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.."