Food the focus for our next Tuesday Forum

When it comes to sustainability there’s nothing more critical than food, and our current food system is a lot less resilient than we might suppose. It has led to farmers being driven off their land by low returns and rising costs, soils losing their fertility under current agricultural practices, and the prospect of mounting pressures from climate change and rising fossil fuel prices.

To discuss possible solutions to these problems, in its first Tuesday Forum for 2011, SLA is delighted to welcome as guest speaker Nick Rose, co-founder of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance. Nick has been working overseas for many years, including over 6 years in Guatemala working with campesino (peasant) organisations seeking better livelihoods for their communities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA1gn3bHHVY

Nick has been living in Bellingen since 2006, where he co-founded the Bellingen Local Food Network and in early 2008 organised the first Local Food Film Festival, which brought together lots of thought-provoking films. He is also helping to get Bellingen’s first community garden up and running and helped write the Coffs Coast Local Food Framework, as well as carrying out a pilot Food Systems Assessment to gain a deeper understanding of  the regional food system and how it operates.

In 2010 he co-founded the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, which aims to help create an equitable, sustainable and resilient food system for all Australians and provides a vital counterpoint to the dominance of corporate voices in the emerging debate about national food policy in Australia. Come along to the Forum and hear what Nick has to say, it should be a very interesting discussion.