International Studies Abroad - Guest Lecture, 5th January 2018

Big Picture - Theory

A food system in crisis

• A political theory & ideology: Mont Pelerin Society (1947) - human wellbeing can best be secured by unfettering the power of the market, private enterprise, private property and competition: 'free markets' and 'free trade'
• A regime of capital accumulation: 'Accumulation by Dispossession' - debt, interest, structural adjustment & privatisation: Majority world owes $2.5 trn in debt, 80% of which is compound interest, $100 mn / day (2008)
• A political project to restore class power: dismantle trade unions, strip back the welfare state, suppress wages, fuel consumption with debt = huge rise in inequality & wealth concentration

David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, 2005

https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/august/1406815200/malcolm-knox/supermarket-monsters

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/23/farmer-wants-a-revolution-how-is-this-not-genocide

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/20/insectageddon-farming-catastrophe-climate-breakdown-insect-populations?CMP=share_btn_fb

The food-health nexus: Key messages

Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus

Addressing Practices, Political Economy

and Power Relations to Build Healthier

Food Systems

IPES-Food (International Panel of

Experts on Sustainable Food Systems

Global Alliance for the Future of Food

https://tinyurl.com/ycqrfrr9

• An urgent case for reforming food and farming systems can be made on the grounds of protecting human health
• Power - to achieve visibility, frame narratives, set the terms of debate, and influence policy - is at the heart of the food-health nexus
• Urgent steps are required to reform food systems practices, and to transform the ways in which knowledge is gathered and transmitted, understandings are forged, and priorities are set
• The monumental task of building healthier food systems requires more democratic and more integrated ways of managing risk and governing food systems

http://www.ipes-food.org/publications

https://www.ecowatch.com/health-costs-industrial-food-systems-2494861632.html

Dominant frms have become too big to feed humanity sustainably, too big to operate on equitable terms with other food system actors, and too big to drive the types of innovation we need.

Five levers for change

1. Promote food systems thinking

2. Reassert scientific integrity and research as a public good

3. Bring the alternatives to light

4. Adopt the precautionary principle

5. Build integrated policies under participatory governance

Sustainable Food System interventions - Food Hubs

The Australian food system

Food Hubs in the US

Benefits of Food Hubs

Narratives of Despair & Hope

Knowing our history: the indigenous cultivators of Australia

"The accepted history of Australia is so pervasive and laden so thoroughly with warm platitudes of self-congratulation that the image of the Australian as good-natured knock about humourist has seeded our literature and society so thoroughly that any questioning of the national character is met with instantaneous incredulity flowed soon after by venom. The letters pages of all national newspapers were whipped into a froth of indignation when it was suggested in a school curriculum that Australia was invaded rather than settled. We like the word ‘settled’ for its benign passivity."

Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu: https://www.magabala.com/culture-and-history/dark-emu.html

http://www.sydneyfoodfutures.net/

- 350 Food Hubs in 2014, 288% increase from 2007

- Estimated total revenue of $0.5bn

- 98% of Food Hubs expect increased demand for local produce in next two years

- 38% for-profit, 36% NFP, 19% Co-operative, 3% public, 4% other

- 32% less than 3 years, 30% less than 6 years

- total number of employees 2187 (128 Hubs), median number of staff 9

- Median number of suppliers was 52, up from 38 in 2013

- 66% of Hubs had revenue in excess of $200,000

- Fresh produce accounts for 58% of sales, followed by meat, poultry & fish at 18%

• Greater return to local producers
• Supporting the transition to more sustainable forms of agriculture
• Education of local consumers / increased demand for and access to local food products
• Job creation and increased local economic activity
• Increased access to healthy food for low income groups - enhanced health and wellbeing
• Strengthened community engagement
• Greater levels of respect, responsibility, accountability and transparency across the food value chain

http://www.ecoinnovationlab.com/project_content/foodprint-melbourne/

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Impacts of supermarket concentration:

• loss of diversity in produce
• loss of competition
• loss of consumer choice, higher prices
• lack of farmer viability
• wastage through aesthetic standards

Local Food in the US

Inequality: the defining issue of the age

- $4.8 bn in 2008, $6.1 bn in 2012, up 27% (USDA)

- $9 bn in 2013 to $12 bn in 2014, up 33% (AT Kearney)

- Predicted 9% annual growth to 2018

- 8268 Farmers Markets i n2014, 180% increase from 2007

- 4322 Farm to School districts in 2014, 430% increase from 2007

www.australianfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/peoples-food-plan

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/community/health-support-services/health-services/Pages/food-policy.aspx

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/reckoning-with-a-genocide-in-guatemala/252761/

"[B]efore agriculture, hunter-gathering humans across the varied seasons of a calendar year probably utilised between 10,000 and 80,000 different foods and tens of thousands of more food nutrients through the game they are...But today, what of the modern American or Australian diet gleaned from a supermarket or junk-food outlet? Answer: only five to ten plants and two main sorts of meat are predominantly used. With this goes a massive decline in food nutrient density...The most frightening aspect of the huge decrease in healthy, natural food diversity and the destruction of nutrient density and variety today is that is directly related not just to mineral-deficiency diseases but also to the huge increase in human cancers and other modern Western diseases." pp-454-5

Local Food Hub, Charlottesville

Impacts of concentration and power in the food system

Durham College: Centre for Food

http://www.durhamcollege.ca/academic-schools/centre-for-food

"From Field to Fork"

Quick facts (2011-12):

• 134,000 farmers, each on average produces enough food to feed 600 people
• 61% of Australia's landmass devoted to agriculture
• Primary production worth $42.6 bn, 3% of GDP
• 307,00 people employed in Australian agriculture
• Food & fibre & allied industries provide 1.6 mn jobs, 13% of total Australian workforce
• Food, beverage and fibre manufacturing worth $91.2 bn, food retail worth $135.8 bn
• Food exports worth $30.5 bn, imports $11.3 bn

http://www.nff.org.au/farm-facts.html

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/style%20library/images/daff/__data/assets/pdffile/0011/2293328/national-food-plan-white-paper.pdf

4-acre property. 1.4 acres have been devoted to food production, with a pollinator market garden with herbs and vegetables, two fruit orchards and two greenhouses.

Horticulture – Food and Farming program (details here: http://www.durhamcollege.ca/programs/food-and-farming). This is a two-year diploma program that incorporates distinct aspects of food production including plant propagation, soil and pest management, cultivation, to food processing, packaging and food safety regulations, to product development, branding, marketing and business development

http://www.agriculture.gov.au/style%20library/images/daff/__data/assets/pdffile/0011/2293328/national-food-plan-white-paper.pdf

'Concentration in corporate power is the defining feature of today's global economy, with profound implications for livelihoods, well-being, the environment and human rights.' - ETC Group, http://www.etcgroup.org/issues/corporate-monopolies

The Centre offers 12 programs for students across the fields of cookery, culinary skills and management, hospitality management, horticulture, pharmaceutical and food science technology, and events management

https://therules.org/#/about

Centrality of strong local and regional partnerships and collaborations:

- Toronto Food Policy Council (since 1990)

- Durham Regional Food Policy Council (since 2010

- Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance,

- Food and Beverage Ontario

- In-kind donations from industry in the form of equipment and expertise

- Ontario AgriFood Venture Centre (http://oafvc.ca/content/about-oafvc), which supports local and regional farmers to value-add produce to take advantage of speciality and emerging markets, helps students in product development / commercialisation.

Aboriginal peoples lived in Australian for tens of thousands of years - sustainably

• Seeds: Top 3 companies - Syngenta, Monsanto, DuPont - have 47% of the global market
• Agro-chemicals: Top 6 - Monsanto, DuPont, Dow AgroSciences, Bayer, Syngenta and BASF - have 75% of global herbicide & fungicide sales
• Meat-packing in the US: Four firms control 80% of all beef processing: Tyson, Cargill, JBS, National Beef

Baltimore Food Hub

http://www.baltimorefoodhub.com/

- $US23.5 mn redevelopment of old Eastern Pumping Station

- 3.5-acre campus with job-training facilities, communal business incubator space, and land for urban farming.

- Fully licensed commercial kitchen

- Co-working office space

- Storage, warehousing, distribution facilities / trucking station

- Workshops, training and mentoring for enterpreneurs

School of Food

http://www.cityseeds.org/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/worlds-richest-1-trillion-richer-bloomberg_us_5a44a821e4b025f99e19a1db

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/world-richest-men-eight-oxfam-own-poorest-half-50-per-cent-bill-gates-warren-buffett-amancio-ortega-a7529741.html

Other local government leadership

"A sustainable, just and vibrant food system"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/11/09/bill-gates-jeff-bezos-warren-buffett-wealth-poorest-half-us/

http://overgrowthesystem.com/argentina-the-country-that-monsanto-poisoned-photo-essay/

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2015/04/glyphosate-spreading-cancer-across-us

9 goals - focus on food growing, education, skill sharing, valuing cultures, advocate on food security, conduct feasibility study to establish a community food hub

https://tinyurl.com/y9zwhelw

SYMBIOSIS: COMMENSALISM, PARASITISM AND MUTUALISM

https://tinyurl.com/y7b4umu7

"A food system that is secure, healthy, sustainable, thriving and socially inclusive.

Commensal: one organism benefits while the other is not harmed

Parasitic: one organism benefits while the other is harmed

Mutual: both organisms benefit

5 themes

1. A strong, food secure community

2. Healthy food choices for all

3. A sustainable and resilient food system

4. A thriving local food economy

5. A city that celebrates food.

City of Melbourne's role:

• Education and community development
• Partnerships
• Advocacy and leadership
• Regulation
• Research.

International Studies Abroad, Guest Lecture, 5 January 2018

Oikos = Home, House

Zoikos = Pertaining to living beings

THE ECOZOIC ERA: The era of the house of living beings; characterised by mutually-enhancing human-earth relations

What does parasitic symbiosis look like in the food system?

Oikos nomos: The art of good household management

Dr Nick Rose, Executive Director, Sustain: The Australian Food Network, www.circlesoffood.org / nick@sustainaustralia.org

Lecturer, William Angliss Institute, Bachelor of Food Studies / Master of Food Systems and Gastronomy

Nick.Rose@angliss.edu.au / 03 9606 2104 / 0414 497 819

Oikos logos: Study of the household of nature

www.mpproduce.com.au

VCE Food Studies

THE GREAT WORK

Circles of Food - Philosophy and Methodology

Aims to enable students:

• To develop as informed, discerning and capable food citizens
• Extend understandings of food origins, cultures, customs and behaviours
• Understand global and local systems of food production, distribution and governance
• Develop awareness of a diverse rnage of influences on food choice
• Research and discuss issues related to economic, environmental and ethical dimensions of our food system

Humanity's Sweet Spot: Mutual Symbiosis

Sustain: The Australian Food Network

Ecology: soils, topography, water, climate, energy, animals, plants, ecosystems

Culture: identity, religion, beliefs, meaning, traditions, education

Economics: technology, infrastructure, equipment, capital, labour, consumption, wealth and distribution,

Politics: Legislation, regulation, policies, trade agreements, governance frameworks, ethics, security, dialogue

https://tinyurl.com/ybfg9uwu

Food Citizenship

"Food citizenship is defined as the practice of engaging in food-related behaviors that support, rather than threaten, the development of a democratic, socially and economically just, and environmentally sustainable food system"

J. Wilkins, 2005, Eating Right Here: Moving from Consumer to Food Citizen,

Agriculture and Human Values, Volume 22, Issue 3, pp 269-273

Food events

Food Systems Methodology

Berwick, Melbourne

www.circlesofsustainability.org

Food Systems Consultancy

Network Development

Democracy vs Profit

Do you hear the people sing?

http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/358223/

http://www.nourishlife.org/teach/food-system-tools/

DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: KATE RAWORTH https://www.kateraworth.com/

Australian Food Systems Directory

http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/infographics/

Urban Agriculture Local Govt Network

Research

VLGA Food Governance Taskforce

Urban Agriculture Policy Mapping

Project Activities

Advocacy and vision

https://www.cardiniafoodmovement.org/

https://www.facebook.com/Cardinia-Food-Movement-1562561960421714/

Map and scope existing food systems work and future partnership opportunities

McDonalds Australia Ltd vs Yarra Ranges Shire Council [2012] VCAT 1539

Reasoning: Convenience restaurant already within Business Zone 1 under the Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme - hence no permission required for that land use. The only matters under determination are the development of the land: the form and appearance of the building, the traffic and access arrangements, the proposed lighting and signage, the impact on the amenity of adjoining and nearby dwellings.

"The objections and submissions raised many concerns that we cannot consider as they relate to the use of land...These included the health effects of fast food, economic competition between the existing and proposed food outlets, [etc.]" [para 19]

The large number of objections [1300] from residents 'do not constitute evidence of adverse social or economic impacts' [para 27]

s60 - Adverse public impact - would need to be demonstrated by 'independent empirical study using credible social scientific methodologies. [Such] studies would need to identify adverse impacts on particular groups in the community and show that the impacts clearly arise from the development. It would need to demonstrate that the impacts would arise only if the development proceeds, and that the impacts would be significant." [para 27]

Changes needed to State Planning Framework

www.thecommunitygrocer.com.au

Food Systems Profile Workshops

Establish a Cardinia Food Network

Cardinia Shire Liveability Plan

2017-2029

Cardinia Food Circles, 2016-2026

Cardinia Food Forum

Context

Food Literacy Workshops & Baseline

Workshops for Community Food Animators

7 domains of liveability:

Active travel

Education

Employment

Food

Health and social services

Housing

Open Spaces and Places

• Range of significant social and health challenges
• Many challenges linked to the food system - especially dietary-related ill-health
• HTC created substantial knowledge-base and supported several successful local projects and interventions, e.g. Healthy Bites

Cardinia Food Plan Kitchen Table Talks

Taking on the fast food industry

Project Main Objective

Community Food Plan

Support the Shire of Cardinia, community food leaders and residents in the establishment, promotion and expansion of a healthy, delicious, sustainable and fair food system for all shire residents’

https://www.peoplesfoodpolicy.org

Project Key Objectives

Food

Healthy Schools Network

Cardinia Shire’s healthy, delicious, sustainable and fair local food system promotes the health of people, strengthens the local economy and enhances the natural environment.

Medium Term Goal: An increase in access to affordable, nutritious food

Internal Council Workshops

http://www.peggyomara.com/2013/11/14/fast-food-facts/

Actions:

• Protecting and utilising fertile land as a source of fresh food for current and future generations.
• Growing a vibrant local food economy which supports growers and enables people to access locally produced food.
• Enhancing food knowledge, skills and culture within schools, workplaces, clubs and the wider community.
• Reducing and diverting food waste from landfill and reusing water to grow food

https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2017/oct/australia_s-liveability-report-card-has-too-many-fails

• To build a shared understanding of the Cardinia food system, and its challenges and opportunities, amongst a diverse and representative group of stakeholders

• To establish a shared and widely understood definition and baseline of food literacy with shire residents and council officers

• To raise levels of food literacy across the shire, particularly amongst youth

• To build capacity amongst Council staff and councillors by integrating food systems thinking across different business units and within key Council plans and strategies

• To diversify food distribution and consumption in the shire, with an emphasis on fresh, seasonal and where possible local produce

• To support business innovation and local job creation in the shire’s food system.

• To advocate to other levels of government through research and case studies for changes in planning policy for better control around density and proximity to vulnerable communities of fast food outlets.

https://www.vox.com/2016/8/31/12368246/charts-explain-obesity

Key principles of working

“The very inconvenient truth that nobody wants to talk about is that to resolve the obesity crisis, we need to eat less food. And we need to particularly eat less unhealthy food which generally comes in a packet and has a logo on it and is generally owned by a very large multinational corporation.”

Dan Parker, former fast food advertising executive

• Food Circles Collective Impact targets and outcomes will be developed through consultation with the community.

• Sustain and Cardinia Shire Council will acknowledge the value of the range of organisations that are contributing to the agreed outcomes in the Shire; and work collaboratively to ensure they are stakeholders in the Food Circles project.

• An independent evaluation framework will be developed, implemented and evolved throughout the life of the project - with key findings disseminated across community in order to inform learning and change.

• That the partnership is based on shared understanding, willingness and commitment to work within the methodology, values and principles of Collective Impact.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/02/former-advertising-executive-reveals-big-foods-junk-food-pushing-tactics

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/total-ban-on-fastfood-outlets-within-400m-of-london-schools-a3702376.html