A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to highlight what a national small food producers lobby group claims is the “stifling regulation” of some food and planning regulations.
Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) president Tammi Jonas, Eganstown, said it was hoped to raised $100,000 to support farmers, who faced regulatory red tape.
Ms Jonas said members claimed government failure to keep up with innovation in small-scale local food production was damaging livelihoods and restricting consumer choice. ‘On-farm processing is copping unfair and inconsistent regulation of facilities, and outdated and illogical definitions in local planning schemes,” Ms Jonas said. Key issues included communities who wanted access to raw milk from local dairies, farms doing on-farm processing who faced unfair and inconsistent regulation of their facilities, and others grappling with “outdated and illogical” definitions in local planning schemes. A legal defence fund and a hotline would be set up to support farmers and fund casework to lobby for legal reform. It would also provide advice on public and product liability for farms and food producers, who sell direct to the public, and offer examples of best-practice planning for farmers and local councils.
AFSA member Trentham East’s Bruce Burton, Milking Yard Farms, said he supported to move, because it was about the right of consumers to choose what they ate. “It means making this type of good food available to anyone that wants it and making sure government, and other bodies, don’t interfere with our right to put in our own mouths what we want to eat; it’s our bodies and we want sovereignty," Mr Burton said. “There would not be one person who doesn’t agree with the fact we want safe food. We are not against regulations - what we are against is burdensome regulations, which are not appropriate to the scale of the farm.”
Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford said any changes to regulations, particularly around on-farm slaughter and processing of meat, would need to handled very carefully. “The existing players in the industry, have strong views about any changes to regulations – but there are small business, which pose wonderful opportunities to create jobs in regional and rural Victoria, who want to innovate and be able to operate in a regulatory environment that is responsive to their needs,” Ms Pulford said. “If we can be 100 per cent confident we are ensuring food safety is protected, then we need to - of course - always support small businesses, to innovate and create jobs.”
Opposition Agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said Victoria had an international reputation for producing safe, clean food.
“It would be devastating for our industries if that reputation was destroyed due to an illness or fatality caused by products sold by those who don’t believe that Australia needs a robust, science-based food regulatory system.”
