IN THE same week the Chinese berry-Hepatitis A outbreak surfaced, a group of Victorian farmers have taken to the steps of parliament to urge Australian consumers to buy local.
Organiser of the EatBuyGrow rally Darren Doherty, who runs the farm-planning business Regrarians, said the aim was to develop public conversation about the local food movement.
About 200 people came to the rally in Melbourne last week to hear prominent farmers share their story, including renowned American farmer Joel Salatin and television personality Costa Georgiadis. A further 600 people attended the event at Collingwood Town Hall later that night.
"It is becoming increasingly difficult for small-scale farmers to work within the regulation framework in Australia," Mr Doherty said.
"Regulatory constraints are stopping great innovation.
"In light of what's happened with the berries this week, there is a lot of hypocrisy happening."
Virginian farmer Joel Salatin, who has been coined as the poster boy for the alternative food movement in the US, urged producers against sitting back and letting politicians call the shots.
He said good food was "more precious and valuable than gold" - and red tape was limiting small-scale farmers from developing their businesses.
"Everything we can do to shorten the food chain creates transparency and accountability," he said.
Costa Georgiadis, who hosts the ABC program Gardening Australia, said the ramifications of the EatBuyGrow event would spread far and wide.
He urged people to continue to talk about the berry incident, which has seen, at the time of publication, 18 cases of Hepatitis A cases linked to frozen berries imported from China.
"It's a tsunami bubbling away. We've got to keep that wound open," he said.
"And what about garlic? No-one is talking about that, but (imported) garlic is being dipped in Methyl Bromide."
He said the local food movement could become "unstoppable", but people needed to be aware of where their food came from, and make informed buying choices.
Young egg farmer Madelaine Scott, Clarkefield, also shared her thoughts on local food.
"The time is now to stand up for our rights," she said, adding that multi-national companies were dominating the food scene.
She also described regulation as a double-edged sword.
On one hand, regulations could guarantee the consumer of purchasing 100 per cent certified organic, free-range eggs, but on the other Ms Scott has just been hit by a change in regulation that means any producer with more than 50 birds has to individually stamp each egg.
"It takes the beauty out of farming. It's time-consuming and it's painful," she said.
Louise Preece
Journalist for Stock & Land.
Journalist for Stock & Land.
