world food day 2019

BY DOROTHY HENDERSON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA-BASED MEDIA STRINGER

Last week was World Food Day. On October 16, there was a flurry of food related posts, with Oxfam and other aid agencies reminding us of the fact that while so many of us are well fed, there are many in the world that go hungry. And that, paradoxically, there are people on our planet who suffer the consequences of a diet that is too bountiful, with diabetes and obesity, heart disease and some cancers exacerbated by access to too much of a good thing.

Food day came and went in our household, where the focus was on trying to get our small paddock of hay cut, mowed and baled between rain “events”, and the Esperance Districts Agricultural Show loomed on the very near horizon (there was a child’s entry in the Young Farmers’ Section to be delivered on that very day!).

So the thoughts I had about food on the designated day were left undelivered in a Dropbox folder…but that has given time for more thoughts, and experiences.

Yesterday I sat outside the pathology department of our local hospital, waiting with a small group of people who had just endured the 12 hours of not eating that goes with having to have a fasting blood test. A late entry to the conversation that was flowing freely among those patiently waiting on the vinyl covered chairs in the sterile yet welcoming place, I listened as one gentleman spoke of his reasons for being there, and changes in his life that had been wrought due to his quest for better health.

He spoke primarily of food. A butcher’s son who never “in a million years” thought it likely that a steak would not be a part of his life, he now eats no meat. He said that quitting smoking was good for him when he did that years ago, but it didn’t make him feel good; cutting out dairy had helped him feel healthier, but the clincher had been cutting meat out of his diet. He did confess that sometimes, as a special treat, he allows himself a piece of freshly caught and carefully prepared fish.

The conversation veered from what we eat to how what we eat is produced, the links between the desire for increased production and the need to fill millions of empty stomachs worldwide, to the impact the food we do grow, buy and eat has on us as people. His voice was joined by another in the group, a woman who is a baker. Her knowledge of the gluten content of modern grains, desirable for processing purposes, and the impact of that on health was hands-on stuff, gained after many early mornings turning flour into loaves of bread that are as varied as the grains that they are leavened from. She lamented the presence of processed food in the modern diet, and the group spoke of the alarming number of unknown ingredients on the sides of packages in the supermarket, the gratitude they felt for their local food producers and the fact that we have a growers market and access to fresh vegetables. I sat there transfixed by the unprovoked yet focused interaction, and felt good about the future of food.

Why I am not so sure, but maybe because it seems that if consumers are becoming more and more aware of the issues surrounding food and food production, and this conversation did touch on the slaughter of livestock, they will become more discerning and reward food producers for the work they do. Surely by becoming more connected with the food system that we are all a part of, so many of our societal woes will be salved, to a degree.

As I contemplated the discussed further, I thought back to the Growers Market we started in Esperance in 2011. One table, several back yard food producers, and a lot enthusiasm for an idea. Years later, the Esperance Growers Market is a fixture on the local calendar. Every fortnight people can access food directly from people who have grown it, or transformed it into delicious waffles and spring rolls. Most of the food producers at that market are small scale, small farm and backyard growers with surplus to spare. The connection between the producers and the consumers is uplifting; the connection is what it should be.

Further away, to our west in the beautiful food bowl that is Western Australia’s Great Southern, there is an amazingly passionate person, Evelyn Collins, leading a food movement, aptly called the Community Food Events.

Continuing the work it has been doing since 2015, Community Food Events will be putting the spotlight on food and its production when it hosts events in Denmark and Albany at the end of this month.

As the inspiring force behind the Food for Thought Festival that has tantalised thinking and tastebuds since the inaugural event in 2015, the Community Food Event team has organised dialogue studios as precursors to the next Food for Thought Festival, in March 2020.

Event coordinator Evelyn Collins said that the events would help direct conversations aimed at ensuring healthy food systems that would enrich the lives of individuals and communities in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, and further afield.

“We all know the social, ecological, energy, climate and financial effects of our modern food system are unwearable for future generations, and we can see the growing momentum in WA to shift to a regenerative food and agriculture system,” Ms Collins said.

But in order to address the issues facing the complex food system that all consumers and producers are a part of, a long-term shared vision was needed.

Input from people who eat food, grow food, source food and prepare food for others: all players in the food system needed to help grow it in to something healthy for all involved.

“Only then will it be possible to release the old, harness untapped potential and, through everyone’s support, realise a broad social transition,” she said.

Local people, those who grow, market and consume food, are core components of the region’s food system, and will drive its future. As such, their input is seen as crucial to the long term health of healthy food production itself.

Planned dialogue events will set the scene for the March festival, acting as catalysts for discussion and fomentation of ideas about the future of food. Much as the unintended food forum outside the pathology department in the Esperance Hospital had allowed people to talk about food, but without the medical incentive!

“The studio acts like a campfire for local leaders to share their perspectives of both the challenges and vision for the Great Southern, aiming to bring together actors from across the food and agricultural system for a collective conversation about the future of our ecosystem,” Ms Collins said.

For anyone who happens to live within accessible range to the dialogue studios, they will be held in Denmark, on Wednesday October 30 from 9.30am to 3.30pm at the Denmark Community Resource Centre, and in Albany on Thursday October 31 from 9.30am to 3.30pm at the Great Southern Development Commission.

More information can be gained via http://communityfoodevents.com.au/.