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National Water Week: Save water by eating more vegetables

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:51 Written by Grow Local Monday, 22 October 2012 23:24

AUSVEG, the national peak industry body representing vegetable growers, is encouraging Australians to celebrate National Water Week this week by eating more fresh vegetables.

A 2010 study by Netherlands academics Mesfin Mekkonen and Arjen Hoekstra of the University of Twente took global averages of the amount of water required to produce a kilogram of different types of food, with vegetables significantly outperforming other agricultural products.

“When it comes to the food groups, vegetables win hands down for water efficiency,” said AUSVEG Environment spokesperson Mr Jordan Brooke-Barnett.

“The study found that while vegetables only required 322 litres of water on average to produce a kilogram of food, animal products were much more water-intensive, with 3265 litres required to produce a kilogram of eggs and 5553 litres to produce that same kilogram in butter,” said Mr Brooke-Barnett.

Source: Enviroveg Australia

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Australia is Voted Number One for Organics!

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 00:51 Written by Grow Local Thursday, 11 October 2012 03:47

Australian organic products are rated the highest quality and considered almost twice as good as international organic products.

This is according to the latest biennial research commissioned by the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA) and co-funded by Horticulture Australia Ltd (HAL).

The Australian Organic Market Report 2012 shows more than one million Australians regularly purchase organic products, with 65% of adult Australians claiming to have purchased an organic product in the past 12 months.

The Report is published every two years as a benchmark for the organic sector, from meat and vegetables to grain and cosmetics.

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The world’s shrinking food basket: why it is critical we increase crop diversity

Written by Grow Local Thursday, 27 September 2012 10:31

In the 1970’s a fungal blight outbreak ravaged cornfields across the United States, destroying 50 percent of the country’s maize crops and shaking the stock market as the most economically devastating field crop disease of the 20th century.

Last week, the U.S. government slashed its forecast for corn production by 17 percent due to the worst drought the country has experenced in 56 years, raising fears of a new global food crisis and sending many commodity prices to record levels.

While the two events may be 40 years apart and have different natural causes, the outcomes are much the same, argued scientists from Bioversity International at the IUCN World Conservation Congress held in Jeju, South Korea this week.

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The People’s Food Plan

Last Updated on Monday, 24 September 2012 04:10 Written by Grow Local Monday, 24 September 2012 03:49

"What happens in the food system is of no concern to you if you're never going to eat again. But if you're intending to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, what happens to [family] farmers, what happens to seeds, what happens to water, matters to you, because your lunch depends on it."

Nettie Wiebe, Former President of the National Farmers Union of Canada, Founding member, La Via Campesina

Here at Grow Local we are very disappointed with the Federal Government’s National Food Plan Green Paper. The Green Paper takes the same industrial, profit-driven attitude to food production that we criticised in our original submission .

The industry focus of the Green Paper comes into sharp relief  with a simple word search -  in 270 pages ‘organic’ is mentioned just eleven times. ‘Domestic’ and ‘local’ fare better with over 40 mentions each, but not one discusses local food, just local or domestic markets as opposed to ‘international markets’.

The consultation process is also hampered by the makeup of the National Food Policy Working Group which reflects the commercial interests of the major food retailers and logistics industries and does not reflect the growing community interest in all aspects of food production

Fortunately there is an alternative.

Read more: The People’s Food Plan

National Food Plan Green Paper Released

Last Updated on Thursday, 19 July 2012 23:54 Written by Grow Local Wednesday, 18 July 2012 06:36

The Australian Government has released the National Food Plan green paper for public consultation.   The aim of the national food plan is to foster a sustainable, globally competitive, resilient food supply that supports access to nutritious and affordable food. Queensland environment groups have a shared and public position on food production. 
That position seeks:
The introduction of a healthy food program to shift away from genetically modified produce and towards ecologial farming and sustainable fisheries produce; to provide food security and the promotion of local food.  The program should have a major bias towards promoting sustainability and health of food and its production.  It should support progressive Queensland primary producers who demonstrate best practice ecological farming practices and fishers who demonstrate sustainable fishery practices.
Find out more about the green paper and stakeholder consultation opportunities.

To attend the Brisbane Meeting held on 29th August 7pm-9pm - Register Here

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5 Simple Super ways to Get Your Urban Garden Going!

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 July 2012 03:26 Written by Grow Local Wednesday, 11 July 2012 02:07

We recently found the fantastic article that contains some really great ideas on what you can do simply, cheaply and easily to continue on your mission of growing local. Give yourself 10 mins a day to check, water, chat with your garden – however small or large. This 10 mins will become a valuable part of your day that will become a ritual – after all its only 10 mins.

Click here to read article