Archive for the ‘RDAG’ Category
GrowLocal – Bartering your food
Posted in Models, RDAG by Devin Maeztri on April 22nd, 2009
The GrowLocal site is a national online tool that connects people who grow their own food and wish swap surplus within a given radius. The site also serves as an information base with an established forum.
Started in 2007 by Lincoln Smith, the objective of the site is to encourage the localisation of food through the power of co-operation with a strong political message to go ‘beyond the structures of a market orientated world view, to question the connection between rampant consumerism and self interest, and to the establish new social relations not based on traditional economic forces. Participants are asked to register free online and to provide their postcodes and select the radius for where they would like to exchange goods (5, 10, 25 or more kilometres).
For more information about GrowLocal visit http://www.growlocal.net.au/.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.
The Australian Conservation Foundation Consumption Atlas
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 21st, 2009
The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is one of Australia’s oldest environmental agencies committed to inspiring Australians to achieve a healthy environment over the last forty years.
ACF developed the online Consumption Atlas website in 2007 to complement the research paper, ‘Consuming Australia’, conducted in partnership with the University of Sydney. This report described and analysed the main environmental impacts of consumption in Australia. Food is a key area that emerged from this study, considering the household consumption of interrelated factors such as water, land and energy use.
The online Consumption Atlas encourages individuals to personalise their consumption by locating where they live on the map and choosing an indicator (greenhouse gas emissions, water use or eco-footprint) to discover their local consumption rate showing them how they compare nationally. Methods are offered to help people reduce their overall consumption.
Most importantly, this site untangles complex interdependencies of material flows to help people understand the true implications of their personal consumption.
For more information about the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Consumption Atlas visit www.acfonline.org.au/ Consumptionatlas.
This is from “Social Innocation in Victorian Food Systems’ case studies by Ferne Edwards
Food Connect – A Collaboration Between Local Farmers and City Folk
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 20th, 2009
Food Connect is a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) enterprise based in Brisbane that distributes ecologically sustainable, affordable produce by collaborating directly with local farmers for a fair financial return helping the local region to be more food secure.
(Please note: A Community Shared Agriculture differs to a Community Supported Agriculture as the former is explicity a two-way relationship between farmer and consumer.) Their goal is to provide fresh, local, predominantly organic, affordable (their boxes are twenty per cent cheaper than the supermarkets), seasonal food with the best outcome for farmers, communities and the environment.
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Permablitz – Why not permaculture?
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 17th, 2009
Permablitz is a volunteer, grassroots-led social enterprise committed to improving the sustainability of cities by working with groups of people to create edible landscapes.
Permablitz started in April 2006 as a collaboration between permaculture students and a South American community group in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, and is now open to public participation. Permabliz is couched in the sustainable design system called ‘permaculture’, which considers ethics and design aspects while striving to decrease the distance between where food is produced and consumed and addressing and integrating water, energy, waste, shelter, community, local economy, governance issues.
The Permablitz model represents an informal, grassroots initiative that relies completely on the development of volunteer participation, social networks, shared understandings, trust and reciprocity. Since their inception, over over 40 permablitzes have been held, with many more distinct permablitz groups emerging to apply the initial model elsewhere.
For more information about permablitz visit http://www.permablitz.net/.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems’ case studies by Ferne Edwards.
The Food Gardeners’ Alliance – Grow your own food locally
Posted in Models, RDAG by Devin Maeztri on April 16th, 2009
The Food Gardeners Alliance (FGA) is an excellent example of a coalition that to lobby against the water restrictions for food gardeners in Victoria. FGA began in Summer 2007 when Melbourne gardener, Marika Wagner, was struggling to look after her vegetable patch.
Marika like many others, rents her inner suburban home and finds it particularly difficult to grow vegetables when water tanks are either out of reach financially or not worthwhile installing in a temporary situation. Marika decided that concessions were necessary for vegetable growing and so The Food Gardeners Alliance was formed.
Representing a collection of home-produce gardeners, horticulturalists, landscape designers and individuals, their first collective appeal collected over 3,000 signatures for the ‘Water for Producepetition that was presented to the Victorian State Government on 13 March 2008.
The FGA are currently working with community, government and other organisations to develop guidelines for sensible water use and to bring the needs and benefits of local food production to the forefront of the public consciousness.
To find out more about the FGA email foodgardeners@gmail.com.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.
The Brotherhood of Saint Laurence Wholesale Food Security Community Enterprise
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 15th, 2009
The Brotherhood of Saint Laurence (BSL) is an independent organisation with strong Anglican and community links that was established during the Great Depression to end social injustice and fight for an Australia free of poverty.
The Brotherhood’s mission is to deliver services, develop policy and support social change to help empower people, build community capacity as part of the community by creating and developing enterprise projects and ventures as catalysts for individual and community transformation.
BSL is currently conducting a feasibility study as part of its Community Enterprise Development Initiative into establishing a Wholesale Food Security Community Enterprise (also called “Food PAD”) to source produce for redistribution for local community organizations. This project aims to support the development of food related community enterprises to address issues of food insecurity and provide a pathway for social engagement and skill building while benefiting the environment.
The project intends on establishing and facilitating new sets of relationships between producers and consumers, placing the focus foremost on community benefits, whilst supporting the creation of sustainable new community initiatives. BSL, the Victorian Government and other stakeholders will provide the catalyst for the project while the impetus and ownership of the community enterprise will rest with community organizations. BSL is also supporting the development of two other food projects, the Western and Northern Metro Distribution Systems, in addition to the Food PAD project.
For more information about this project visit www.bsl.org.au or www.communityenterprise.org.au.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems” case studies by Ferne Edwards.
Moreland Grow and Share program
Posted in Models, RDAG by Devin Maeztri on April 14th, 2009
The Moreland Grow and Share program is a pilot project that began in 2008 as part of the Moreland Food Access Project, Moreland Community Health Services.The program is designed for people with low incomes in food insecure locations aiming to provide a consistent, long-term, self-reliant approach to food security by growing and swapping surplus food within the community.
The pilot project selected eight households across Glenroy and North Coburg and worked with them to design, train and unite the community to establish food-producing gardens in their own backyards. Produce is predominantly exchanged whole, however participants will often share home grown and made dishes at the swaps.
The project requires access to space for gardening for five hours of sunlight per day that can be sourced from their own backyard, in pots, on others properties, community gardens or balconies. This project is based on the Grub Kitchen Garden model in Olympia, USA, and the Growing Gardens project in Oregon, Canada, which both construct gardens for low-income families but do not swap the produce.
By producing surplus intentionally to swap at a community level, the Moreland Grow and Share program builds localised self-reliance whilst also drawing together multiple cultures and age groups to mentor food production.
For more information contact Kate McCluskey, Moreland Community Health Service,
phone: (03) 8319 7421, email: KateM@mchs.org.au.
This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.
CERES Urban Orchard
Posted in Models, RDAG by Virginia on April 13th, 2009
The Urban Orchard project was the first of its kind in Australia established in 2004 at the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES),Brunswick East. The project initially focused on utilising unused fruit from the abundant plantings across the inner northern suburbs of Melbourne, and has since spread to swapping vegetables, herbs and beyond. Participants come from over 180 households ranging from a variety of age groups, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
The model has no membership fees and relies on minimal volunteer support. People enjoy volunteering by sitting at the swap table at the market where they can meet their neighbours and like-minded others where food acts as a point of convergence. The Urban Orchard project extends from sharing with neighbours to sharing with the local community, it endorses an ethos of self-reliance and reflects the seasons and the whole cycle of food. It is also free and organic, making normally expensive organic food accessible for those on a budget. Since 2004, new Urban Orchard groups have been established in Yarra, Footscray, Bentleigh, Coburg and Apollo Bay in Victoria, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, and in Adelaide in South Australia.
For more information about the CERES Urban Orchard project visit www.ceres.org.au/farm/urbanorchard.
This is from ‘Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems’ case studies by Ferne Edwards.
FareShare – Rescuing food, feeding people and helping the planet
Posted in Models, RDAG by Ferne Edwards on April 12th, 2009
FareShare (formerly One Umbrella) is a small not-for-profit community organization that rescues food that would normally go to waste to combat hunger in Melbourne. It was the first organization of its kind when it was founded in 2001 by a handful of people with support from the social justice not-for-profit and philanthropic sectors. In 2007-8, FareShare gave away over 180,000 meals and a further 190 tonnes of food.
The estimated benefits of FareShare’s food recovery activity in 2008-9 alone amounting to 400 tones of rescued food is the avoided emissions of 620 tones of greenhouse gases (or the annual equivalent of switching off 953 refrigerators for a year), a water savings equivalent to the annual consumption of 96 households and a saving in landfill disposal equivalent to the annual generation of 730 households (OFarrell 2008).
City Rider Guide: Cyclists’ Skillshare
Posted in Models, RDAG by Kate Archdeacon on December 8th, 2008
The City Rider Guide (and other media and programs for skill sharing) enables people to broaden their skills and adapt their riding to a wider range of conditions. This enables them to ride more often, thus reducing car dependence.
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