While we can’t turn back the tide of industrialised food production and globalisation overnight, people are hungry for alternatives. They are looking for ways to reconnect with their food. Consumers are looking to buy food grown without pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilisers, hormones and genetic modification. They are concerned about the way we treat our intensively farmed animals and the negative impact conventional farming can have on the Australian environment.
There is good news. While it appears that Australia’s system of food production is out of step with how an increasing number of consumers believe their food should be produced, not all Australian farmers are involved in large-scale, conventional, commodity agriculture. Many farmers are producing quality food, ethically, with minimal artificial inputs. Many others are meeting a growing demand for organically, sustainably produced food and supplying specialised markets. On average, the retail market for organic food has grown 20 per cent per year since the early 1990s.
Further changes to our food system will be driven by consumer demand. If shoppers want change they must put their money where their mouth is. They must seek out eggs not laid by caged hens, meat not grown in feedlots, and fruit and vegetables not sprayed with a cocktail of chemicals. They must also be prepared to pay more for it.
By the same token, if Australians continue to eat vast quantities of cheap, fast food there will always be a market for large-scale, factory-farmed beef, chicken and pork and industrially produced wheat, corn and oilseed crops.
Farmers who want to change their businesses to meet the current demand for quality food produced with integrity need leadership and support—not to be given false hope by industry groups and big agribusiness promoting the status quo.
Globalisation, free trade and export-orientation are not helping Australian farmers. Worldwide, market-based economic policies are driving excessive growth and over-consumption of goods, including food. This is not good for human health or the environment. No one is advocating that farmers return to agrarian socialism, protectionism or opt out of the free-market economy. But some restructuring, some regulation—some restraint—may be necessary.
Instead of tinkering around the edges of the current system, perhaps we need a shift to a whole new system of food production, marketing and distribution. The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) promotes a return to local, sustainable food systems that rely on independent farmers growing eco-friendly food for sale directly to Australian consumers through farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture schemes and community gardens.[1] AFSA represents 88 of these groups across Australia and draws inspiration from similar movements around the world. The Alliance says it doesn’t have all the answers but believes it is time for an open discussion on food production in Australia.
While there will probably always be a need for large-scale, conventional, commodity food markets in some form, there are exciting alternatives on the horizon for farmers and consumers who no longer wish to be part of the current system. A shift from industrial to small-scale, local food production may be counterintuitive to many in our sophisticated 21st century society, but it just might be the answer to food and farmer sustainability.
Farmers’ markets are hardly a new idea—the Parramatta Farmers’ Market was established in 1791 and helped to grow the Australian agricultural industry. Today there are more than 150 farmers’ markets affiliated with the Australian Farmers’ Markets Association with more springing up all the time. Community-supported agriculture schemes are also developing rapidly with about a dozen established schemes operating throughout the country. The social business model used by community-supported agriculture (CSA) ensures profit is not the main motive. While profit is important to support the business, providing quality, sustainably produced food to consumers and a fair return to farmers are just as important. The CSA scheme has no corporate shareholders to sate and few, if any, employees to pay. There are minimal packaging, storage, transport and marketing costs. The carbon footprint of locally grown, organic, seasonal food is smaller.
Very importantly, direct marketing of food creates a connection between food growers and consumers. Face-to-face meetings of farmer and shopper mean both have the opportunity to get to know and understand one another. These relationships (and markets) can continue to grow thanks to new communication technology. The possibilities are endless.
Those cynical of farmers’ markets and other direct marketing ventures regard them as small, niche markets patronised by highly educated, affluent, altruistic buyers seeking not just food but a social experience. Perhaps this is true at this point in time, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. As the idea grows and develops, these markets will eventually become accessible to all.
Likewise, a return to small, local farmer marketing co-operatives could benefit both farmer and consumer. Co-operatives increase a farmer’s bargaining power and ensure that profits stay with the farmer and not the international agribusiness.
There may even be a role for collective farming in Australian agriculture in the future, whereby knowledge, labour and other production resources are pooled among farmers. Without stepping too far to the ideological left into Stalin’s disastrous, forced, state-run farming collectives of the 1920s Soviet Union, collective farms have been successful in many parts of the world. Of course, persuading independent, single-minded, pragmatic, Australian farmers to work collectively might be a challenge.
A review of land-use zoning in peri-urban areas of Australia’s cities and towns could free up fertile land and revitalise commercial farming on the city fringes. Currently 50 per cent of all New South Wales vegetable farms are in the Sydney basin but many are under threat from residential development. Not all parts of the suburban world have been turned over to houses and factories. In Japan, for instance, the egalitarian land control system implemented after World War II and zoning policies since the 1960s have controlled the conversion of farmland to urban land. In 2003 urban farmland in Japan accounted for 24 per cent of all land. Japan is a land of very efficient small farmers. With political will, Australia could be too.
City gardens can be much more than just a middle-class bourgeois weekend outing, as the Cubans have proven. There are hundreds of city or community gardens throughout Australia—many in the big cities—providing fresh food to the thousands of Australians who tend them. Just as importantly, community gardens teach urban people about food systems and seasonality, and highlight the connection between grower and consumer. Once we come to regard city farms and community gardens as ‘real agriculture’ the returns will be richer.
To complete the change, the consumer must not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Changed buying patterns will also require parallel changes in people’s lives. We will need to return to basics, like cooking regularly at home with fresh, seasonal ingredients; eating smaller portions; and reducing the amount of food we waste. We will need to slow down.
There are many practical things Australians can do to bring about change. We can grow our own food, join the Slow Food Movement, visit a farmers’ market or join a community-supported agriculture scheme. We can also learn more about the local food produced in our area or get to know a farmer.
It’s time we all took up the challenge to get back in touch with our food.