Australia For Sale

At a recent SFFA event I was shocked to hear that other countries are interested in buying land in Australia with the sole purpose of farming food to then export to their own country and people!

This would be because of sparse farming land available in the interested country. Not necessarily because of soil infertility or some other environmental reason, but because the land has been used for other purposes.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to use this example (and make Australians a little more land protective along the way) to create public awareness on current land use issues, and make an example out of this worst case scenario.

Who needs a McMansion (oversized family home in a showhome stepford style of suburb) when there are no people to live in it because there is no food to feed them!?

The Spot Food & Film Festival

After recently joining the Sydney Food Connect Team I was asked to man a stall at the recent Spot Food and Film Festival put on by Randwick Council in the first week of March.

The event was run down St Pauls Street in front of the Ritz and up the northern restaurant strip of Perouse Road. Our booth was situated right at the junction of the streets and involved a produce selling and cooking area as well as a small information board about Sydney Food Connect.

My job: to sell organic chemical and pesticide free gala apples - a steal at $2.50 per kilo - freshly picked from a farm in Orange, as well as informing the locals about SFC.
I must say it was interesting being in the eastern suburbs of sydney and seeing the difference in views about fresh quality produce. The majority of parents were more than happy to suffice their childs hunger/whining with a soft serve ice cream (whose truck was opposite our stand) than a fresh apple from us.

On the day we had 3 cooking demonstrations, chinese broccoli prepared by Rita one of our farmers from Kemps Creek. Wild mushrooms served on baked polenta and a spicy vegetable curry made entertainingly by Rosita a valuable member of the SFC team. And finally a delicious sweet carrot salad with this fantastic dressing whipped up by Sian also from the SFC team!
All of the recipes are available on their website http://sydney.foodconnect.com.au/

It was a great day of informing the public on initiatives that are out there to help the public know where their food comes from!

I'll be working with SFC in a couple of weeks at a Sydney Food Fairness Alliance event with guest speaker Jeanette Longfield of Sustain UK fame, so look out for a post about it.