Big win for small farmers / Dream job at CERES Farm
Big win for small farmers The indefatigable Tammi Jonas, President of The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), has been celebrating a win for Victorian small-scale pastured pig and poultry farmers this past fortnight. You might remember late last year our State Government was planning changes to The Farming Zone which would have required very small […]
Who owns the Farming Zone? / Field of Beans
Who owns the Farming Zone? There’s a “Utopia” moment happening in our food regulatory landscape. One of those times the government’s “got all the stakeholders in the room” to “consult” over a big decision, has made all the right listening noises, but then after everyone’s left, seems to have stayed back for a beer with the big boys […]
As above so below, only more so
As above so below…only more so About a dozen years ago on a two week intensive soils course in Lismore NSW, Dr Elaine Ingham revealed to a roomful of farmers that in the top few inches of a hectare of healthy soil there existed an interdependent web of nutrient-cycling bacteria, fungi, nematodes, flagellates, protozoa, mites […]
Meat
Last week I was talking to Amy Paul from Ruby Hills about her organic lamb deliveries into Melbourne and also saw Ben Falloon, from Taranaki Farm, successfully crowd-funding $111,507 for an micro-abattoir to process his pastured chickens on-farm. It got me thinking about organic and regenerative meat. Lots of people I know eat organic fruit and veg but eat […]
A seat at EAT’s table
A seat at EAT’s table On Friday night I went to the “EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems.” launch, one of 35 world-wide. It’s fascinating reading; a three year, multi-disciplinary, game-changing study outlining strategies on how to provide 10 billion of us with a healthy diet that reduces greenhouse emissions, saves half the planet […]
In the shed putting eggs in boxes / Robyn Clayfield – coming to CERES
In the shed putting eggs in boxes Being a farmer can be a very Instagramable profession, but this pic is actually what a lot of farming looks like – you in a shed, at a desk, packing eggs into boxes. There’s also the pic of you in the van bringing eggs to drop around town, the […]