Supporting local food systems

The coronavirus pandemic was a wake-up call about many things we take for granted in life, including where our food comes from.  As the lockdown began in late March, uncertainty took hold and people began hoarding and scrambling for whatever food stocks they could find.

The National Farmers Federation was moved to reassure people that Australia produces enough food to feed 75 million people, more than three times our population, and that 89 percent of the food Australians eat is Aussie-grown.

With many global supply chains fractured through the pandemic, local production and manufacturing is arising to be more strongly grounded and appreciated in regional communities.

Earlier this year on February 15, Pine Rivers Heritage Museum had hosted a conversation to highlight how we can support local farmers in the Moreton Bay region which is home to a plethora of agricultural industries including berries, pineapple, avocado, macadamia nut, other specialty crop businesses as well as livestock production. (There’s a follow-up session planned for September 12, so put that in your diary if you are in the region.)

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Rethink our values and how we want to live: Rob Pekin

ARISING from Disruption #5 with Rob Pekin, Food Connect, Salisbury, Queensland, Australia
Despite the hurt, pain and suffering of many, Rob Pekin believes this is an opportunity for society to take stock and rethink our values. It is a chance to realign with what is important to people, to be empowered in how they want to live their lives and unfold a new future for themselves. See notes from this conversation below.

Rob says it is an interesting but disrupted time for the Food Connect community at this time of lockdown and physical distancing due to coronavirus pandemic.
There are differing impacts on the three operations Rob and his partner Emma-Kate oversee: demand for the Food Connect local food box distribution system has quadrupled; the community owned Food Connect shed houses 27 social enterprise food business tenants adjusting to changes; and Food Connect Foundation community connection and culture events are indefinitely cancelled.

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