Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant - Marrickville

Photo: Lorraine Elliot 2009

Most people who think about eating Vietnamese in Marrickville think of the famous Bay Tinh Restaurant in Victoria Road - it's usually packed.

Next to the Bay Tinh is is the usually not packed Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant.

I've often wondered what it was like, but have not yet been brave enough to try. Why I would be coy about eating goat I don't know - I've eaten plenty of 'mystery' foods in my travels around the globe and it's really not that unusual. After all I could cheerfully eat Goat cheese and drink goat's milk until the goat's come home...

Yesterday I stumbled across a review of this restaurant on a Sydney food blog - Not Quite Nigella.

The reviewer and blogger, Lorraine Elliott, gives it the thumbs up.

My question for you all is this: should we be farming and eating more small livestock animals such as goats rather than cows?? (Do goats have less impact on the environment? Are they cost effective? Nutritional? What does Goat meat taste like with Diane Sauce?)

My next question is: does any body want to join me for some goat??

Turnbull attacks Abbott on climate change

If the battered and compromised ETS legislation wasn't such a serious issue all this drama in Federal politics at the moment would be down-right entertaining.

Malcom Turnbull has taken a very public swipe at Tony Abbot - calling the new leader of the opposition's stance on Climate Change "bullshit".

In a blog posting today, Turnbull has critisiced Abbot's statements that you can cut emmisions at no cost.

"First, let's get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.

To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.

Somebody has to pay.

So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, "bullshit." Moreover he knows it."

He goes on to deride the lack of policy on climate change, and says he will cross the floor to vote for the Government's ETS legislation.

"Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted."

Food Connect - From the Farm to the City

From February 2010 FoodConnect will be starting to deliver pre-ordered boxes of fruit and vegetables from local growers to Sydney households.

Food Connect was established in Brisbane in 2004 by Robert Pekin, a dairy farmer and developer of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects. Pekin had a vision for a community shared agriculture enterprise that could develop a local and regional food system for South East Queensland. Food comes from farmers living within a five hour radius of Brisbane who are 'encouraged' to farm using the most sustainable methods possible.

Now the successful model is in the process of being replicated in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Bellingen, Coffs Coast and Wollongong.

The Sydney franchise is looking for buyers and 'City Cousins' - who if I understand correctly are volunteers who act as area co-ordinators and distributors. (The web-site says there is a 'rewards system' for City Cousins but doesn't say what it is - they should get a free box of veggies for all that hard work if you ask me.....)

Time to start worrying about fish

From Australian Policy Online:

The global fishing industry is unsustainable, writes Sarah Burnside in Eureka Street

AS PETER SINGER and Jim Mason noted in their 2006 book The Ethics of What We Eat, even conscientious omnivores can find it difficult to concern themselves with animals who occupy remote underwater places and are, on the whole, decidedly not cute.

In the Australian context, fishing and aquaculture are the nation's fifth most valuable rural industry. The website for the Department for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry notes cautiously: 'The challenge is to develop the industry while ensuring the sustainability of Australia's marine ecosystem.'

There is a growing awareness that the scale of the global fishing industry is unsustainable. Fishing is second only to climate change as the greatest environmental threat to marine ecosystems...

Read the full article:

Junk food turns rats into addicts

A study about the addictive qualities of junk food found the affect it has on the the brain is similar to that of heroine.

I knew it! It's not MY fault - blame the chips!

After just five days on the junk food diet, rats showed “profound reductions” in the sensitivity of their brains’ pleasure centers, suggesting that the animals quickly became habituated to the food. As a result, the rats ate more food to get the same amount of pleasure. Just as heroin addicts require more and more of the drug to feel good, rats needed more and more of the junk food. “They lose control,” Kenny says. “This is the hallmark of addiction.”

New National Standard for Organic Produce

Australian Standard 6000 was the result of consultation between 22 bodies, including the main organic certifiers, consumer groups, the ACCC, the Food and Grocery Council and government.

Previously, the only benchmark we had for organic produce was the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service organic export standard. An article in the Australian yesterday quotes Chief Executive of Standards Australia John Tucker.

"We had the wrong body with the standard, we had the lack of a single agreed national standard, we had unsubstantiated and misleading claims, we had some court action."

So - now we have AS6000, which outlines the minimum requirements to be met by growers and manufacturers wishing to label their products ‘organic’ and ‘biodynamic’. It establishes an agreed set of procedures to be followed for the production, preparation, transportation, marketing and labelling of organic and biodynamic products, including food and processed food.

Sitopia : How food shapes our cities

In this talk from TED.com, Carolyn Steel outlines how vulnerable modern cities are - removed from nature and divorced from food production. She has coined the term Sitopia - which means 'food place' - to help conceptualise a way to place food and nature back at the heart of our communities.

" Architect and author Carolyn Steel uses food as a medium to "read" cities and understand how they work. In her book Hungry City she traces -- and puts into historical context -- food's journey from land to urban table and thence to sewer. Cities, like people, are what they eat.."

Where CAN'T you grow vegies??

From Treehugger.

Food Waste Story on Radio National.

This feature was aired today on the Life Matters program, Radio National: you can listen to it online at: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lifematters/stories/2009/2652423.htm


"How much food do you reckon you waste?

It's probably more than you think - most of us underestimate how much perfectly good food we throw away, and how much we let spoil without eating.
If you're like me, you're chucking out mouldy bread, over-ripe fruit and soggy lettuce.

If you've got a fridge like mine - which turns the vegies into iceblocks unless you're quick - you're turfing a few of them too.

Even worse are the meals that are cooked and not finished. That really does push my guilt button. Maybe yours too.

But here's the thing, most of the food wasted isn't happening at your place. It's wasted before you even get it in your hot little hands..."

Peter Singer

Hi

Here is the recent video of Peter Singer's talk at Maquarie uni. It goes for approximately for one hour. It has some interesting points on emission trading

Maureen

2009 Milthorpe Lecture

Peter Singer: Climate change, eating meat and ending poverty.

Food Investigators program

Hello All,

In case you don't already know there is a very interesting program on SBS at 7:30pm on Wednesday nights called the Food Investigators. Unfortunately, I have missed nearly all episodes as I am feeding and putting my baby girl into bed. The good news is that you can watch all episodes on the SBS website and there are also links to recipes and information about many cuisines.

Karen.

A Future for Food

Hello All,

Please see below some info. cut from the Public Health Ass. of Australia website:

The Public Health Association of Australia is calling for an overhaul in the way we approach food policy in this country.

The Public Health Association (PHAA) in association with its members, and informed by the PHAA Nutrition Round Table, has developed A Future for Food - an initiative calling on government, professionals and industry to work together to establish a national integrated food policy to enable the national to meaningfully address the issues of public health, sustainability and equity when it comes to our food supply.

There are some presentations which can be found at www.phaa.net.au/futureRoundtable.php which are just powerpoint slides, but have some interesting stats. Also, you can register your support for the PHAA call to establish a food policy in Australia that genuinely addresses the key issues of public health, sustainability and equity and recieve updates on their progress.

Regards, Karen.

Eating Together - A dinner

This event looks like a great night - I pinched the following from the Gastronomy website

Four leaders from four different religions discuss their relationship with food
12th August 2009

The Leighton Hall, John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW Most of us spend more time thinking about what comes out of our mouth than what goes into it. Yet for millions around the world each meal connects them to their culture, their traditions and their spirituality. Presented by radio national’s Alan Saunders, “Eating Together” is a dinner where Australia’s religious leaders discuss humanity, truth and food. Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist leaders will discuss their religion’s traditions and relationships with food. Each will speak as the course relating to their faith is served and eaten. and attendees will join together in that universally symbolic act for all humans, the sharing of a meal.
The PresenterAlan Saunders is the presenter of ABC radio national’s The Philosophers Zone, and was awarded the Pascall Prize for critical writing and broadcasting in 1992. Alan has written about food and other topics for various publications including the ABC's Delicious magazine.
The Speakers
Father Matthew Attia from the St George Coptic Orthodox Church, Sydney
Vikrant Kapoor, chef / partner from Zaafran restaurant in Darling Harbour
Ronni Kahn, founder of OzHarvest
Plus speakers from the Australian Federation of Australian Councils and Rigpa Australia

Our InfluenceInspired by Gastronomy’s daily company lunch, Eating Together is the happy creation of Gastronomy’s Miccal Cummins and Simon Anderson. Everyday, regardless of company position, race or religious beliefs, the staff get together and enjoy lunch cooked by Gastronomy’s chefs: Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and of course whoever else is working. It’s a simple gesture that speaks volumes about an acceptance for all beliefs and culinary needs and also helps to cultivate a sense of camaraderie. Gastronomy's philosophy is that all are fed and all dietary needs are catered for; a kind of gastronomic equal opportunity one could say. The eventSpeaking about their life’s relationship with food and how this relates to their religious lives, guests will be able to see some of the intellectual workings and receive intimate understanding behind the religious leaders.The menu for the night will include cuisines chosen from the cultures and traditions of the speakers. Of course the one major dietary rulings we will need to observe across the board involve meat (no pork will be served). All meat will be Halal, and vegetarian and kosher options will be provided. For those drinking alcohol, we will be serving organHeld at UNSW’s Leighton Hall, the entire ticket proceeds from the night will be donated to the Children's cancer institute and OzHarvest, a not for profit organisation that collects uneaten food from caterers, restaurants and venues to feed the homeless.
Menu

The menu will be uploaded here shortlyTICKETS
$88.00 for a stunning 4-course meal with non-alcoholic beverages and organic wines. Due to the generous donations of goods and time by our sponsors we have been able to donate the entire ticket price to our charity the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia
Book tickets by emailing Simon Anderson or Gaenor Lloyd:
mailto:together@gastronomy.com.au?subject=From
or Call Simon or Gaenor on 02 9663 4840

Aussie Fish - Part III. What you CAN eat!

Sorry for the delay in posting the final part of Aussie Fish - my excuse is that I've been inconsolable with grief since I've discovered that Tuna is not on the Green for Go Ahead and Gobble It Up list.....

As you may remember, my source of information is Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. There's no doubt that this is a confusing issue and the guide is really helpful, but as Blogger Karen pointed out to me in an email last week:

"it seems it would have been easier to write a short list of what we can eat. I think the lack of standardised nomenclature for fish species adds to the confusion. I heard that it is usual for fish at Sydney Markets to be sold and have not yet been classified/ named, that shows how much we do not know about sea creatures and that we could be unwittingly eat rare species."

Here is the 'what we can eat' list - or as it is termed in the Guide - the 'Better Choice'.

Australian Salmon 2 species considered: Eastern Australian slamon, WA Salmon

Blue Swimmer Crab Also called: Crab, sand crab, bluey, blue manta crab.

Bream (pictured) 5 Species considered: Black, Yellow-fin, pikey, fry-pan, tarwhine.

Calamari, Cuttlefish, Octopus, Squid Species include: northern, southern, pharaoh's, maori, pale, arrow (gould's), pencil, red ocean.

Flathead

King George Whiting Also called: black whiting, south australian whiting, spotted whiting

Leatherjacket Also called: ocean jacket, seine boat jacket, silver flounder, chinaman (ooh - is that sexist or racist or both?), yellow jacket, triggerfish, butterfish

Mullet As in Cut. Seriously though -it's also called blue-tail, fan-tail, flicker, umping, nana, sand and yellow-eye.

Mulloway Also called: Butterfish, jewfish, king jewfish, kingfish, river kingfish.

Trevally

Western Rock Lobster Also called Western Austrlaian crayfish, Western Cray

Whiting 7 species considered: sand, eastern school, western school, stout (winter), trumpeter, western trumpeter, yellowfin.

Yellow Tail Kingfish Also called: kingfish, tasmanian yellowtail, kingie, yellowtail

Abalone 2 species considered: greenlip - main species, blacklip

Blue Mussel Also called: mussel

Crayfish (marron, redclaw, yabby) 3 species considered: Marron, redclaw, yabby

Oysters Species include: sydney rock, flat, milky, blacklip

Alfalfa House Film Night Fundraiser

Hello Foodpoolers. Posting this message on behalf of Alfalfa House Co-op...

----
Alfalfa House's Film Night Fundraiser!!
Thursday July 16 2009

Come and join us for a wonderful movie about food, ordinary people, and the resurrection of a small organic farm against the odds. Enjoy some delicious homemade soup and artisan sourdough, and help Alfalfa raise some much-needed money for some very-much-needed shop improvements. It's sure to be a lovely evening for the Alfalfa House community, and we really look forward to seeing you there!

The Real Dirt on Farmer John
Thursday July 16 2009
The Red Rattler Theatre -- 6 Faversham St. Marrickville
Doors open 7pm
$20 waged/$10 unwaged for film, soup, and sourdough!

Will be other organic treats and beverages available for purchase, as well as raffles and good times had by all; come out and support your local food co-op!

Sorry This is a bit close to the date
Just to let you know at Macquarie Uni on 14th July is a free talk by Peter Singer Living ethically in 21st Century as part of their alumni events. contact alumni@mq.edu.au

Professor Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University and a laureate professor at the University of Melbourne will present a lecture, entitled "Living Ethically in the 21st Century".

This lecture will touch on climate change, eating meat and world poverty, and is this year's Milthorpe Lecture - an annual campus event held in memory of the late Professor Fred Milthorpe, Chair of Biology at the University from 1967-1982.

The purpose of the Milthorpe Lecture is to enrich intellectual life on the campus, and its theme has traditionally been environmental.

Date: Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Venue: Price Theatre, Building W5A, Macquarie University [map: PNG PDF]
Cost: No charge
Bookings: online booking form
Enquiries: alumni@mq.edu.au
Parking: W4 parking area is recommended.

Bundanoon to ban bottled water?

The issues of food and water security cannot really be separated from one another - and the commercialisation of valuable water resources really gets up my nose.

So, I was very interested to read that the little town of Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands may be about to become the first in Australia to ban the sale of bottled water.

The towns people were inspired to action by a proposal from a comany to pump water out of a local acquifier to supply to the bottled water market.

Read about it on the ABC News website.

Aussie Fish - Part II

More from Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide: A guide to choosing your seafood wisely.

The seafood species in the "Think Twice" section are regionally overfished or prone to overfishing and may also be caught using fishing gear which can damage the seafloor or ocean wildlife.

This category also includes aquaculture prawns and barramundi - apparently the farming practices are a bit dodgy (obviously I'm paraphrasing...) but the guide says that with a few management improvements they would move up the ranks into the 'better choice' section (next post). Let's hope they pull their fingers out so we can buy their products!

Anyway - here's the "Think Twice Before You Buy" list:

Abalone: Species included are Greenlip, Blacklip, Brownlip and Roe's.

Barramundi: Also called barra, giant perch, silver barramundi.

Big-eye Tuna

Blue-eye Trevalia: Also called blue-eye cod, big eye, deep sea trevalia.

Blue Grenadier: Also called Hoki

Bugs: Species include moreton bay bugs, balmain bugs.

Cod and Groper: Species include coral cod, barramunki cod, rankin's cod, rock cod, black tip cod, estuary rock cod.

Coral Trout: Species include common, bar-cheek, blue-spot, coronation.

Dory: Species considered are John, king, mirror, silver, deep sea dory, and pacific dory.

Emporers (True emporers): Species include red throat, grass, long-nose, spangled, red spot - also called 'nor-west snappers in WA'.

Giant (King) Crab: Also called king crab.

Gold-band snapper: Also called gold-band jobfish (!!!), sharp-tooth jobfish/snapper.

Lobster: 3 species considred - Southern rock, eastern rock tropical rock (including ornate rock)

Mackeral: Species considered - Spanish (snook), spotted, school, grey

Mud Crab: also called black, brown, green, orange, mangrove.

2 species considered - giant mud, orange mud

Pink Ling: Also called kingclicp, ling, rock ling

Prawn (!!!!): Main species - King, Tiger, Banana, red spot, royal re, school, endeavor, black tiger, bay.

Red Emperor: (NOT red-throat emperor)

Scallop: Species considered, northern saucer, ballot's saucer, fan, doughboy, queen.

Snapper (Pink): Also called pink snapper, cockney, red bream, squire.

Snappers - tropical (including sea perch): Species considered - saddle back snapper -also called red bass, ruby emporer, red jew, crimson snapper - also called scarlett snapper, red sea perch.

Taylor: Also called - blue fish, skipjack.

Western Austraian Dhufish: Also called WA pearl perch, jewfish. Not to be confused with the northern, thread fin, or common pearl perches from Northern Australia.

Yellow-Fin Tuna: Also called tuna.

Prawn: Marine Aquaculture species - banana, black tiger, kuruma.

Barramundi: Also called barra, giant perch, silver barramundi.

Aussie Fish - What Not To Eat

Well - I have my copy of Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Austrlian Marine Conservation Society. I recommend you get a copy yourself - they're just 10 bucks and they come with a little pocket sized guide to take with you shopping or when you get that fish 'n chips craving.

They've divided the fishies into 3 categories. Say No, Think Twice, and Better Choice.

The bad news is that there's an awful lot we shouldn't be eating and include both wild fish that are overfished or are of significant conservation concern, and also aquaculture species that are grown in sea cage aquaculture which they say adds additional stress to our coasts and oceans.

Here's the list of what they say NOT to buy. I'll put the 'Think Twice' and 'Better Choice' species on separate posts.

Blue Warhou - also called black trevally, sea bream, snotty trevalia (why'd you want to eat a snotty fish anyway?), and Tasmanian trevally.

Broadbill Swordfish - also called Swordfish.

Commercial Scallop - also called king scallop, southern scallop, Tasmanian Scallop.

Eastern Gemfish (Hake) - also called hake, king couta, kingfish.

Orange Roughy - Also called deep sea perch, sea perch.

Oreo - Deep sea dory, spotted dory, dory

Redfish - also called nannygai, red snapper.

Shark (Flake) - species include school, whalers, dogfish, tiger hammerheads, wobbegongs, skates, stingrays and chimeras.

Silver Trevally - also called sand trevally, silver bream, white trevally.

Southern Blue-fin Tuna - also called tuna.

Atlantic Salmon - also called salmon, smoked salmon.

Barramundi - also called barra, giant perch, silver barramundi.

Mulloway - also called butterfish, jewfish, king jewfish, kingfish, river kingfish.

Ocean Trout - also called brown trout, rainbow trout, sea trout.

Snapper (Pink) - also called pink snapper, cocknet, red bream, squire.

Yellow-tail Kingfish - also called kingfish, tasmanian yellow tail, kingie, yellow-tail.

End of the Line - A film about a world with no fish

This doco was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival - it's about to be screened in the US
and in UK.

"It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi;

the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation."

Filmed over two years, The End of the Line follows the investigative reporter Charles Clover as he confr nts politicians and celebrity restaurateurs, who exhibit little regard for the damage they
are doing to the oceans."

http://endoftheline.com/film/

I hope it comes to Australia! I think we need to see it.

Seafood and Sustainability

I've just read Loving Fish, This Time With the Fish in Mind
by food guru and New York Times columnist Mark Bittman. The article is about the world's depleting fishstocks and the difficulties involved in knowing how to purchase fish so that you're not contributing to the problem. It's actually quite alarming - I suspect we live in a bit of a la la land here in Sydney as far as how sustainable our seafood supply is.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society have published Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide to help consumers navigate through the murky depths of ethical fish consumption. I'm going to purchase a copy (they're about 10 bucks) and will let you know what it says in a future post. It's a shame that you have to buy it and can't access the guide online. If anyone knows of another source of information for what seafood to avoid and what to buy in Australia then please post or comment below and let us all know!

EVENT: Dr Shiv Chopra on food safety

Dr Shiv Chopra tour

Dr Chopra has been called a hero by David Suzuki and Vandana Shiva. A former Senior Scientific Advisor at Health Canada, he is a microbiologist and internationally recognised contributor to the public debate on key food safety issues. He testified before the Canadian Senate, where his evidence led to the banning of Monsanto’s controversial Bovine Growth Hormone.

Dr Chopra will be giving public lectures in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Dr Chopra has a vital message for Australian policy makers - the security of our food supply must be safeguarded. He is in Australia to launch his new book, Corrupt to the Core, that challenges the scientific and policy basis of food safety regulation in Canada.

Tour dates

Canberra
Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 1pm
Parliamentary Committee Room, Parliament House
Public Meeting hosted by Senator Siewert
Please RSVP to bridget.halbert@aph.gov.au. If attending from outside Parliament House please call 02 6277 3587 on arrival.

Sydney
Thursday, June 18, 2009, 6.30pm
Theatre, Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Surry Hills

Perth
Saturday, June 20, 2009, 2pm
Lotteries House Conference Room, 2 Delhi Street, West Perth

Melbourne
Tuesday, June 23, 6.30pm
The 60L Green Buliding
60 Leicester Street, Carlton

For more information on Dr Shiv Chopra see: www.shivchopra.com
For more information on his Australian tour contact 1300 133 868 or geneethicsevents@gmail.com

Japanese "Plant Factories"

From the UK's Daily Mail a story about giant vegetable growing factories that have started to produce chemical free, sunlight free, soil free, bug free, as far removed from nature as possible vegetables. According to the article, the Japanese goverment is encouraging the development of plant factories because of concerns about the use of chemicals in vegetables , and contaminants in the air.

Tour Of The White House Organic Garden

From the White House's YouTube Channel - Ryan Howard of the World Series Champion Philadelphia Phillies (no idea what they are - obviously some high profile American Sportsman) recently got a tour of the new White House garden and spoke with White House chef Sam Kass about the importance of a healthy diet.

Declining global food security: the scientific challenge of our generation.

So says Julian Cribb* in an opinion piece published on the ABCs website today.

In A Hot, Hungry World Cribb says that in order to avoid wide scale famine, wars over basic resources and a doubling in the number of refugees, we need to double world food output.

Cribb calls for a rapid increase of investment in Agricultural science which he says has been long neglected.

The world - including Australia - has to understand that agriculture policy is defence policy. It is refugee policy, immigration policy, environmental policy and climate as well as health, food and economic policy. No food, no stability, no government.

Yet for decades we have been eroding our technological investment in this vital field. The issues raised here are quite capable of being solved with good science and sound institutions, as they have been in many countries in the past. Now they need to be solved at a global level and with the active help of every person.


*Julian Cribb is the principal of Julian Cribb & Associates, specialists in science communication. He is Adjunct Professor in Science Communication at the University of Technology Sydney and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

Watch SBS on Tuesday Night: The Growing Anger of Hunger

By the end of 2008, the number of malnourished people on theplanet had risen to 963 million.

The Growing Anger of Hunger is a documentary to be screened on SBS television on Tuesday 28 April at 8:30 pm.

"This film looks behind the headlines of the food riots which have occurred in the last few year around the world, attempting to find possible explanations and solutions through investigations in Senegal, Haiti, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and India. It also shows how the major international decision makers are currently responding to the crisis. In early 2008 in Cameroun, three days of rioting left 40 people dead. Around the world, over 30 other countries have witnessed similar riots.

This hunger is not due to famine, drought or war but to the soaring prices of basic food sources. It is a food crisis, and it impacts on everyone. In the poorest countries it's a matter of survival, in the wealthier countries it's called a rise in the cost of living"

(Information from SBS Website)

Can our wee (as in urine) save the planet??

Did YOU know that wee is full of phosphate and that we're weeing a valuable source of fertilizer into water ways and up walls where it really does no good, and possibly harm??

I didn't - but now I do because I watched the video on a previous post - it was a talk at UTS given by nutritionist Rosemary Stanton and researcher Dana Cordell, who's been studying the environmental implications of the decreasing supply of phosperous in Australia and the world. The event was part of the UTSpeaks Series.

I know I'm a nerdy freak but I found it fascinating. We're not only facing peak oil but peak phosphorous both here in Australia and internationally. Watch the vid and post a comment.

Food Wise Campaign

Thanks to Daisy for sending me the following about the Food Wise campaign - it's so good to see such a ground swell of community support and awareness about food issues. Particularly that hording food until it goes off is frankly unethical. (I'm not blameless here by the way - but I'm working on it..)

Do Something recently launched their Food Wise campaign. The campaign aims to reduce the amount of food waste Australians produce. They throw some pretty juicy facts and figures at us to support their campaign, the most alarming being that Australians throw away close to 3 million tonnes of food waste per annum. This is 145 kilos per person per annum. Others include:

· It has been estimated that Australians discard up to 20% of the food they purchase, the equivalent of buying five bags of groceries and throwing one away.

· By conservative estimates, Australians threw away about $5.3 billion worth of food in 2004. This comprised $2.9 billion in fresh food; $630 million of uneaten takeaway; $876 million of leftovers; $596 million of unfinished drinks; $241 million of frozen foods, as cited in the 2005 report by The Australia Institute Wasteful Consumption.

· Studies in metropolitan Sydney showed that the average household bin contains 11kg of garbage, with 5.8 kgs of that compostable waste. 95% of this compostable matter was food waste.

· The decomposition of organic matter such as food waste in landfill is a major contributor to the generation of the highly damaging greenhouse gas methane. Methane is 21 times more potent than CO2 in its impacts on climate change (From Sustainability Victoria, Organic Waste Facts and Stats). In 2006, landfill produced 13.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the form of methane.

· Water is used intensively in growing and processing food. According to CSIRO data, dumping a kilo of beef wastes the 50,000 litres of water it took to produce that meat. Throwing out a kilo of white rice will waste 2,385 litres. Wasting a kilo of potatoes costs 500 litres.

· Tens of millions of kilograms of safe and edible fresh food and groceries are discarded every year, for reasons such as changed labelling regulations, end of season excess stock, production line changeover items, out-dated packaging, discontinued product, as well as slight label or weight inaccuracies which render the food legally unsaleable.

· Hundreds of millions of people around the world go to bed hungry or are starving for the most basic of foods. In Australia one million children go to school without breakfast or bed without dinner every day and two million people rely on food relief in Australia at some point every year.

How much food waste do you produce each week?

If you’d like to reduce the amount of food you waste, save yourself some cash and reduce your environmental impact, and I certainly encourage you to do so, take a look through the Foodwise website for great tips, recipes and opinions. John Dee (Planet Ark) and Kylie Kwong (local foodie) are both currently featured.

Rosemary Stanton on Ethical Eating

A Future for Food report- Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA)

Hello All,

Below is some info cut from the PHAA website re. the Future of Food, the document can be found at www.phaa.net.au

I have not read the report yet- but look forward to doing so.

Regards, Karen.

The Public Health Association (PHAA) in association with its members, and informed by the PHAA Nutrition Round Table, has developed A Future for Food - an initiative calling on government, professionals and industry to work together to establish a national integrated food policy to enable the national to meaningfully address the issues of public health, sustainability and equity when it comes to our food supply.

CURRENT DILEMMAS

The issues facing our food system are complex, extend across many sectors and require integrated solutions. PHAA believes the most effective way to address the complex issues impacting our food system is through an integrated food policy and implementation strategy that can address the many dilemmas Australia currently faces.

For example:

• how appropriate is our current approach to food recommendations?
• is adequate consideration given to chronic disease prevention, environmental sustainability and social equity?
• is there an approach to eating that can address all of these areas?
• how can governments, public sector, public health, food professionals, industry and community work together to achieve a food policy and food recommendations that promote health, protect the environment and celebrate biodiversity?
• is 'everything in moderation' really helpful advice?
• do we need to take the lead from international recommendations that set limits and foods to avoid where the evidence supports it?
• do we have the balance right between land to grow animal feed and land to feed humans directly?
• how greenhouse gas intensive are the foods we eat?
• what role can food policy play in reducing the estimated 47% of food and green matter that Australians discard? ¹
• what role should Australia play in addressing concerns about world population growth and its impact on food security?

Putting farmers and their communities at the centre of development

This paper on the Community Area Based Development Approach (CABDA) proposes an alternative approach to food production in Africa and may have some learnings for how to produce food globally in a more sustainable way.

It is based on a Programme in E. Africa (in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi) over the past 15 years.

The main points of the paper are summarised below. The full text can be accessed from: http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/specialist/natural-resource-perspectives/119-community-based-development-agriculture.pdf

Main points of Paper

Past approaches to increasing food production in Africa have failed because they have been technical fixes imposed from the outside, which cannot be afforded nor are relevant to the needs of the majority of the peasant farmers who produce 90% of the continent’s food

Instead, CABDA puts these farmers and their communities at the centre of development: They are involved in identifying their food production problems and in planning and implementing the solutions. These are solutions that they can afford and manage.

Using CABDA, farmers make important gains in food production through a combination of early maturing composite varieties of staple crops, crop diversification, new/improved methods of growing crops (agro forestry), introduction of drought resistant crops and better use of water through low cost, manageable technologies. .

CABDA involves the whole community, including women who are key to increasing food production. It also addresses some of main causes of food insecurity: erosion and soil degradation which reduce crop yields and food production.

Under CABDA, farmers control and drive their own development through the creation of farmer and community owned and run institutions that provide the inputs, improved seed and market support that they need.

Local, organic and ...better for the world?

Some of us belong to Sydney Organic Buyers Group - a not-for-profit group which buys organic produce in bulk from the wholesaler, on behalf of our members. We get a box of lovely fresh organic fruit and veg each fortnight.

The group now has a web site - http://www.organicbuyersgroup.org/ and are looking for more members.

There's a bit of a debate going on in the group about whether it's better to buy organic or better to buy local. I'm not sure myself - they both seem pretty important. In brief:

- organic is more sustainable, better for the environment and better for us.

- local means less energy is expended in transporting food long distances, and assists to build a sustainable market for local growers and a secure food supply for people - particularly as we are going into an uncertain future affected by decreasing fossil fuels and climate change.

- antoher important point about buying locally is the impact this has on other countries - monocropping for export contributes to a lack of food in many countries -surely it will improve food security if each community, region, and country around the globe has a good local food supply. But how do communities extract themselves from a dependence the global food market? How much would we still need and want a global food market?

Any thoughts?

Can organic farming feed Africa?

The Radio National program Future Tense broadcast a program on Thursday about a recent UN report which suggests that the best way of breaking the cycle of malnutrition and poverty in AFrica is embrace traditional organic farming practices. You can listen to the program at the program website

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Waste in Australia

Thanks to Karen for pointing us to Vic Health where I found a brand-spanking new Research Report - Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Waste in Australia.

"A highly sought-after objective of both the private and public sectors is to secure a more sustainable food system. Achieving sustainability requires a thorough and holistic understanding of the system and its drivers. This report aims to provide government,industry and non-governmental groups with the necessary information to achieve a targeted investment response to turn around the current low consumption / high waste paradigm to meet the current and future challenges facing the Australian fruit and vegetable system."

I remember hearing a while ago that Australians throw out a large percentage of the food we buy - and not into the compost - just to landfill. From the report:
"a submission to the Senate inquiry by the Boomerang Alliance estimated that food waste comprises 15% of the 20 million tonnes of waste that goes to landfill in Australia each year and that the current recycling rate for food waste is extremely low. Only 10% of food waste is recycled and the other 90% is sent to landfill (SCECA, 2008)."

A couple of other links

Hello All,

I am an inexperienced blogger, so forgive me if this information should be shared differently. There are a couple of other websites which may be of interest/ use to some of you. The first is Vichealth, the Victorian health promotion website which has a section on food security and has achieved some great projects- much more advanced than NSW. Website is www.vichealth.vic.gov.au

The other website is www.sustainablebluemountains.net.au
I am happy to add that there is a document titled, Healthy and Sustainable Food Guide, posted on this website which I worked on!

Good on you Elizabeth for starting the blog.

Karen.

Food Security

This blog is for a small group of friends who want to learn more about how to ensure that there is enough food - for everyone everywhere.



As blogger first past the post (!) I'd like to draw your attention to Belo Horizonte - Brazil's fourth largest city which in 1993 declared food a right of citizenship: then came the hard work. The city implemented a range of innovations including arrangements between local farmers and communities, farmers markets and 'people's restaurants'. By 2003 Belo's infant death rate dropped by more than half, and benefited almost 40 per cent of the cities 2.4 million people.

Read about it in an article by Frances Moore Lap writing in Yes magazine.