The Retelling

Over the last seven years Plastic Free July’s were largely the unfashionable provenance of a few well-meaning but deeply suspect folk likely to ride bamboo framed bicycles or be the evangelistic owners of a home biodigester.  This Plastic Free July, however, has been unlike any other; since ABC’s War on Waste, the supermarket plastic bag bans and the irresistible wave of YouTube videos revealing that there is now more plastic in the oceans than fish, we are all going plastic-free.

At Fair Food the challenge to “unplasticise” our groceries is constantly stretching us in new directions.  Currently we reuse all clean returned boxes, eskies and ice bottles, we pack our bulk foods and produce in compostable eco-cellophane, paper and sugarcane based packaging and we’re building a rapidly growing range of products that replace cling wrap, alfoil, shampoo & plastic water bottles, a plethora of plastic food containers and so very proudly – compostable dog-poo bags.

But even if we all become “plastic-free” it’s not enough, we need a seismic shift.  Plastic pollution is only a symptom, a manifestation of one of our most deeply held human stories, a story that tells us who we are and how we are to be in the world.

We all know it, it goes…. “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

These few ancient words are so deeply embedded into our cultural DNA they act like our source code.  Plastic Free July, Earth Hour, Clean-up Australia Day, every little act that lets go of our God-given dominion over the earth is a tiny edit, a pixel by pixel retelling of our story that may one day read…

…“Be gentle and empathise, steward the earth and serve it, for we are one with the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Honouring Nirma

Congratulations Nirma (with spoon) who recently won the BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for his wonderful and positive contribution as a person seeking asylum for both Tamil Feasts and his new business Nirmas Community Cleaning at the Refugee Week 2018 Refugees and Asylum Seekers Recognition Awards.

Before starting his new cleaning business, Nirma worked at CERES Fair Food and we’re so happy to see him enjoying the success he so thoroughly deserves

Have a great week

Chris