoting food security, healthy eating and the development of personal skills and social support networks within the local community.  Community Kitchens are not cooking classes but opportunities for people with similar backgrounds to socialise and cook before enjoying delicious, affordable and nutritious meals with new friends.  Many kitchens buy and cook in bulk to allow the production of many meals at low cost.  Participants can then take meals home to enjoy on subsequent days. The participants have ownership over their kitchen and direct how they would like their kitchen to run.  The Australian Community Kitchens project commenced in Frankston in 2004 and has since spread to many other regions in metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
Kate McCluskey * Project officer for the Frankston Community Kitchens project for the previous two years.  Recently relocated to Moreland Community Health Service to head up the Moreland Food Security Project which will include the commencement of Community Kitchens in the Moreland community.AndJaime Edge
Jaime has completed her Bachelor of Health Promotion and is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian. She is currently working for Western Region Health Centre as a Community Health Team Leader and the Centre’s Health Promotion Coordinator.
In her dietetics and health promotion roles she has been working to address food security in Melbourne’s inner west for the past 6 years.
 
Breakout8
Graeme GeorgeHeritage Fruits and Food Security
Techniques to maximise productivity in the home garden and neighbourhoods; selection, pruning, harvesting.
Graeme is a Permaculturist living on a 5 ha property near Healesville in the Yarra Valley where he maintains a zone 2 Permaculture garden and a growing collection of deciduous fruit varieties (150 plums, 22 nashis, 15 figs, and assorted apples, pears, peaches, nectarines) and a range of heirloom vegetables for seed. He teaches Permaculture Design, is active with the Heritage Fruits Group & Victorian Educators Group, coordinates the weekly Organic Farmers Market at Healesville, and is currently President of Permaculture Melbourne.
 Breakout 9 * Art InstallationFrances Murrell
Installation theme: (.two separate installations * one either side of main CTH doors to food serving area)
Installation 1 (at left of doorway): Roughly 2metres x 2 metres- unstable globalised oil-based food production and its consequences
Installation 2 (at right of doorway): Roughly 2 metres in diameter- Re-connecting to ecology. community, fresh, health-supporting food, seasonal cycles, through re-localising foodgrowing to where people live
The installations show both the overall patterns and details of both the current reductive and rigid food system and the potentially resilient, ecologically based, beautiful system we could have.
Multi-media artist Frances Murrell is also a qualified town planner, mother and healthy food campaigner whose passion is ‘connecting the dots’ between social, ecological, local and global events and issues.
Previous exhibitions and installations include George Paton Gallery, La Trobe Street Gallery and a joint installation with Glenda Lindsay for the Sustainable Living Festival.Frances is currently building a web-based compendium of her art. Afternoon Breakout SessionsBreakout1Bob PhelpsGE foods: unsafe and unsustainable
Bob Phelps is Executive Director of Gene Ethics, a citizens network founded in 1988. He is an educator, environmental campaigner, policy analyst and commentator on new technologies and their products, with over thirty years experience in the Australian and global social change movements. He promotes public understanding and debate on the economic, environmental, social and ethical impacts of gene technology and its products.
 Breakout2Joint presenters:Peta Christensen, Megan Floris and Community Market StaffThe Fresh Food Community Markets of Collingwood and Fitzroy
This workshop will take place onsite at the Collingwood weekly fresh food market.  The session will tell the story of these community markets and explore the impact on the communities they serve.    
The workshop team includes Cultivating Community staff and market volunteers who have been involved with the project since 2003 and operate the market on a weekly basis come rain, hail or shine!
andChris EnnisCERES and the Local Food System
Our food system is dominated by big retailers and industrial farming that deplete natural systems and communities by treating people as passive consumers and food as just another commodity.  CERES is a microcosm of a local  food system; with elements such as seed saving, plant propagation, market and community gardens, markets, co-ops and a café  CERES  hopes to demonstrate and inspire others to the joy of becoming farmers, distributors and chefs in control and responsible for our land & our food.  
Chris Ennis works as part of a team managing two organic market gardens, organic markets, community co-ops and a propagation enterprise, all  integrated with training programs for adults, high school VET students, young adults with a disability and work-for-the-dole participants.  With an emphasis by getting dirty together and sharing food, Chris sees urban agriculture as a way of building community and reconnecting with our environment.  Breakout 3Vanessa John
Local Government’s Role In Community Food Systems 
A workshop to explore the challenges and opportunities, and to create a strategic support network for people working within local government on community food issues. 
Vanessa is a Sustainability Education Officer at Wollongong City Council and is the Chair of Food Fairness Illawarra, a community-based alliance working on community food. 
 Breakout4Dr Beth Gott
Australian Indigenous Plant Foods and Medicines for Home and Community Gardens
Dr. Beth Gott is an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University. Her initial training was in Botany and Plant Physiology, her present work is in Aboriginal plant use and land management.  She lectures widely to various organizations, and  has published numerous articles and  two books on the subject * Victorian Koorie Plants (with illustrations by John Conran); Koorie Plants, Koorie People (with Nelly Zola). 
 Breakout5Tash MortonWater in Scarcity: what can we do?  
March 22nd marks World Water Day.  What has been done in the last 10 years, what can be done better?  Share ideas on how to make water go further on your community garden.
Tash Morton was based at Northey Street City Farm for 10 years where she worked on numerous projects including developing a urban composting centre, a community permaculture nursery, a volunteer training manual for community gardeners and a water wise program.  She has recently moved over the border and is working with the North East Waste Forum on a project to reduce waste at events.  She is a keen cyclist, composter, seed saver and mum to two boys under 3.
 
Breakout6
Brad Shone, Ferne Edwards and Martin Cowling
Harvesting Urban Excess
This workshop will look at innovative urban harvesting programs and strategies throughout Melbourne. 
Ferne will discuss political gleaners such as people who dumpster dive and the group, Food Not Bombs. 'Dumpster divers' are individuals who choose to eat food that is discarded by big business while Food Not Bombs collects food that would normally be thrown away at the end of the market day to give away. Both these groups follow the philosophy of 'freeganism': reducing waste by consuming food that would normally be thrown away.
Martin will outline the work of the fast-growing One-Umbrella group. One Umbrella is Melbourne’s largest food rescue program with 800 volunteers involved annually in collecting food thrown out by restaurants, supermarkets and hospitals. The food is used to make 25 000 meals per month, which are distributed to 62 charities.
Brad will highlight the success of CERES’s Urban Orchard project, which provides an opportunity for residents of inner-northern suburbs residents to swap and share their excess backyard produce. In operation for nearly three years, the Urban Orchard has over 180 participants and operates weekly out of CERES Organic Market.
Ferne Edwards has studied and worked extensively within the fields of environmental anthropology, food politics and social movements. Her academic experience includes as Researcher on the Anti-consumerism in the Contemporary West project, RMIT University, and as Technical Assistant evaluating the Sustainability Street project, Victoria University. For her Master's thesis, Ferne conducted ethnographic research into subcultures' alternative consumption practices to consume food that would normally be thrown away.
Martin J Cowling is one of Australia’s leading consultants on not for profit management issues. He has worked with commercial and not for profit organisations for twenty years. Currently CEO of One Umbrella Australia Inc and CEO of People First -Total Solutions, Martin works regularly with individuals and organizations in the US, UK and Australia on areas connected with not for profit management,  staff motivation, effective volunteer management and constructive personal development.
Brad Shone has worked across outdoor and environmental education, community gardens, school gardens programs and renewable energy over the past 8 years. He initiated the Urban Orchard towards the end of 2005, and has run it on a volunteer basis since then. Presently working in renewable energy policy with the ATA, Brad sits on the management committee of Cultivating Community and has a plot in North Fitzroy Community Gardens. 
 
Breakout7Joint presenters:Ben Nicholson
Food on the Roof - Rooftop gardens and their potential as sites for urban agriculture.
Presentation will include some examples from Asia, provide an overview of local regulatory frameworks and cover the basics of setting up a roof garden. 
Ben Nicholson completed his High School Certificate at Hurlstone Agricultural High School, Sydney in 1995. He then spent a year studying Horticulture at UTS and the following year he studied Arts at the ANU in Canberra. Leaving university to work for the Commonwealth government, he lived and worked in Ireland for two years. After returning to Canberra for a further two years, he moved to Melbourne and graduated from RMIT in 2006 with an honours degree in Town Planning. 
Ben is a Foundation Member of Green Roofs for Healthy Australian Cities and the Victoria-Tasmania Coordinator of this new organisation. He runs a small roof garden consultancy and works part-time for a small town planning firm in Fitzroy.
and
Cecilia Macaulay
Permaculture for balcony gardens. 
Everything you need to be good at to bring about a low-energy culture can be learnt on a balcony garden * recycling food waste, clever water use, design thinking, and social connection. Balcony gardens that express the owner’s characters are balcony gardens that will evoke the attention and dedication needed for success. You can have vegan gardens, fragrant gardens, cat gardens, Mardi-gras gardens.  Balcony gardens re-awaken your inner cubby-house builder, and their trials and triumphs will be your teachers in the reality, not just theory of Sustainability. If you can grow a lush garden on concrete, you know yourself as someone who can transform the world.
Cecilia is an artist, balcony garden teacher, and columnist on Permaculture slow life in Japanese and English.  She runs an eco-experience house in the inner city, based on Permaculture and Japanese Tea ceremony * both similar design systems based on observation, ‘right thing in the right place’, creating connection and cherishing what you have.  This home demonstrates that social innovation makes technical innovation almost unnecessary in bringing about a low-energy culture.
 Breakout 8
Kerry Wise & Maggie Fooke
Shaping up on community projects
If you work with community groups; engage with CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) communities; design for public spaces or dream up public arts projects then this may be the workshop for you. Using cross-cultural modelling developed in New Mexico by Prof. David Stea, you will learn a simple, cheap and fun technique for achieving remarkable, satisfactory results on many levels.
Kerry Wise and Maggie Fooke from the Art of Slow consultancy, first joined forces in the ‘80s under the Participatory Design Network banner and have since worked across projects in public art and landscape design, green building and education (Solar Sisters), planning, horticulture, community arts and documentary film making. More critically relevant than ever before, their current work in community engagement and public education focuses on positive and practical community responses to peak oil and climate change.
 Breakout 9 AidenQuickOrganic propagation of everything!
Why pay for plants when you can grow them yourself? This workshop covers all aspects of plant propagation, enabling self-reliance skills as you discover the foundation of a healthy & sustainable food system by growing your own plants. A positive future of health for ourselves, our gardens, our communities, securing our food heritage by putting responsibility in the hands of all people to ensure permanently sustainable fertility system capable of producing vegetation of the highest nutritional quality.Aidan is part of the CERES Organic Propagation Enterprise: a selection of cultivartists of the Northern Alliance, a revolutionary group armed with seeds of change.
 
Breakout 10Adam Grubb    Edible and medicinal weeds walk
Do we truly live in a place where we cannot identify edible and medicinal wild plants? Perhaps we only live on it. 'Weeds' are abundant, they heal damaged landscapes, and many are surprisingly useful to humans. A 'weed' by definition is 'a plant that is not valued where it is growing'. A 'useful weed' is essentially an oxymoron. So lets deweedify the weeds, by learning ways of supplementing our diets, some medicinal uses, and in the process connect ourselves with the urban landscape, and start to open up a world of possibilities where previously there was only a nuisance.Adam is facilitator of the Greening the Apocalypse workshops
 





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