Hello! so happy to be back with a very special episode...podcast of the Food Systems Transformations panel discussion at the Transformative Partnerships for a Better World Conference, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 11-14 July 2023.

A great transformations community event held and shared across Sydney, Prague, Portland

Apologies! A 'long' drought between eps. But WHAT a fabulous opportunity to dig and dive back into nourishing topics and themes with Associate Professor Dana Cordell, Dr Federico Davila, Research Principal Fiona Berry and Anja Bless. 

• Dr Federico Davila is a human geographer and Research Director at UTS-ISF specialising in the governance and transformation of food systems. He has conducted much of his work in the Pacific region, analysing the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems, labour markets and mobility
• Associate Professor Dana Cordell is a Research Director at the UTS-ISF where she leads the Food Systems research group. She leads and undertakes collaborative research projects on sustainable food and phosphorus futures in Australia, Vietnam, Malawi, Europe, Sri Lanka, and the USA
• Anja Bless is a PhD candidate with the UTS-ISF where she is researching the politics of regenerative agriculture. Her focus areas are environmental politics, food politics and policy, and sustainable food systems
• Fiona Berry is a Research Principal at UTS-ISF conducting research into Food Systems and project managing research across a variety of disciplines. Fiona is passionate about building communities through peri-urban and regional agriculture, local food systems and democratic community participation.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in, be inspired by Gerry Turpin, a Mbabaram Traditional Owner who is 'as far as he knows' the first fully trained Indigenous Ethnobotanist in Australia who has helped seed and lead groundbreaking, research that bridges two worlds and empowers Elders and communities to research, record, protect and derive value from their plant and cultural knowledge and to share it in ways they want.

This is the final deep dive, long lens conversation for Nourishing Matters 2022. It's one that book ends the series since its inception in late 2019 when I was blown away by Gerry's keynote presentation at PULiiMA 2019 and the power of his work for culture, community, environmental and food sovereignty. 

Learning how to love, see and better care for country and our unique plants and biodiversity by drawing upon First People's knowledge in dialogue with Western science is something many of us yearn for in our changing climate, quest for Reconciliation and urgent desire to protect all 'plants, animals and ecosystems' that are precious. Gerry and his team are leaders in this critical space: they build and record Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge (IBK) with Elders and their communities and enact protocols, research methods and pathways that enable and ensure that plant research is guided by Traditional Knowledge holders with their full, informed and prior consent.  

Gerry is the Senior Ethnobotanist at the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre (TIEC) at James Cook University in Cairns. Characteristically modest, he is however  rightly recognised nationally and internationally for what he does, inculcates, and is enabling for a more sustainable, regenerative future. 

TIEC is a partnership between Traditional Owners, the Queensland Government (including the Queensland Herbarium), CSIRO, James Cook University's Cairns Institute and the Australian Tropical Herbarium joint venture.  

Listen in and hear from Gerry about how his work has evolved and what his big dreams for the future are that include: 

• to hold an International Indigenous Ethnobotanical Conference in Cairns - huge benefits for Northern Queensland and communities
• to see the Nagoya Protocol ratified by the current Commonwealth Government, to enable stronger protection of Indigenous Biocultural Knowledge rights across all Australian States and Territories 
• to secure more funds to assist him and the Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre to engage and employ more people to do the urgent work that needs to be done before more Elders and their plant and cultural knowledge passes ....

I first met Gerry in or around 2010 through my Remote Indigenous Gardens Network work.  At that time TIEC was newly established. Since then Gerry and his work have gone from strength to strength.

I am humbled and feel honoured to have watched the growth and impact of what Gerry does.  He is one of those quietly modest but amazing people who show and lead the way. Thank you Gerry, for what you do and for the quiet but steely spirit you share to guide how we might all change, add layers to the lens, and quietly support, act and do like you do to grow, protect and share good things ....

The Tropical Indigenous Ethnobotany Centre, JCU Cairns    https://www.tiec.org.au/

The Australian Tropical Herbarium   https://www.ath.org.au/

Since this interview was recorded, it has been announced that James Cook University will host a new Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures (CIEHF) – aiming to bring Indigenous and environmental histories to the forefront of land and sea management and Gerry and TIEC will be integral to that.  https://www.jcu.edu.au/news/releases/2022/november/new-$89m-national-research-centre-at-jcu

Nourishing Matters

Instagram @nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: Foodswell, Nourishing podcast

Twitter: @foodswell1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A warm, wideranging conversation with the wonderful Laura Dalrymple who, with partner Grant Hilliard, established the Feather and Bone Butchery in 2006 and co-authored The Ethical Omnivore published in 2020. 

Laura and Grant recently opened their new store in Charing Cross, Sydney, a great reason to catch up with Laura to learn more about their inspirational journey, the change making work they do and the communities they are part of, support and foster through producer talks, community events, close supplier relationships and fun, whole butchery courses they run for every day people and eaters. 

When asked to share thoughts on The Ethical Omnivore and how it's been received, Laura paints the picture of how interest in regenerative production, knowing your food's provenance and in the artistry of 'whole of animal' fine butchery and eating nose-to-tail has grown enormously in recent years and about how COVID (strangely) has further demonstrated the viability of business built around shorter, known supply chains and close producer relationships.

And as Laura shares, there's a host of authors and new books on the topic she's been digging into that include Jayne Buxton's The Great Plant-Based Con - Why eating a plants-only diet won't improve your health or save the planet and Carolyn Steel's Sitopia - How Food Can Save the World . What else has Laura enjoyed reading lately? not so tangentially, Switched and Kate Holden's powerfulThe Winter Road. 

Laura and Grant are 'elders, leaders and modern day pioneers' in ethical omnivory and butchery. They are rightly much loved by producers, restaurateurs and everyday consumers alike. Since 2006 they have walked the talk through their business and with the communities they connect with to value and care for the whole animal and for the people and the places who produce them sustainably, with love and care for the environment and our collective futures.

Humbling and such a pleasure to speak with you Laura - thank you!

If you missed it, also listen in to my conversation with Grant and Kate Wingett in previous episodes of Nourishing Matters on the Joys & Benefits of Eating Nose to Tail

Learn more about Feather and Bone Butchery, The Ethical Omnivore and sign up for their newsletters to hear about and sign up for upcoming courses and fun community/producer events and talks they host by heading to their website at Feather and Bone Butchery

Image acknowledgement: Petrina Tinslay

Feather and Bone

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/featherandboneprovidore/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/featherandboneprovidore/

Twitter @https://twitter.com/featherandbone1

Nourishing Matters

Instagram @nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: https://www.foodswell.org.au

Twitter: @foodswell1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With Dr Phil Baker, a great discussion about and update on the surge of research into ultra-processed foods (UPF's), the growing evidence and case for urgent action to address these globalised foods (and systems) that are so damaging to human health and planetary wellbeing. 

Phil and I spoke in 2020 for one of Nourishing Matters scene setting episodes. Since then, COP26 in late '21 has shone the light on the need to urgently redress agricultural land clearing that UPF's help drive, an event subsequent to the UN Food Systems Summit '21, that 'could and should' have also provided opportunity for more direct, discussion and action on UPF's. But were not, so why not? Listen in, the case for change and action is growing... 

And as a consumer, listen through to hear four great tips from Phil to help you better recognise and avoid UPF's: Yup! if products are highly processed, packaged and claim to be healthy, have multiple ingredients you and your grandmother would never recognise and are covered in marketing, watch out! 

Dr. Phillip Baker, is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University. He leads national and international research teams and supervises PhD students, to investigate healthy and sustainable food system issues. UPF's are a hot, growing research topic that Phil and many of the PhD students he supervises focus upon.

Recently, Phillip and colleagues edited a special journal issue on the political economy of healthy and sustainable food systems, including many papers relating to ultra-processed foods and the power of the food industry. Phillip also led several recent papers investigating the rise of ultra-processed foods in infant and young child diets, and the strategies used by the baby food industry to undermine breastfeeding, grow their markets and protect against regulation. Forthcoming research investigates the environmental impacts of ultra-processed foods, and how we can use policy, law and regulation to minimise the harms these foods are causing to human and planetary health.

One of the Phil's current PhD students, mentioned in our conversation, is Kim Anastasiou who, with Phil and other colleagues, recently published an excellent article in The Conversation - all about how UPF's are trashing human health and the planet. It provides a great snapshot of the issues: available @ Ultra processed foods are junking our health and the planet

Dr Phillip Baker 

Web: https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/phil-baker

Twitter: @PhilBakerNZ

Senior lecturer, food policy & international nutrition @DeakinIPAN #foodsystems #foodpolitics #IYCF #globalhealth #TedX talk: http://bit.ly/37ytfk6

Nourishing MattersInstagram:

@nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: https://www.foodswell.org.au

Twitter: @foodswell1

Other important links...

Baker, Phillip, Priscila Machado, Thiago Santos, Katherine Sievert, Kathryn Backholer, Michalis Hadjikakou, Cherie Russell et al. "Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: Global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers." Obesity Reviews (2020), pp. 1-22. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343478299_Ultra-processed_foods_and_the_nutrition_transition_Global_regional_and_national_trends_food_systems_transformations_and_political_economy_drivers

Narrative Review Paper:

Elizabeth, L., Machado, P., Zinöcker, M., Baker, P., & Lawrence, M. (2020). Ultra-processed foods and health outcomes: a narrative review. Nutrients, 12(7), 1955 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32630022/

Conversation article: The Rise of Ultra-Processed Foods and why they’re really bad for our health https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-ultra-processed-foods-and-why-theyre-really-bad-for-our-health-140537

Rise of Commercial Milk Formulas, the first ultra-processed foods;

Baker, P., Melo, T., Augusto Neves, P., Machado, P., Smith, J., Piwoz, E., ... & McCoy, D. (2020). First‐food systems transformations and the ultra‐processing of infant and young child diets: The determinants, dynamics and consequences of the global rise in commercial milk formula consumption. Maternal & Child Nutrition, e13097.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.13097

https://theconversation.com/sweet-power-the-politics-of-sugar-sugary-drinks-and-poor-nutrition-in-australia-95873

https://theconversation.com/fat-nation-the-rise-and-fall-of-obesity-on-the-political-agenda-72875

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A complete treat to catch up and speak with Naomi and Gavin from Community Gardens Australia. Both Churchill Fellows, Naomi and Gavin, are about to head off on their incredible, change-inspiring and enabling study tours.

Naomi's research aims to help strengthen and grow the organisation and the movement by learning about and sharing new social and other food 'enterprise' forms that can help achieve that. Gavin's study tour will see him dig in to research and learn more about urban (and other) models for food forests and orchards. Two amazing projects - fit for people, food security and community in times like these (COVID, high food prices, climate change & more!).

Naomi Lacey is President of Community Gardens Australia and a permaculturalist who is passionate about promoting healthy food systems, sustainable lifestyles, and cultivating community. She helped to establish the first community garden in the satellite city of Palmerston near Darwin and from there became involved with Community Gardens Australia (CGA) in 2015 then taking on the role of President in 2019.

Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to learn from community garden networks around the world, Naomi’s vision for CGA is to build the organisation into one that supports the growth and needs of community gardens around Australia, providing them with education, support, resources, and sustenance to continue their work and therefore their positive impact on the communities they reside in.

Gavin Hardy is the Queensland Coordinator of the national community gardening network, Community Gardens Australia. He is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship recipient with a focus on community based agroforestry models.

Gav is also a multi-award winning landscape architect and engineer with over 25 years experience planning, designing and building numerous sustainable landscapes and food systems in Australia.

He has a passion for gardening, permaculture, sustainability education and mentoring and strongly encourages you consider, apply for a Churchill Fellowship - that's how he got involved with Community Gardens Australia! 

And great news. Gavin and Naomi will share stories and more from their travels and the people and projects they visit across Europe and America via a blog they'll set up on the Community Gardens Australia website once they get underway in a few weeks.

To follow them and to check out CGA's excellent new website and resources visit www.communitygarden.org.au  

You can contact Naomi at: president@communitygarden.org.au

and Gavin at: qld@communitygarden.org.au

Follow Community Gardens Australia 

FB: @CommunityGardensAustralia | Tw: @communitygardensaustralia Inst: @communitygardensaustralia

Follow Nourishing Matters 

Insta @ nourishing_matters

FB @ nourishingmatterstochewon

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A great conversation with Nural and Kathleen, all about the recent 4th Australian Bee Congress, why it was especially 'special' this year (200 years since the honey bee was introduced to Australia) and more. A Congress shortly followed by the 3rd Australian Native Bee Conference - our magical, stingless, precious native bees...also held in Sydney. 

This episodes links up and with my great conversation with Nural and Professor Liz Harry that kicked off Season 2 of Nourishing Matters in September 2021, that was all about honey and healing, the science and magic of honey bees and honey and their ground-breaking research. Listen back and in to that Episode if you haven't already.

Listen in to this episode for an update on matters honey and bees, and hear from Nural and Kathleen about their amazing honey and health research, for human health and the for health and viability of the our apiary industry and the key role bees play as pollinators for Australian agriculture, horticulture and biodiversity. Australian bees and the honey they produce from our unique flora are 'so' very special - they provide honey with amazing bioactivity properties that add unique value to human health, healing and the gut...as well as offering delicious flavour: nourishing matters all, that promise new horizons for higher value, honey products - for health and cuisine. Time for Australian honey 'terroir'!

And yup, climate change and the impact of extreme weather events on the health of our bees, biodiversity and apiary industry were a key, big theme and focus at the 4th Australian Bee Congress and for the work that so many people are tackling on many fronts. 

Thanks Nural and Kathleen for a great catch-up and update on honey and bee matters, and congratulations Kathleen - runner up in Bee Bites: a very clever student competition that's all about science communication and students sharing pithy research stories with industry to showcase new research opportunities and horizons - good for the industry, to attract new generations to the sector and for the environment.  

Websites

4th Australian Bee Congress  

Australian Honey Bee Industry Council 

3rd Australian Native Bee Conference 

https://profiles.uts.edu.au/nural.cokcetin

Relevant recent articles

Scientists get busy to revive state’s beekeeping fortunes

https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-science/news/scientists-get-busy-revive-states-beekeeping-fortunes

Instagram   @nourishing_matters    @foodswellaustralia 

Facebook    Nourishing Matters     

Twitter   @foodswell1

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, listen in with Professor Nick Hopwood for an uplifting life-enriching conversation that’s all about tube-feeding and the heart-filled, ground-breaking work that he, colleagues and families involved in SUCCEED do.

Imagine. Up to 30% of children experience feeding difficulties and as many as 1% of children are tube-fed at some point – but tube-feeding is an almost invisible yet vital issue in our health – and food - system. SUCCEED's interdisciplinary team and innovative approach is changing that:

• undertaking research to better understand 'who' delivers primary health care and,
• 'what' best practice care looks like,
• along with data to better inform and drive change,
• and the incredible Childfeeding.org website and outreach events they've created to support parents and families whose children are tube-fed.  

SUCCEED is the Supporting Children with Complex Feeding Difficulties (SUCCEED) Study Group.  It's is a unique collaboration between researchers, families and clinicians who are passionate about helping children with feeding difficulties and their families, and ChildFeeding.org has been produced by the families, clinicians and researchers of the Supporting Children with Complex Feeding Difficulties (SuCCEED) Study.

Professor Nick Hopwood is a Professor of Professional Learning at UTS, and Co-Convenor of the Life-wide Learning and Education Research Group within the School of International Studies and Education. The SUCCEED initiative is supported by the Early Life Determinants of Health, Clinical Academic Group at Maridulu Budyaru and brings together families, academics and clinicians.

For many babies, infants and parents, tube-feeding is a vital part of everyday life, it’s life-saving, and it can be life enabling, creative and joyful especially if supported by creative care practices and networks. Visit ChildFeeding.Org to learn more about:

• Our vision is a world where children with feeding difficulties thrive.
• Our mission is to help families celebrate and embrace mealtimes, however they choose to feed.

"As the only evidence-based online resource by parents, for families of kids with complex feeding difficulties in Australia, this is the table where everyone is welcome. The SUCCEED Study and ChildFeeding.org are working for change, so that every family knows the simple joy of sharing a meal, and every child thrives".

To support SUCCEED head to: https://tube-feeding.fundraising.uts.edu.au/

SUCCEED on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/succeedtubefeeding

Recent Papers: 

• Hopwood, N. (2021). From response and adaptation to agency and contribution: Making the theory of practice architectures dangerous. Journal of Praxis in Higher Education, 3(1), 78-94. https://doi.org/10.47989/kpdc114 
• And the  The Blend –  a beautiful ‘big’ resource published  by Cardinal Health in 2022 that shares incredible personal stories of parents and kids who tube feed, lost of recipes, technical, health and nutrition tips. SUCCEED's arts program features in it too.  Visit: cardinalhealth.com.au/kangaroo

Follow Nourishing Matters 

Insta @ nourishing_matters

FB @ nourishingmatterstochewon

Acknowledgement: Image provided, with permission by SUCCEED

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode a great conversation with Ross Anderson, all about the truly inspiring story of AQUNA Sustainable Murray Cod and the premium, murray cod they produce for consumers, restaurants, international markets and leading chef's like Josh Niland. It's an uplifting, can-do story about business leadership and innovation, smart, passionate people and their commitment to sustainability that all adds up to a world first, all grown in regional NSW.

I've long wanted to do a 'positive' story about aquaculture, especially given the impacts of large-scale industrial Tasmanian salmon production, the story Richard Flanagan tells in Toxic - The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry, pub 2021. Flanagan’s ‘Toxic’ is a heart and environmentally wrenching story, but it isn’t all bad news. In a webinar he presented about the issues, he shone light on where there's hope and great potential  – to expand, sustainable land based, vertically integrated, closed loop land based aquaculture.

AQUNA is an award winning, land-based, producer of murray cod - one of the most ancient, delicious and highly revered fish, once prolific in the wild, listed as nationally threatened in 2003, and so special to First People's and Murray Darling basin ecosystems. During recent fish kills, the business supplied aerators to the Menindee Lakes and have released some 23 million murray cod fingerlings back into the Murray Darling river to help restore fish stocks and ecosystem health. Love it. 

AQUNA is an industry leader internationally and in the local Griffith community and environment  – employing people in clever jobs, growing vertically integrated, circular-resource use production. Listen in and check out their website to learn more about their commitment to sustainability and whole-of-system innovation in this space. 

Aquna Sustainable Murray Cod is listed as “GREEN” on the The Good Fish Guide. The Good Fish Guide, an app and website, is a sustainability initiative by the Australian Marine Conservation Society. The guide is an independent reference that helps chefs and consumers make informed decisions on the seafood they eat and serve.

Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing food producing industries in the world – a key and growing source of protein. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, global aquaculture production rose 520% for the period 1990-2018 (FAO, 2020). Some 54% of seafood consumed worldwide is produced through aquaculture, but approximately 87% of seafood purchased in New South Wales is imported. So there are enormous domestic and export opportunities for sustainably produced, high quality fish and AQUNA are leading the way to do just that. 

Bravo AQUNA and thank you Ross for such a great conversation (and for what you all do)!

AQUNA's website @ aquna.com

Follow AQUNA:

Insta: @ aqunasustainablemurraycod/

FB: @  AqunaSustainableMurrayCod

Follow Nourishing Matters 

Insta @ nourishing_matters

FB @ nourishingmatterstochewon

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leadership - highly desirable and topical! Listen in to my great conversation with Matt Linnegar, that's all about leadership and two very special drought resilience programs that he and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation is delivering to support farmers and rural communities. Key, support, skills and networks for people, resilient communities and our food systems.

Matt is the Chief Executive of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) who's passionate about the programs ARLF runs, the people he works with and supporting rural and regional communities.

ARLF runs six programs and we chat about key leadership aptitudes common to all and then zoom in to talk about the Drought Resilience Leaders Development Program and the Drought Resilience Leaders Mentoring Program that are current initiatives funded by the Future Drought Fund that ARLF deliver.

Talking about building drought resilience while so many people have experienced the recent trauma of extreme floods and fire, back to back, might seem a bit odd. But the challenges of drought and how to help people to build the personal and community skills and networks for 'resilience'  to cope with more extreme, frequent events, is a big part of what leadership development is all about -  for drought, fire, floods and other disasters. Matt says leadership is a practice, not about individuals, and all about helping communities to plan for challenges and to bounce back better. 

ARLF has over 1800 alumni, across Australia, some 18% of whom are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (check out the amazing Milparanga Leadership program on the ARLF site!) and already 12 regions and some 500 people across Australia have joined and benefitted from the Drought Resilience Leaders and the Drought Resilience Leaders Mentoring programs. 

And as we spoke good news - the programs are to be funded to continue and roll out the programs across more regions and for more mentors and mentees across Australia, so look out for news - or visit the ARLF site - learn more and get involved. 

Thanks Matt!

ARLF Website:   https://rural-leaders.org.au/

Social Media and other links: 

https://www.instagram.com/ruralleaders_au/

https://twitter.com/ARLFNews

https://www.facebook.com/australianruralleadershipfoundation/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/australian-rural-leadership-foundation/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUDTa4-jm5BAh4stQk5cyRQ

Follow Nourishing Matters 

Insta @ nourishing_matters

FB @ nourishingmatterstochewon

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you missed this popular Ep from season one, April '21, Listen Back to Erica's great story about why and how she went about creating Farmer Meets Foodie in far north Queensland. 

Imagine if great food from your region had to travel over 3000 kilometres from where it’s picked to land back in your local grocery store, 10 kilometres from where it was grown and picked?!  That’s a reality for a lot of top end producers and communities. 

Listen and be inspired by Erica Hughes and the wonderful Farmer Meets Foodie virtual farmers marketplace and food connections that she and her family are growing at Mt Molloy on the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland, to change that story for the better.  

Across the country there’s a rapidly growing appetite and demand for more local, regional and seasonal food. Food that’s produced ethically, sustainably, that’s fresh, good for people and for the environment and that adds value in interconnected ways across the value chain from ‘paddock to plate’. Whether it’s to reduce food miles, improve food choices and affordability, or to help local producers, communities and economies to regenerate and recover from times of drought and more, or for consumers to access food more safely, online during times like COVID.  

Knowing your foods provenance – where it comes from - and then having the ability to choose and act on that knowledge is really powerful. Farmer Meets Foodie gives people the power to make and drive those choices - via a platform that producers go to directly connect and transact with commercial food businesses and other consumers in their region in practical, change-making ways . And there’s more….great services and Meet & Greet events. It’s inspiring! 

Listen in to enjoy this lovely conversation with Erica (and Zoro the rooster and Umbra the dawg) to hear and learn more – to join their marketplace, get ideas and tips about how you and your community can get more local and regional food on the table, and support producers to be better recognised and rewarded for what they do. Love it.

To learn more, register and join the FARMER MEETS FOODIE MARKETPLACE go to:

www.farmermeetsfoodie.com.au

Facebook http://facebook.com/farmermeetsfoodie

Twitter http://twitter.com/farmermetfoodie

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-hughes-blumson-20677770/

Instagram http://instagram.com/farmermeetsfoodie

Follow Nourishing Matters on Insta @ nourishing_matters

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One year on from my first conversation with Erica in April 2021, I catch up with Erica to chat and hear about how things are travelling, growing and going, in and around Mt Molloy, the tablelands and Cairns, and for the very special, regionally based virtual farmers market Farmer Meets Foodie that Erica created and operates with her family and colleagues. 

We chat about hospitality and tourism, is it bouncing back and what will it look like going forward? labour shortages, delicious organic seconds, COVID lockdowns and border closures, fuel prices and more.  So much has happened since we last spoke and it's been challenging times, but Farmer Meets Foodie has grown and is investing in its future plans.

Erica is a farmer, educator and former NRM practitioner in Queensland's Gulf Country. She is the founder of Farmer Meets Foodie that is very special online virtual farmers market, supported by clever local events and other support that nurture business-business, farmer-consumer, community and business development links and connections.  

The Open Food Network celebrates 10 years this month. Their gamechanging online market and distribution platform and networks, along with many local and regional farmers markets, networks and hubs are growing across the country and Farmer Meets Foodie and Erica are an inspirational part of the local and regional food innovation national scene who support farmers and consumers to connect n far north Queensland.

Bravo Erica - great to catch up with you! 

To learn more, register and join the FARMER MEETS FOODIE go to:

www.farmermeetsfoodie.com.au

Facebook http://facebook.com/farmermeetsfoodie

Twitter http://twitter.com/farmermetfoodie

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-hughes-blumson-20677770/

Instagram http://instagram.com/farmermeetsfoodie

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A great conversation with Alex about his experiences, reflections and the perspectives he brings to his work that’s all about people centred development for community and ecosystems resilience, livelihoods and food security in a changing climate. Alex has deep experience in community development and working with Indigenous people in East Timor, Central Australia and now with island communities in the Pacific.

We kick off with the idea of the ‘island’ and that we’re all (pretty much) islanders now given the increasingly uncertain, volatile waters of climate change we all face but that especially pose direct, immediate challenges to island people and communities. Our conversation ranges across Alex’s diverse and oft overlapping community development experiences and zooms in on the contrasting and sometimes very similar food security challenges faced by many of the people and communities Alex has worked with in tropical, arid and temperate remote and island locations. 

We talk:

• Colonialism and its legacies, past and present…
• community development work and how it is approached ‘differently’ here and overseas in the Pacific and elsewhere
• food security and climate change in central Australia 
• carbon markets, climate change work to support Indigenous land and island owners to build more resilient livelihoods and help protect and restore ecosystems 
• …and we talk about the changing face and place of permaculture, pushbacks, changing perspectives and reflective conversations underway…  

Alex McClean has worked in community development, food security, sustainable livelihoods, natural resource management and climate change across the Asia-Pacific region and remote Central Australia for 15 years. He is an experienced field level practitioner, having worked with numerous communities and community based organisations on strengthening the mutual ties between access to land, natural resources and viable livelihoods. Alex established Arid Edge Environmental Services in 2013, the social enterprise arm of the Arid Lands Environment Centre in Alice Springs. He currently works for Nakau on forest carbon projects with customary landowners in the pacific. 

Alex lives in Alice Springs with his family and still enjoys pottering in the veggie patch. Last years pomegranate crop was particularly satisfying. 

Learn more about Nakau and the great work they do @ nakau.org 

And follow Nourishing Matters and Foodswell @ 

Twitter        @foodswell1

Instagram   @nourishing_matters   

Facebook     @ nourishingmatterstochewon

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, support the podcast us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing        

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is all about clever, heart-filled research to improve food options, pleasures and wellbeing for aged people.  Many older people experience swallowing difficulties and that means they have limited food choices and what's offered to them may often be unappealing 'food blobs'. Dr Aarti Tobin and Dr Janne Beelen from CSIRO are passionate to help change that through their research to develop more attractive, delicious and nutritious options for people who experience swallowing difficulties, a condition that's known as dysphagia.

Listen in to hear from Aarti and Janne about their research to incorporate new high protein powders into new foods options, products and processes that incorporate 3D food printing, diagnostics and modelling - all to develop more attractive, nutritious and accessible options for the aged care sector and those they serve.

This is a great story that offers a warm invitation to food businesses and for purpose  innovators to get in touch and join the cause to help produce, scale and make available more attractive, nutritious foods for older people. 

It's a cause that resonates with previous Nourishing Matters conversations with:- 

• Emma Coath, Rocket Seeder's - start-up business incubation programs, supporting people with bright ideas to develop business to tackle food waste and loss 
• Dr Aarti Tobin & Dr Danyang Ying, research turn to vegetable and low value meat cuts into high value protein powders
• Professor Nick Hopwood, SUCCEED supporting children who tube feed ...

Listen in to hear more ...and follow CSIRO below:  

Dr Aarti Tobin - Linked In 

Dr Janne Beelen  - Linked In 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/csirogram/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/csiro

Nourishing Matters

Instagram @nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: Foodswell, Nourishing podcast

Twitter: @foodswell1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A heartwarming, environmentally nourishing story to lead Nourishing Matters off in 2022, when there’s so much heartache and hardship at home and overseas. Gentle steps. 

Listen in and be inspired by Julia Kay who, with husband Jordy, is a Co-founder of GREAT WRAP the only Australian made compostable cling wrap.  

GREAT WRAP is a seriously clever new product for the home, restaurants and catering services, and for any and all large commercial plastic wrap users. 

It’s a seriously innovative new business that Julia and Jordy have going and growing on, and fuelled by a big vision, with lots of heart, R&D, partners and community. 

In three short years, Julia and Jordy have not only developed the product but have grown the business and opened a large new manufacturing facility in Melbourne – a business and product that tackles food and plastic waste ‘head on’. 

GREAT WRAP uses food waste to produce a compostable (and soon to be marine degradable) cling wrap that displaces food and plastic waste from going to landfill, is locally made, is compostable in your garden and in landfill, and will soon use local food waste to ‘close the loop’ and further realise Julia and Jordy’s vision for GREAT WRAP to become a fully vertically integrated business. 

Enough from us. Read and see more about these wonderful people and GREAT WRAP by heading to GREAT WRAP’s website at greatwrap.co where you can order online. 

And follow GREAT WRAP  on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/great_wrap/

And follow Nourishing Matters and Foodswell @ 

Twitter        @foodswell1

Instagram   @nourishing_matters   

Facebook     @ nourishingmatterstochewon

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, support the podcast us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing        

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We can all give it a go to grow, prepare and enjoy fresh, seasonal food and Paul’s new book HOMEGROWN is a feast for the eyes and of gardening tips, recipes and practical inspiration to do just that. A perfect gift for the holidays and throughout the seasons – a gift that keeps on giving! 

A warm episode to wrap up 2021. I loved meeting and speaking with Paul about HOMEGROWN, his home, family and inspirations, reflections on the bushfires and COVID, and the pleasures of deliciously fresh, seasonal food and good times to be had when family, friends and community grow, cook and get together. Yup – building a life around food and community and the many ‘small’ pleasures but collectively ‘big’ things we can each do become that little bit more self-sufficient. 

HOMEGROWN is a joyful book to dip into throughout the year and as Paul says, his hope is that it’s friendly, accessible, conversational and empowering for anyone and everyone of all ages. It’s all that and more.  As he shares in our chat, it’s a ‘book-end’ of sorts and excellent companion to his first book The Edible Garden – Cookbook and Growing Guide, now in its 4th edition.

In HOMEGROWN Paul journeys over the seasons, in his garden and kitchen, and shares gardening tips, recipes and other practical inspiration to give you the confidence and know-how you'll need to grow, cook and preserve your way through the year.

HOMEGROWN features planting guides for the most popular vegetables and fruit trees to grow yourself using whatever space you have, whether it's a balcony, backyard, or nature strip, and shares a year's worth of simple seasonal recipes, from basics such as bread, sauces, pickles and preserves to delicious meals that celebrate fresh produce from the garden.

Garden projects include:

• Raising seedlings
• DIY mobile chicken coop (I want one!)
• Building a mini greenhouse
• Growing potatoes in a bag
• Protecting your garden from the heat
• Making a raised bed from old pallets
• Growing fruit trees from cuttings
• Creating a fire circle

About Paul

Paul West is a chef, passionate gardener, sustainability advocate and popular media personality. He hosted four seasons of River Cottage Australia (Foxtel and SBS) and is a regular guest presenter on ABC television's Gardening Australia, Back Roads, and Catalyst and he is a co-founder of Grow It Local that connects people to grow great food where they live and more. Paul's philosophy is simple - grow your ingredients with love, prepare them simply and share them with family and friends. He advocates real food, community and gardening, and loves to show people how easy it is to prepare delicious meals using vibrant produce, without blowing the budget. He lives with his wife and children on the beautiful south coast of NSW.

Google, learn more and get in touch with Paul via his many media and local connections in the Eurbodalla Shire. 

Website

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our climate change debates (and cascading extreme events) can be depressing. So, what an absolute and complete pleasure to speak with Anika about her new book Our Sunburnt Country, writing, storytelling and cultivating climate courage and action with optimism, hope and excitement. Yes! Genuine, informed excitement!

Anika knows her stuff.  Not only is she super well informed, she’s fabulously authentic and warm.  In times when worldly cynicism, sophistry and spin, can cloud our gaze on real opportunities that are out there for positive change, Anika bravely puts out the call for justice, responsibility and vision. She tells the story of multiple and many solutions, the benefits, and offers practical, inspiring pathways and tools for all of us to consider to help be the leaders we need, to take action and fuel what she calls the ‘accelerators’ for social tipping points and change. 

Anika’s book is beautifully written and a pleasure to read, as Matthew Evans says in his praise for Our Sunburnt Country: 

'In a hope-filled, personal tale framed by her family farm in a sun-baked landscape, Anika Molesworth weaves philosophy, science and a poet’s eye into a heart-warming tale of how to help heal the planet.'

- MATTHEW EVANS, CHEF AND BESTSELLING AUTHOR

I loved speaking with Anika and her positive, forward-looking spirit. 

“Rather than tell stories that are reactive and oppositional, share stories that are optimistic and propositional” 

Our Sunburnt Country does just that. Bravo and thank you Anika! 

About Anika 

Farmer, scientist and storyteller Anika Molesworth lives and works on Wilyakali land, the traditional home of the Wilyakali people.

Dr. Anika Molesworth is a recognised thought-leader of agro-ecological systems resilience and international farming development, giving her a holistic perspective of farming and food system issues at a global scale. With a passion for rural communities and healthy ecosystems, she is committed to helping to create sustainable and vibrant rural landscapes now and for the future. She is a Founding Director of Farmers for Climate Action – a national network of over 5,000 Australian farmers undertaking climate change action. In 2017, she presented at TEDxYouthSydney the talk “Farmers are key to a better future.” She is also the author of the book, Our Sunburnt Country. Awards include 2015 Young Farmer of the Year, and 2017 Young Australian of the Year NSW Finalist.

You can follow Anika’s work via:

www.AnikaMolesworth.com 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnikaMolesworth 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anikamolesworth/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anika.molesworth

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJBsmImICU-67kzy1SFz6RQ

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anika-molesworth-phd-93519187/

Website

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A great conversation with Richard all about our grains sector and the incredible challenges, changes, and opportunities on the horizon for grain producers and what they may be growing in the future as demand for plant-based and other protein continues to grow both here and for export. 

Richard Heath is the Executive Director of the Australian Farm Institute (AFI) and he’s also a Director of the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

Richard’s an experienced farmer, a passionate advocate of and for R&D and value-adding. He shares some amazing insights about the huge, positive impact R&D has had on grain producers over the past twenty years as they have had to contend with climate change and more severe droughts. 

A great conversation that’s all about grains, current and future horizons, and how climate and other healthy, sustainable food drivers are together creating big challenges and opportunities for Australian grain producers and eaters. 

We talk:

• Flexitarian diets and new horizons for pulses and value-adding of them as well as wheat and its importance here at home and for export
• R&D and the incredible impact it has and continues to have to enable producers to ‘grow’ grain in increasingly tough circumstances
• Who our grain growers are and the changing face and profile of Australian farming and the question of ‘hollowing out’ in the middle…
• The potential for value-adding onshore for the sector, especially if cheaper renewable energy can be made available in the regions 

• Issues around plant-based proteins and labeling
• The importance of new crops – for nutrient-dense food and for ecological services on the farm
• Innovation in the sector to deliver better sustainability and ESG outcomes 
• Back to back extreme weather events and what it means for farmers equity and futures

And a whole lot more. It’s a great conversation that travels far and wide. Huge thanks Richard!

Website/links

Australian-Farm-Institute

nourishingmatterstochewon

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A great conversation with Paul about his new book True to the Land – A History of Food in Australia. 

Available from Booktopia, Angus & Robertson, and Dymocks bookstores. 

Paul is a food writer, a regular presenter at the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, and is passionate about our food history and foodways. His wonderful book travels far and wide to tell the interwoven stories of the history of the food of Australia, spanning 65,000 years from its beginnings with the First Nations people and of the impacts of colonization on those foodways and people. It’s a fascinating story that shares tales and linkages to show how our foodways and change within them are closely interwoven with social, political, and immigration policies, twists and turns over time, as well as the influences of scientific and technological advances that together shaped and got us here to ‘Modern Australian’ food.  

With Michael Symons and others, Paul contributed to the first Symposium of Australian Gastronomy that was held in the early 1980s, and Michael’s book, One Continuous Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia (published in 1982) was, until now, the most comprehensive food history of Australia. Paul pays tribute to and builds upon the work of Michael and many other great chefs, food writers, and researchers. 

As Paul shares in conversation, a driving passion was to include more of the story of the foods of First Australians (and impacts on them), of migrant Australians, and of everyday women – oft-neglected –  in how our diverse food cultures and love for them evolved and is shared. And the environment, the land – and how true to it – our foodways have been and could be in the future is very close to mind and hand throughout this great book.        

“From millennia-old fish traps to television’s MasterChef Australia, by way of damper and mutton, lamingtons and Anzacs, True to the Land charts the evolution of Australian food and agriculture, acknowledging the contributions of the many cultures that make up contemporary Australia” 

Barbara Santich, Professor Emeritus, The University of Adelaide

Website/links

True to the Land:  https://www.booktopia.com.au/true-to-the-land-paul-van-reyk/book/9781789144062.html

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the second of two ‘peri-urban’ stories from Greater Sydney. Stories about people who are helping build resilience, grow food, inspire change and enable change-making communities of practice in diverse ways. Listen in to my conversation with Roger to hear about innovative applied research and ecological services at the urban edge, closeby to the Blue Mountains where Farm It Forward featured last week are based.   

Dr. Roger Attwater is the Senior Manager, Environmental Sustainability, Office of Estate and Commercial at Western Sydney University and is passionate about his work and optimistic about what can and is being done to build resilience and sustain healthy ecosystems and communities at the edge of our cities where climate impacts and development pressures meet.   

Sydney’s Hawkesbury Nepean diverse peri-urban region has been at the receiving end of successive extreme events – drought, bushfires, and flood all within two years. It’s also home to diverse agriculture and horticulture, a key part of Sydney’s food bowl, and to one of Australia’s oldest agricultural colleges, now part of the Western Sydney University Hawkesbury campus.

Hawkesbury campus is delivering a best practice demonstration of peri-urban landscape management incorporating integrated educational pathways through the Centre of Excellence in Peri-Urban Futures, practical demonstrations of strategies for climate change risks, and sustainability and industry partnerships.

The campus footprint of 1,400 hectares includes a built campus of 300 hectares, commercial farm and environmental assets of 600 hectares, and 400 hectares of remnant Cumberland Plain vegetation.

Both the Hawkesbury Water Recycling Scheme and the Hawkesbury Farm are long-established Living Labs for teaching, research, and demonstration. Water recycling connects risk management needs in the fragmented peri-urban landscape, with benefits reflected through the water cycle.

A great conversation about inspiring things that are underway – thank you, Roger!

Website/links

Western Sydney University – Environmental Sustainability: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/environmental_sustainability/home

WSU Living Labs & more: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/environmental_sustainability/home/living_labs/peri-urban

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing        Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emmanuela Prigioni, ‘Manu’, is a fabulously warm and inspirational person, who loves growing social connections & community through the amazing Farm It Forward social enterprise that she dreamt up and that ‘many’ people now love and are connecting with her to learn from, replicate and grow where they live, love and work. This episode is all about Farm It Forward and the practical inspiration and solutions it offers to young and old to connect and to grow food, social connections, community, and local resilience. I love it. 

Listen in to this heartwarming, uplifting conversation that’s all about urban and peri-urban agriculture and the amazing Farm It Forward social enterprise model that’s up and underway in the Blue Mountains that’s fast becoming an ‘I want to do tha too’ in many places across Australia.  Yup, Manu and the team are helping them do just that. FiF has also been on Gardening Australia and Costa is visiting them again soon – and we also wanted to share their story with you.

This episode is drawn from a webinar that Foodswell (presenters of Nourishing Matters) initiated and ran in conjunction with North Sydney Council Sustainability Team and Ku-ring-hai Councils in Sydney. Why? Because we at Foodswell reckon the FiF model is a cracker for ANY and ALL places and suburbs with young and old people who might like to make new friends AND where people have backyard space that could become a productive, sharing space to grow food, friendship, and community …. And post lockdown, who wouldn’t want to meet, share and hang out with more neighbours and meet new local friends? 

Farm It Forward is a not-for-profit peri-urban farming social enterprise model connecting landowners and local young people who are passionate about growing food. The project develops skills and creates training and job opportunities while tackling social isolation and fostering community wellbeing.

​How Farm it Forward Works: In exchange for allowing their land to be used for market gardening, landowners :

​

• Receive a free weekly box of fresh regeneratively grown veggies, grown on their own property or on other land in the project.

• Are visited weekly by youth outreach groups, paid young people, and volunteers to establish and maintain organic food production, and enhance cross-generational connections.

• Have the opportunity to be a part of a community or organic food growers through social media, gatherings, and visitation to the large garden plots operated by Farm it Forward

• The regular help groups allow for new aspiring growers to identify their passion and use the program as a career pathway.

All excess produce is sold locally through FiF’s farm gate system online and in-person and 100% of the funds go towards employing young people to grow food and facilitate community outreach sessions.

FiF Spring Fundraiser 2021 is all about raising funds to buy a ‘mobile’ market garden stall so they can take their produce and sell directly to community members throughout the Blue Mountains. 

Please support them and this wonderful, direct fresh food to the people initiative by donating at:

https://chuffed.org/project/help-us-continue-to-outgrow-the-status-quo

Website/links

Excellent books mentioned by Manu in the webinar re how to grow food really productively and regeneratively in smallmplaces are:

“How To Grow More Vegetables” by John Jeavons

“The Market Gardener” by Jean Martin Fortier

Facebook

Farm It Forward: https://www.facebook.com/farmitforward5/

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell:  foodswellaustralia

Website

Nourishing Matters: foodswell.org.au/nourishing 

Farm It Forward https://www.farmitforward.com.au/

YouTube – The Foodswell/North Sydney Council Webinar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4isSa3Z3Ww

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

@Farm It Forward

@Farm It Forward Tasmania

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia has long had the highest rainfall variability on earth. Climate change means the frequency and severity of droughts will intensify, so it’s urgent to get on with smart research and action for drought resilience and adaptation strategies. And that’s what this episode is all about.  

Listen in to hear from CSIRO Drought Resilience Mission Lead Dr Graham Bonnett, in conversation with research colleagues Dr Kathryn Emmerson and Dr Declan Page, talk about the Mission, its goals, and zoom in on two especially exciting research projects they work on. 

Kathryn tells us about the project she leads, an innovative, strategic atmospheric dust modeling project that promises to offer an incredible tool for policymakers and for farmers to better plan and act to improve human and environmental health and for action for soil health, groundcover, and related land management and anti-desertification measures. A tool with national coverage, at a 10km scale, that will enable people to identify, zoom in on and act to better manage vulnerable dust threats, ‘hotspots’, coming dust events, and more.

Declan’s work on ‘water banking’ – or Managed Aquifer Recharge – is an important, exciting field that’s set for expansion as part of the mix of water security options. He explains how water banking involves replenishing underground aquifers when water is more available and recovering it during droughts. During Australia’s recent drought, many communities approached ‘Day Zero’ — when their town water supplies would run out. Some towns hit that threshold and needed to transport water in from elsewhere. That’s why a key focus of CSIRO’s Mission is looking at ways to improve regional water security through developments such as water banking.

As Graham says, now is the time to plan prepare for future droughts, and not leave it for when it is too late, “We can’t control the weather, but we can better prepare for times when water is scarce so that farms and communities can best adapt. We aren’t approaching this from a standing start. Between us and our partners, we have incredible breadth and scope in our knowledge and capabilities. New scientific advances allow us to tackle the likelihood of more frequent drought. And now is the time to act before the next big drought is here.”

City dwellers may also benefit from improved drought resilience. Our capital cities are not immune from water shortages and drought-related events, such as dust storms. 

CSIRO launched the Drought Resilience Mission in September. Working with industry, government, and communities, the Mission is striving to reduce the impacts of droughts in Australia and enable faster recovery. 

All with a goal of reducing the impacts of drought by 2030 by 30 percent. 

• Dr Graham Bonnett, Interim Leader, Drought Resilience Mission, CSIRO 
• Dr Kathryn Emmerson, Principal Research Scientist – Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO
• Dr Declan Page CF, Principal Research Scientist – Groundwater Systems, Land and Water, CSIRO

To learn more/contact Graham, Kathryn, or Declan…

https://www.csiro.au/en/about/people

Links

• Media release - $150 million missions to boost Australian agriculture and food sectors - CSIRO
• Blog article - A mission to prepare Australia for future droughts – CSIROscope
• SMH article - Water security going underground as CSIRO tackles rising drought risks (smh.com.au)
• Older blog articles on water banking:
• Day Zero and pathways to water security for regional towns – ECOS (csiro.au)
• Can water banking guard against a future ‘Day Zero’? – ECOS (csiro.au)

Website

Nourishing Matters: foodswell.org.au/nourishing 

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roger Stone is an Australian and international leader in climate science and a big believer in the value of seasonal forecasting to help farmers, communities and governments plan for and manage risks associated with drought and other extreme events. Listen in to this episode in which we discuss climate change and forecasting, learn about ENSO, the Southern Oscillation Index, El Nino, La Nina and perspectives on managing for drought, climate risk and change. 

Roger works with The Centre for Climate Science, University of Southern Queensland (USQ), that’s one of the very few centres in the world that works at the interface of climate and agriculture helping producers here and internationally. He is the Founding and past Director of the Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation for Southern Queensland and Northern NSW also at USQ. Watch this space – there are eight hubs getting underway across Australia to help rural communities tackle the tough challenges of climate adaptation …

Australia is on the brutal receiving end of climate change and we have long had the highest rainfall variability on earth and that’s set to become more extreme. So, robust, seasonal forecasting will be all the more key for farmers, communities and governments – to help plan and build toward greater resilience and for effective disaster management planning as extreme events occur within ‘months’ of each other. 

The knowledge and advice that Roger, and colleagues, provide to farmers, large and small, the re-insurance industry and government stakeholders – here and internationally – is changing lives and economic futures in a changing climate.  More than a pleasure. A deep privilege to speak with and learn from Roger, an eminent Australian and scientist. 

We talk …

• “Flash droughts” and heat waves and relate the latest IPCC Report to here and now 
• How farm level, local and regional, place-based climate forecasting is key to future production 
• ENSO – what happens in the central Pacific Ocean drives our weather and climate
• The SOI – a very useful index and forecasting tool …it told us the 2019 fire season was coming 
• The Murray Darling Basin has the highest variability of stream flows of any system on earth
• The coffee industry – the second most traded commodity on earth, is highly vulnerable
• We’re playing catch up – the State Of Play, the interface between extreme weather events at the regional level and climate change – think western Canada, USA heat bubbles and ‘domes’ 
• How weather and climate forecasting needs to be able to drill down to the regional, sub-regional level to provide meaningful decision-making data and advice 
• Seasonal to multi-year forecasting is the focus, tailored to specific regions and places, on the ground – for farmers, catchment management and NRM  
• The CSIRO Drought Resilience Mission to reduce the economic impact of drought by 30%  – will build on incredible research Australia has already to hand…
• Mosaic agriculture and how climate change is influencing investment priorities 
• Key challenges? Include, the need to build and bring climate modelling and its interface with variability modelling into greater focus and detail
• …and a whole lot more!

Professor Roger C Stone, PhD, FRMetSoc, Hon Professor in Climate Science.

University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. 

https://www.usq.edu.au/research/institutes-centres/ilse/applied-climate-science

• Vice President: Commission for Weather, Climate, Water, and Related Environmental Services and Applications (SERCOM); Chair, Standing Committee on Services to Agriculture; World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), Geneva, Switzerland.

• https://public.wmo.int/en/governance-reform/services-commission

• https://community.wmo.int/governance/commission-membership/sercom/officers/management-group/sc-agr

• Founding and past Director, Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub (Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales), Institute for Life Sciences and the Environment, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. https://www.usq.edu.au/research/institutes-centres/ilse/applied-climate-science

• Past Director and now, Honorary Professor, Centre for Applied Climate Sciences, University of Southern Queensland

Website

Nourishing Matters: foodswell.org.au/nourishing 

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, listen in to a rich conversation with Dr Julie Brimblecombe for warm and deep insights into the current state of remote food insecurity and to hear good news stories from remote communities and remote food stores who are tackling food insecurity and diet related chronic disease in innovative – and world leading – ways.

Julie is widely admired and much loved for her contributions  - over many years - in the fields of remote food security and nutrition research, policy advocacy and community led, co-designed healthy food solutions, particularly with remote communities and food stores.  

She is currently the Associate Professor of Public Health Nutrition in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, at Monash University in Melbourne and she maintains a very close relationship with the Menzies School of Health Research at Charles Darwin University where she was a senior research leader for many years and now an Honorary Fellow.

 Julie has worked cross-culturally in the South Pacific and with remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities, especially in Arnhem Land, for over 20 years – and it’s the story of her work with remote food  stores and communities to research and to help foster world leading community based solutions to tackle healthy food and food security challenges that we discuss in this Episode.  

Below are links to some of the great research programs and outcomes from them that Julie has lead and helped deliver that she discusses in this episode. 

Healthy Stores 2020 study

These are articles that Monash Articles, published about the Healthy Stores 2020 project:

• https://lens.monash.edu/2020/10/08/1381479/healthy-stores-2020-rethinking-the-food-focus-for-indigenous-communities
• https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/empowering-remote-communities-healthy-stores-2020

Healthy Stores 2020 website, featuring all of the beautiful films and community stories  from the HEALTHY STORiES = GOOD FOOD webinar series

• https://www.monash.edu/medicine/healthy-stores-2020

Link to a recent article by Prof Brownwyn Fredericks on the subject of food security: https://www.croakey.org/food-insecurity-in-uncertain-times-ways-forward-post-pandemic/

Website

Nourishing Matters: foodswell.org.au/nourishing 

Twitter

Julie Brimblecombe @FoodForAllJulie

Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences @Monash_FMNHS

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emma Coath share's Rocket Seeder's story and the great work they do to mentor and support passionate people with great business ideas that can make a difference and have an impact. In this episode we zoom in to talk about food waste and food loss, about Rocket Seeder and how their business challenge and accelerator programs are helping grow the ecosystem and support people with bright business ideas to tackle the 7.2 million tonnes of food currently wasted each year in Australia. Listen in and hear about exciting startups such as Forkful, Whole and Sea Weedery. 

Australia has committed to halving food waste by 2030 - a target that aligns with the SDGs. As Emma shares there's a long way yet to go but also huge opportunities along the supply chain - for consumers and for innovators to tackle not only food waste, but also to turn food loss pre-farm gate into edible food: issues exacerbated by La Nina, COVID/workforce issues, damaged crops and more. 

Emma is the Managing Director of Rocket Seeder that's a nimble, innovative Australian organisation that supports startups to develop solutions to the world's biggest problems in the food and agriculture sector, including (but not limited to):

• Innovation in on-farm efficiencies
• Supply chain automation
• Future food innovation
• Reducing food loss and waste along the agrifood value chain

The solutions Rocket Seeder helps seed and support are aligned to United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — all done with passion and purpose, to build an ecosystem that will have a positive impact in Australia and beyond.  

There are lots of ways to get involved. If you've got a great idea or a small business underway, apply for one of Rocket Seeder's programs or sign up to become a business mentor or programs sponsor in 2023.

To learn more head to Rocket Seeders website @ www.rocketseeder.com

Follow Rocket Seeder on: 

Linked In 

Twitter

Facebook 

Instagram 

And follow Nourishing Matters

Instagram @nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: Foodswell, Nourishing podcast

Twitter: @foodswell1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in to this cracker of a conversation with Gabrielle Chan in which we talk about her important and really engaging new book Why you Should Give A F*ck About Farming. 

Gabi is a political journalist who lives upon and works from a mixed use farm in NSW. She is the Rural & Regional Editor for the Guardian Australia and the author of Rusted Off, 2018 and Why you Should Give A F*ck About Farming, August 2021.

Her latest great book digs deep and wide, to share insights and perspectives about a plethora of very key and ‘now’ issues that are critical to the sustainability and wellbeing of our food, agricultural, community and landscape futures.

“There is no farmers and others. If you eat or wear clothes, the decisions you make influence farming….

Farming sits at the intersection of the world’s biggest challenges around climate change, soil, water, energy, natural disasters and zoonotic diseases. Yet Australia has no national food policy. No national agriculture strategy. Our water policy is close to the Hunger Games. People with means can shop farmers’ markets and order brunch by the provenance of their eggs, bacon, butter, tomatoes and greens. But do they really understand the trade-offs required to grow it?...

We must forge a new social contract if we are to grow healthy food on a thriving landscape, while mitigating climate and biodiversity loss”

Website

Gabrielle Chan - Author

The Guardian Rural Network – a project supported by the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation (VFFF)

Nourishing Matters:   foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Twitter

@gabriellechan

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram

@gabriellechanwrites

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the second part of my great conversation with Craig Aspinall that’s all about Landcare NSW’s ‘Working Together’ program that Craig manages as the Community Aboriginal Engagement Officer. It’s an Australian first in the Landcare movement and already delivering strong outcomes.

Landcare NSW’s forward looking Working Together program is all about empowering Aboriginal people to get involved in Landcare projects in NSW and to encourage Landcare groups and participants to reach out, engage and build meaningful collaborations with Aboriginal people. 

We dig in to hear more from Craig about the high impact, small grants program that he’s been managing that was oversubscribed, successful and kicking great goals. We also talk about firesticks burning (and how everyone wants to learn more about it and support it) and challenges that need to be addressed – calling progressive Insurance organisations to get behind it! 

What we do on the land has a huge impact on the health of our oceans and marine biodiversity. So, in this Episode,  we also talk connections between terrestrial landcare and care for our oceans and marine life.  You’ve heard of Paddock to Plate? But have you heard of Tide to Table?

Craig is an inspiring, can do person with a huge depth of knowledge and experience. He is an Aboriginal man from the Birpai nation on the lower north coast of NSW and has devoted his private and working life to the natural and cultural values associated with land and sea country.  He spoke at the recent Landcare Australia National Conference, and the title of his talk was “Breaking the Barriers Between Landcare in NSW and First Nations Peoples: Recognition, Value, Collaboration”.  Powerful, positive stuff.  I loved meeting and talking with Craig – and reckon you will too.

Website

NSW Landcare, Working Together program:  https://landcarensw.org.au/projects/aboriginal-communities-engagement-program/

Nourishing Matters:   foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Twitter

Landcare NSW 

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram

@landcare-nsw

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode ‘meet’ Australian CliMate, a nifty app that was developed for agriculture to help farmers identify the chances of certain weather conditions, to compare previous seasons and help on farm decision making to manage climate risks. 

Listen in, learn more about Australian CliMate from Dr Ann Starasts who is a Knowledge Broker with the new Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales Drought Resilience Hub, at the University of Southern Queensland. Ann shares her insights about what this great app has to offer, who’s using it, what they like and find valuable about it.  

The app makes complex data available in user friendly visual formats. Strategic, really useful information not only for farmers in a changing climate – but also for other users who could include Aged Care facilities, weather educators, community groups, rural and agricultural advisers, bankers, insurance officers and more.

The easy to access and use tools include: 

• Season’s progress? When adjusting inputs during a crop or pasture season, how does the current season compare with previous conditions in terms of rainfall, temperature, heat sum or radiation? 
• How often? What is the chance of a good sowing event based on rainfall and when? What is the probability of temperature being below a critical level for germination or flowering?
• How wet? N? How much water and nitrate have I stored in my soil over the fallow? This can help adjust inputs to better match yield expectations.
• How hot-cold? When choosing an ideal sowing date, when are heat and cold stresses lowest for the optimum flowering time? 
• How likely?  What is the probability that rainfall or temperature is greater than or less than certain amounts and also how reliable have these forecasts been in the past? 
• El Nino indicator? What is the current ENSO status based on key atmospheric and oceanic indicators?  
• How’s the Past? Presents monthly and annual rainfall and temperature summaries to allow the user to explore relationships and patterns.
• And there’s also a yield calculator, trend analyser and drought update tools.

To learn more and download the app, Google ‘Australian Climate app’ or head to website Australian CliMate at https://climateapp.net.au/  or go to your App Store and search ‘Australian Climate’.

Website

Australian CliMate – climate analysis for decision makers

Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub

Nourishing Matters

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (two or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing 

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get inspired and get involved in ‘Working Together’ to heal country. Listen in to this episode, Part 1, of a two-part great conversation with Craig Aspinall, who is the Community Aboriginal Engagement Officer, with Landcare NSW. It’s an Australian first in the Landcare movement and not before time!

Craig leads Landcare NSW's forward looking Working Together program that is all about empowering Aboriginal people to help lead and deliver Landcare projects in NSW and to support and encourage existing Landcare groups and participants to have the confidence and skills to reach out, engage and collaborate with local Aboriginal people to care for country via Landcare.

Craig, is an inspiring, can do person with a huge depth of knowledge and experience. Craig is an Aboriginal man from the Birpai nation on the lower north coast of NSW who has devoted his private and working life to the natural and cultural values associated with land and sea country. In addition to the change-making work he does with Landcare NSW, he’s also a Director of OceanWatch (since 2005) and is passionate about the work  OceanWatch does – it’s one of the 56 NRM regions in Australia but is the only marine focused resource management organisations, responsible for enhancing fish habitats and the marine environment. 

What we do on the land has a huge impact on the health of our oceans and marine biodiversity. In   this Episode, I speak with Craig about his work as the NSW Community Landcare Aboriginal Engagement Officer with NSW Landcare and the exciting – really important – “Working Together” Aboriginal Communities Engagement Program that he leads.

Craig spoke at the recent Landcare Australia National Conference about the program, and the title of his talk was “Breaking the Barriers Between Landcare in NSW and First Nations Peoples: Recognition, Value, Collaboration”.  It’s all about building relationships and partnerships that we all need now to heal country, better, together and is very much in the spirit of NAIDOC 2021’s theme: Heal Country! The NAIDOC 2021 theme – Heal Country! – calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction. Country that is more than a place and inherent to identity.

I loved meeting and talking with Craig – reckon you will too.

Website

NSW Landcare, Working Together program:  https://landcarensw.org.au/projects/aboriginal-communities-engagement-program/

Nourishing Matters:   foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Twitter

Landcare NSW 

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram

@landcare-nsw

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia 

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in and be inspired by Kate Sievert, Cherie Russell and Sarah Dickie who are the founders of, and new generation force behind, Healthy Food Systems Australia (HFSA). HFSA is an advocacy group they’ve established that is dedicated to promoting a food system that is healthy and sustainable for all people and the planet, through holistic and system-wide policy actions.

In this episode we discuss why they created HFSA, food systems, wicked interconnections, leverage points for reform and yup, pretty much the need for transformative change – why we need it ‘now’ and why these big challenges need and can benefit from more holistic, systems thinking and policy action.

Kate, Cherie and Sarah are each currently completing their pHds in exciting areas of nutrition science and/or public health nutrition at Deakin University. There they work with Professor Mark Lawrence and Dr Phillip Baker, who are international leaders in healthy and sustainable food systems research and who offer much needed critical perspectives on key issues – that include ultraprocessed foods. (Listen in to NM Season 1, ep.2  with Phil in which we talk about how junk food is junking our health and the planet).   

The work that HFSA, these three great women and their colleagues do is really timely, especially as we head toward the UN Food Systems Summit, September 23. Whose voices will be at the table? Will the Summit strengthen action for linked up healthy and sustainable food systems?

It’s people like Kate, Cherie, Sarah and groups like HFSA who’ll be looking out to identify and help tackle these wicked challenges for a healthier future.

Websites

HFS Australia

Nourishing Matters

Twitter

HFSA

Sarah Dickie 

Cherie Russell 

Kate Sievert 

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia 

Facebook

Nourishing Matters

Foodswell                  

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tilth, glomalin, exudates … luscious words from the world of soils and a great conversation with Matthew Evans and Sadie Chrestman about Matthew’s new book Soil – The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy. 

Matthew and Sadie Chrestman are the well known and much loved co–creators and operators of Fat Pig Farm, collaborators in arms and life and both strong advocates for open, fair, accountable food and farming systems and delicious food. This episode dives into just how very precious and remarkable soil is and why we need to get to know and ‘look after’ it better – now.

‘Soil’ is a joyful, magical book. It’s packed with stacks of facts & curious tales to help us really ‘see’, smell, feel and taste soil in creative, more informed ways and it packs a loving but really powerful punch for pretty much anyone who grows food or eats  – and it offers an uplifting call to action to better care for soil, for our and planetary health and food futures in a changing climate. 

A rollercoaster of a read – ‘Soil’ is a mix of Alice in Regenerationland; meets Dr Karl, & Costa; great scientists, quacks & visionary gardeners & farmers of the world – and Frenchman, Stephane Le Foll, who, at the Paris Climate Summit in 2015 touted the idea that an extra 0.4% organic carbon into soil each year might radically ‘garden’ us away from runaway global warming ….

There’s a whole lot of love in this book – for soil and for the tiny trillions of bacteria, fungi and neglected critters in it and for people and the planet. 

Listen in, enjoy and dig into Matthews latest book that is available from all good bookstores and online booksellers. 

Image Acknowledgements:

Sadie, Kitti Gould Photographer

Matthew, Alan Benson Photographer 

Matt's Website

Fat Pig Farm

@fat_pig_farm

Instagram

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia 

Facebook

Nourishing Matters

Foodswell                  

Twitter

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in and be inspired by Professor Liz Harry and Dr Nural Cokcetin, two leading Australian scientists whose current research is making a big contribution to the NSW Government's bushfire industry recovery plan – honey research that’s good for honey bees, the apiary and broader farming sector, biodiversity and our collective, healthier futures.

Enjoy hearing from Liz and Nural as they share their rich and warm professional and personal ‘honey journeys’ to explore the magic and science of honey and to research key aspects about how our biodiversity is key to healthy bees and to the very particular healing attributes of different honeys that honey bees can produce in Australian landscapes.

In an era of growing antibiotic resistance and diet-related gut and other illnesses, honey and research into the science behind its complex and special properties offer multiple, linked benefits. The scientific research that these two great women in STEM are doing is helping to lead the way for clinicians, farmers, the research and broader community to help see and understand the incredible properties of honey in new ways – for new and more far reaching  medicinal and therapeutic applications and for Australian honeys to be better understood, marketed and enjoyed as high value prebiotic, functional foods.

Liz and Nural collaborate with many research groups, beekeepers and industry partners. Their research delves deep into the health and healing properties of honey – and the very special features and potential of Australian honeys and how these properties relate to the diversity of nectars and pollens bees forage upon.

Honey bees and other pollinators are vital for biodiversity and food security, contributing some $14 billion plus to Australian agriculture alone and so much more. NSW is home to almost half of Australia’s beekeeping industry, that suffered massive losses from the 2019/2020 bushfires. Without intervention, pollinator productivity could drop by 30%. The Future Proofing the New South Wales Apiary Industry and Keeping Beekeepers in Jobs Project is addressing that challenge and the research Liz and Nural do is contributing to that project …and much, much more!

Professor Liz Harry is the Professor of Biology at the ithree institute (infection, immunology and innovation), Faculty of Science, at the University of Technology Sydney. Liz obtained her PhD at the University of Sydney then went to Harvard University as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Her outstanding research has been recognised with the awarding of the Eureka Prize for Scientific Research in 2002, and the Frank Fenner Award in 2008 from the Australian Society for Microbiology in recognition of her distinguished contributions to Australian research in microbiology. Liz has been on the Executive of the Australian Society for Microbiology and a Member of the Australian Academy of Science, National Committee for Biomedical Sciences.

Dr Nural Cokcetin is a microbiologist, who obtained her PhD from the University of NSW in 2015 where she investigated the effects of Australian honeys on the growth of the beneficial and potentially harmful bacteria in the human gut. This led to a patented product  - a honey prebiotic. Nural is internationally recognised for her skills in scientific research and communications, including a UTS Early Career Research Excellence Award (2018), an Australian Society for Microbiology Award. In 2017 she was the National winner in Australia and international runner up of  the British Council’s FameLab science communication competition at the Cheltenham Science Festival, 2017. She holds several roles in industry as a thought leader, including as a key opinion leader, science advisor and expert for Comvita, Capilano Honey and the Australian Manuka Honey Association  

Websites

https://www.uts.edu.au/staff/elizabeth.harry

https://profiles.uts.edu.au/nural.cokcetin

Relevant recent articles

Scientists get busy to revive state’s beekeeping fortunes

https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculty-science/news/scientists-get-busy-revive-states-beekeeping-fortunes

Instagram

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia 

Facebook

Nourishing Matters

Foodswell                  

Twitter

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can buy us a coffee (or more!) by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well that's a wrap for season 1 of the Nourishing Matters to Chew On podcast, it's time for the Nourishing team to take a well earned break and nourish themselves for a little while. But first, in this episode, Anthea journey's us back through a wrap up of the first 20 incredible episodes released in season 1 of Nourishing Matters and the mini-series, Nourishing Books & Bites.

A season that has spoken with inspiring experts and innovators to deep dive into their important work and research around sustainable food systems, farming and agriculture. Diverse stories that investigate how we produce and enjoy food in a changing climate as well as how we value the plants, people and animals that nourish us. 

Nourishing Matters To Chew On will be back soon with more interesting episodes to inform and inspire.

If you like the podcast and would like to support the work we do by buying us a coffee or helping with production costs please donate (tax deductible)  @ https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

NMTCO IS PROUD TO BE PART OF THE CLIMACTIC COLLECTIVE WORKING TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE, RENEWABLE AND PROTECTED FUTURE

TO FIND OUT MORE GO TO www.climactic.fm

SHOW NOTES: 

Website: 

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Instagram:

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook: 

@nourishingmatterstochewon

@foodswellaustralia

Twitter: 

@foodswell1

KQfUg8lnxta7rxc9cpwv

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cosy up, listen in and be inspired by Phil Pettit and the warm, high impact stories he shares in this episode about Community Greening, The Master Gardener Program, Youth Community Greening and the wonderful people and communities he and his colleagues work with in Sydney and across rural and remote New South Wales. 

Investing in people, growing community connections, food and opportunities for less advantaged people is the core, joyful business of Phil Pettit and the Community Greening and Youth Community Greening teams from Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens.  With heart and flair, these fabulous people deliver therapeutic horticulture programs and wideranging activities in diverse communities, in some 850 food and other gardens, to touch and uplift the lives of over 100 000 people each year in NSW. 

The logo and motto of Community Greening is ‘People, Plants & Places’. The connections, relationships and opportunities that the program fosters and helps deliver are absolutely all about that: demonstrable proof of the diverse joys and benefits of care gardening and farming that was a key theme of this year’s inaugural Urban Agriculture Month (April 2021). 

Phil and his team hosted a number of very special events as part of Urban Agriculture Month: that Foodswell was chuffed to partner on, along with SUSTAIN The Australian Food Network, with support from the City Of Sydney. The Lunch-n-Learn Wild Weeds Foraging Workshop with Diego Bonetto was a highlight as was the Growing Bush Foods in Small Places Lunch-n-Learn session led by Brenden Moore from the Community Greening team. 

Bravo to all involved!  And, if you missed the ‘big’ event,  Live at the Calyx – First Nations’ Enterprise in Conversation & Action – a fabulous conversation hosted by Clarence Slockee in conversation with Brenden Moore, Sharon Winsor and Chris Andrews you can watch it live on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTTKQOvPFvo

In April, Ep 11 of Nourishing Matters was all about Urban Agriculture Month – featuring a great conversation with Jess Miller, Councillor with the City of Sydney, Naomi Lacey, President, Community Gardens Australia, and Dr Nick Rose, Executive Director, SUSTAIN The Australian Food Network.

Phil was unable to join that conversation – because, well, he was on the road to Wilcannia with Brenden growing good things. So, all the more reason to catch up and hear from him in this episode. Huge thanks Phil – a complete pleasure to speak with you and yup, am inspired by and love your work! 

Website https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/learn/community-greening

GET IN TOUCH: 

Instagram

@communitygreening

@Urban_agriculture_forum 

@sustainaustralia

@austcommunitygardens

@cityofsydney

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

Community Greening https://www.facebook.com/groups/298284787339086

Nourishing Matters https://www.facebook.com/nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell https://www.facebook.com/foodswellaustralia/

Twitter

@foodswell1

@pettitt_phil

@sustainaus

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand – buy us a coffee, lunch or part of a farm! Donate (tax deductible)  @ https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

FIND OTHER EPS OF NOURISHING MATTERS TO CHEW ON AT: 

Foodswell:  www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Climactic: https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Part 2 of our great conversation about “offal” and the joys and benefits of Eating nose to tail.

Joining Anthea for this conversation are Kate Wingett and Grant Hilliard, who are both wonderfully knowledgeable people with deep knowledge and understanding of the animal ‘value-chain’ and how it currently does – and perhaps does not – work for human health, animal wellbeing and the environment.

Grant is the co-owner of the butchery Feather and Bone in Sydney, and co-author of 'The Ethical Omnivore – A Practical guide and 60 nose-to-tail recipes for sustainable meat eating'. Kate is a veterinarian who works in Animal Biosecurity in NSW and is currently completing her phd on the role of the Australian sheep meat system in achieving food and nutrition security, with a focus on monitoring production and consumption of products from the value chain.

In part 1 we dug in to talk about how well we are doing to eat nose to tail and to value the whole animal in the big picture, we spoke about supply chain blips, the data, and animal and environmental waste. In this Episode, we continue our conversation to discuss the great  nutrients that liver and other nutritious and delicious offal have to offer and talk about The Ethical Omnivore, the book, the community and great recipes that can inspire us to eat more nose to tail. 

So are we making waste of offal? And what are the nutrient and other great benefits that it offers that we could make more of? And enjoy! It’s affordable – did you know really good mince and sausages can be packed with super nutritious offal? It’s what gives the flavour hit Grant tells us…

Great reading suggestions 

• Kate Wingett, Margaret Allman-Farinelli, and Robyn Alders,  “Food loss and nutrition security: reviewing pre-consumer loss in Australian sheep meat value chains using a Planetary Health framework”, CAB Reviews 2018 13, No. 033
• Laura Dalymple, Grant Hilliard, Feather and Bone, The Ethical Omnivore – A practical guide and 60 nose-to-tail recipes for sustainable meat eating

SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES 

Instagram

@feartherandbone

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

@ featherandbone

@ foodswellaustralia 

Twitter

@ featherandbone

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, please donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Resharing this rich conversation with Paul Van Reyk (S2/Ep13) all about his excellent book True to the Land – A History of Food in Australia published in 2021. Great listening for a wet old weekend, our changing foodways & climate, & with so many fascinating insights about our rich, diverse food histories that include Chinese contributions since the gold rushes and more.

Why now? topical & connecting with recent Eps - Grazing Down the Lachlan, a curated foodie event that in '22 celebrated Chinese cuisine & bush foods from the region; and great conversation with Michael Claessens, Food In The Capital /Canberra Region Food Collaborative (...and the sensational Victualis Dinner I was lucky to get to ... am still savouring the delicious slow cooked beef with lilly pilly....so good). 

Paul is a food writer, a regular presenter at the Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, and is passionate about our food history and foodways. His wonderful book travels far and wide to tell the interwoven stories of the history of the food of Australia, spanning 65,000 years from its beginnings with the First Nations people and of the impacts of colonization on those foodways and people. It’s a fascinating story that shares tales and linkages to show how our foodways and change within them are closely interwoven with social, political, and immigration policies, twists and turns over time, as well as the influences of scientific and technological advances that together shaped and got us here to ‘Modern Australian’ food.  

With Michael Symons and others, Paul contributed to the first Symposium of Australian Gastronomy that was held in the early 1980s, and Michael’s book, One Continuous Picnic: A History of Eating in Australia (published in 1982) was, until now, the most comprehensive food history of Australia. Paul pays tribute to and builds upon the work of Michael and many other great chefs, food writers, and researchers. 

As Paul shares in conversation, a driving passion was to include more of the story of the foods of First Australians (and impacts on them), of migrant Australians, and of everyday women – oft-neglected –  in how our diverse food cultures and love for them evolved and is shared. And the environment, the land – and how true to it – our foodways have been and could be in the future is very close to mind and hand throughout this great book.        

“From millennia-old fish traps to television’s MasterChef Australia, by way of damper and mutton, lamingtons and Anzacs, True to the Land charts the evolution of Australian food and agriculture, acknowledging the contributions of the many cultures that make up contemporary Australia” 

Barbara Santich, Professor Emeritus, The University of Adelaide

True to the Land – A History of Food in Australia is available from Booktopia, Angus & Robertson, and Dymocks bookstores. 

Website/links

True to the Land:  https://www.booktopia.com.au/true-to-the-land-paul-van-reyk/book/9781789144062.html

Nourishing Matters: nourishingmatterstochewon

Foodswell: foodswellaustralia

Twitter

Nourishing Matters & Foodswell

Instagram 

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Nourishing Matters a hand, you can support us by making a donation @ givenow.com.au/nourishing       

Listen @ https://omny.fm/shows/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This "On Offal" episode is the first of a special two parter that features fascinating insights, nutrition facts and inspiration from Kate Wingett and Grant Hilliard. Join us as we talk about ‘offal, supply chains and making more of these delicious and nutritious foods - to minimise waste, better value animals and all in all get back to our Grandmother’s Wisdom by enjoying eating more of the whole animal, ‘nose to tail’.  

The Italians and French call it the Fifth Quarter, Americans talk about ‘organs’ and ‘variety meats’ and Brits about innards and ‘offal’. Kate and Grant are two wonderfully knowledgeable people with deep knowledge and understanding of the animal ‘value-chain’ and how  it currently does – and perhaps does not – work for human health, animal wellbeing and the environment.

Food waste is a huge issue and it’s a lens current great debates around meat and food waste seem to barely touch upon.  Globally, one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted: if it were a country, it would rank No3 behind China and the USA for greenhouse emissions. 

So are we making waste of offal? And what are the nutrient and other great benefits that it offers that we could make more of? And enjoy! It’s affordable – did you know really good mince and sausages can be packed with super nutritious offal? It’s what gives the flavour hit Grant tells us…

Kate Wingett B.V.Sc (hons) is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney. She has worked as a private practitioner veterinarian for 19 years in Australia and the United Kingdom. Five years ago, Kate started as a government  veterinary policy officer in Animal Biosecurity in NSW and is now a senior veterinary policy officer. Currently, Kate is completing her PhD on the role of the Australian sheep meat system in achieving food and nutrition security, with a focus on monitoring production and consumption of products from the value chain.

Grant, is many things, a former film-maker and wine expert, who with partner Laura Dalrymple is the co-author of the wonderful book 'The Ethical Omnivore – A Practical guide and 60 nose-to-tail recipes for sustainable meat eating' that was released in September 2020. With Laura, Grant  owns and runs the very special Feather and Bone Butchery in Sydney. Grant and Laura actively champion regenerative agriculture and whole of animal consumption through their butchery, writing, talks and other contributions. 

Great reading suggestions 

• Kate Wingett, Margaret Allman-Farinelli, and Robyn Alders,  “Food loss and nutrition security: reviewing pre-consumer loss in Australian sheep meat value chains using a Planetary Health framework”, CAB Reviews 2018 13, No. 033
• Laura Dalymple, Grant Hilliard, Feather and Bone, The Ethical Omnivore – A practical guide and 60 nose-to-tail recipes for sustainable meat eating

SOCIALS: 

Instagram

@feartherandbone

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

@ featherandbone

@ foodswellaustralia 

Twitter

@ featherandbone

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, please donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anthea speaks to Mark Spencer, Founder of Climactic, a network of Climate Change focussed Podcasts and Podcasters - including Nourishing. He is also one of the key people behind Podcaster's Declare, an initiative calling for Apple Podcasts to add a climate category to their platform. 

CLIMACTIC: 

We live in Climactic times. Times that led Podcast Producer, Mark Spencer, to pose a simple question...

What if there was a podcast network dedicated to all the ways that our lives are defined by the climate crisis?

And Climactic was born. Climactic is an at-will collective of Podcasters, all with a shared concern for climate change, and engaging with the urgent need for action on the climate crisis. It tells the stories of the people making a difference. Regular people, in a daily struggle to live sustainable lives. Climactic is the people’s voice on climate change, embedded in the community, from the perspective of the the everyperson.

Climactic now boasts over 20 shows, with over 100k downloads and over 60 contributors from all over Australia and will soon be expanding into New Zealand. It is the biggest collective of climate positive shows and makers in the Asia Pacific and possibly the world. 

Check out Climactic, the collective and the shows at: 

www.climactic.com.au

Facebook: @climacticshow

Twitter: @climacticshow

Instagram: @climacticshow

PODCASTERS DECLARE: 

Sometimes a small change in the right place, at the right time can make all the difference in the world. That's exactly what Mark Spencer, Sean Marsh, Eav Brennan and Maneet Hora were thinking earlier this year, when they decided to create an initiative calling for Apple Podcasts to add Climate as a category to their massive podcast platform. 

Podcasters Declare is an open letter to Apple Podcasts requesting exactly that. A category dedicated to Climate and Climate related podcasts so that makers can accurately classify their work and listeners can easily find it. When apple did this for True Crime the genre exploded and that's exactly what is needed for Climate and Climate related content. Especially now when these conversations and works of art and investigation are about as important as they can get.  

The open letter can be signed by podcast makers and listeners alike and podcaster producers can even add their shows to the ever growing list of podcasts demanding this change. A small act that could make a massive difference in the long run. 

Podcasters Declare submitted the letter to Apple on Earth Day this year and they are currently considering their response and what action they will take but the campaign is far from over and Apple is only the start of the pressure that will be applied. There are many podcast distributors who should make this change for the sake of the planet. 

Which is why the letter is still open and signatures and shows are still being called for. To check it out and add your show or name to the list of 1300 strong supporters go to: https://www.podcastersdeclare.com

Facebook: @podcastersdeclare 

Twitter: @PodcastersDeclare

Instagram: @podcastersdeclare

FOODSWELL/NOURISHING:

To learn more about Foodswell, Anthea Fawcett and Nourishing Matters to Chew On go to: 

https://www.foodswell.org.au

Facebook: @foodswellaustralia 

Twitter: @foodswell1

Instagram: @nourishing_matters / @foodswellaustralia

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @

https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell 

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A complete treat and fun, to speak with Nicole Abadee this week about her wonderful podcast Books, Books, Books and how books nourish and share joy and hope at times like these. Two talkative women, Nicole and I, went on a roadtrip to Scone last March to what was to then be the last ‘live’ Writers Festival for more than a year as COVID restrictions kicked in. 

Within a month or so, Nicole’s new podcast Books, Books, Books was up and underway featuring interviews with the best Australian and international writers about their new books that they could no longer promote or share live at book launches, writers festivals and other events. 

One of Nicole’s first interviews was with Julia Baird about her inspiring book Phosphorescence. Julia’s very personal and uplifting book about healing, hope and the solace of nature - and immersion in it – is absolutely one that’s pitch perfect for the times, and has rapidly become a popular bestseller. 

Listen in and enjoy hearing from Nic as we chat about and chew on podcasting, why writers write and about some special authors and recent books that speak to and about the precariousness of things and the vulnerabilities of living with climate change, bushfires and COVID, loss and hope. 

Join us to hear about Claire Thomas’s new novel The Performance and James Bradley’s Ghost Species, hear practical tips about how to manage eco-anxiety and positively engage with friends and colleagues about climate action from Rebecca Huntley, author or the non-fiction book, How to Talk About Climate Change. 

And enjoy a bite from the gorgeous book Animals Make Us Human, a compilation of wonderful short pieces about ‘animals’ by 40 well loved Australians. Instigated and edited by Leah Kaminsky and Meg Kenneally, this book shares reflections and stories from a myriad of voices who each  respond to the grief and loss of so many animals and biodiversity from the 2019/2020 black summer.  

Animals Make Us Human is an absolute jewel of a book and a call to action. You can look out for and listen in to Nicole’s interview with Meg and Leah, out soon, on Books, Books, Books. 

Website: www.nicoleabadee.com.au/podcast

Instagram

@nicoleabadee

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

@ nicole.abadee

@BooksBooksBooksPodcast

@ foodswellaustralia 

Twitter

@NicoleAbadee

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, please donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine if great food from your region had to travel over 3300 kilometres from where it’s picked to land back in your local grocery store, 10 kilometres from where it was grown and picked?!  That’s a reality for a lot of top end producers and communities. 

Listen in and be inspired by Erica Hughes to hear about the wonderful Farmer Meets Foodie virtual farmers marketplace and food connections that she and her family are growing at Mt Molloy on the Atherton Tableland, North Queensland, to change that story for the better.  

Across the country there’s a rapidly growing appetite and demand for more local, regional and seasonal food. Food that’s produced ethically, sustainably, that’s fresh, good for people and for the environment and that adds value in interconnected ways across the value chain from ‘paddock to plate’. Whether it’s to reduce food miles, improve food choices and affordability, or to help local producers, communities and economies to regenerate & recover from times of drought and more, or for consumers to access food more safely, online during times like COVID.  

Knowing your foods provenance – where it comes from - and then having the ability to choose and act on that knowledge is really powerful. Farmer Meets Foodie gives people the power to make and drive those choices - via a platform that producers go to directly connect and transact with commercial food businesses and other consumers in their region in practical, change-making ways . And there’s more….great services and Meet & Greet events. It’s inspiring! 

Listen in to enjoy this lovely conversation with Erica (and Zoro the rooster and Umbra the dawg) to hear and learn more – to join their marketplace, get ideas and tips about how you and your community can get more local and regional food on the table, and support producers to be better recognised and rewarded for what they do. Love it. 

To learn more, register and join the FARMER MEETS FOODIE MARKETPLACE go to:

www.farmermeetsfoodie.com.au

Facebook http://facebook.com/farmermeetsfoodie

Twitter http://twitter.com/farmermetfoodie

Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-hughes-blumson-20677770/

Instagram http://instagram.com/farmermeetsfoodie

FOODSWELL AND NOURISHING SOCIALS

Instagram

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook @foodswellaustralia 

Twitter @foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, please donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a ‘lettuce’ took six weeks to reach your store and had to travel up to 4000km to get there? What would it look and taste like?  That’s something people in remote areas often face. But new generation “protected agriculture” hydroponic growing systems offer powerful options to schools and communities who want to grow and enjoy more fresh food where they live. Food Ladder are helping grow practical change on the ground to help make more fresh food possible in extreme growing conditions and environments. 

In this episode hear from Scott McDonald, Horticulture and Training Manager, Food Ladder, about the inspiring, practical work they do with schools and communities across Australia to produce more fresh food to increase the availability and affordability of  fresh food, and to support communities to learn new skills and build community based solutions to food insecurity.

Food Ladder works to empower future generations to grow food in the community, to improve nutrition whilst protecting the environment and enhancing the local economy. A not-for-profit organization, Food Ladder gives people the tools to stop hunger and malnourishment.  

Food Ladder’s horticulture and business experts offer support throughout the process and leave behind a sustainable food system, which has health, educational and economic benefits. 

Scott’s career in horticulture and related industries extends over 30 years, 25 years of which have been in Australia’s Northern Territory.  For the last 20 years, Scott has been a lecturer in Horticulture and Rural Operations for Charles Darwin University, with much of that time as the Head of Department. With a focus on productive and sustainable landscapes, Scott has been involved in numerous projects, including: aquaponic production systems, trials and research of traditional Papua New Guinean vegetables, and an award winning underground water harvesting system for a small production nursery.

Scott has worked with many Indigenous communities, assisting them to establish and maintain food gardens, as well as overseeing the development and daily operations of the food gardens at Charles Darwin University. It’s his long-term commitment to sustainable food production and the career development of people of all ages and backgrounds, that led him to join Food Ladder.

Bravo Scott and Food Ladder – fabulous to reconnect and speak with you!

Web

https://foodladder.org/

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Instagram

@ foodladder

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

@ foodladder

@ foodswellaustralia 

Twitter

@ FoodLadder

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode I speak with Dr Colin Chartres, CEO of The Crawford Fund, and Dr Daniel Walker, Chief Scientist of ACIAR, about an inspiring workshop that was held in March to bring leading Australian farmers and researchers together to present and discuss success stories, research challenges and paths forward. 

Farmers and researchers across the country have high ambitions and believe it’s possible for agriculture to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with the will and way. 

Imagine, if something huge but that sounds small, like “an increase of 0.4% of carbon in soils” on top of current levels of about 1% could get us there?! 

The challenges are huge but Australian farmers and researchers are taking action and leading the way forward – both here and abroad. 

Facilitating the conversations, research collaborations and disseminating Australian innovative practices here and overseas is key and The Crawford Fund and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) do just that. 

Proceedings and live - yes live! – presentations from the workshop, “What can farmers do? Farmer-Led, Science-Based Greenhouse Gas Mitigation: Strategies for Australia and Abroad” can be viewed online at The Crawford Fund’s website. Take further inspiration from the international Global Research Alliance (GRA) on Greenhouse Gases in Agriculture, that ACIAR, for Australia, currently Chairs, and that Dr Walker and colleagues convened meetings for in conjunction with the workshop that we discuss in this episode.  

A privilege and such a pleasure to speak with and learn from Dr Chartres and Dr Walker and to hear their ideas and reflections upon, the discussions – before and after the workshop.  Eminent Australian scientists - each with deep knowledge and understanding about Australian agriculture and ecosystems.

Before joining The Crawford Fund as CEO in 2014, Dr Chartres was Director General of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Centre, headquartered in Sri Lanka, 2007-2012. Previously, he was Chief Science Adviser to the National Water Commission, held senior roles in the Bureau of Rural Sciences and Geoscience Australia and worked with CSIRO Division of Soils from 1984- 1997 and from 2002-2004 in CSIRO’s Land and Water Division.

Prior to joining ACIAR in 2017 as Chief Scientist, Dr Walker spent 23 years at CSIRO, where he was Research Director for Agriculture and Global Change with CSIRO Agriculture and Food and prior to that he was Chief of CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences. In his current role as Chief Scientist at ACIAR, Dan oversees the strategic science focus of the ACIAR research portfolio and its impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation work and also provides leadership for Research Program Managers across nine research areas, along with oversight of ACIAR’s relationship with the Australian innovation system.

Bravo and thank you! 

The Crawford Fund  https://www.crawfordfund.org/

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research  https://aciar.gov.au/

Global Research Alliance (GRA) on Greenhouse Gases in Agriculture  https://globalresearchalliance.org/

Instagram

@crawfordfund

@aciaraustralia

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

@CrawfordFund

@ACIARAustralia

@ foodswellaustralia 

Twitter

@CrawfordFund

@ACIARAustralia

@foodswell1

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia’s first national Urban Food Month (UAM)  kicks off in April with a host of opportunities to learn, share and get involved!  

Listen in to my conversation with this weeks change making guests Councillor Jess Miller, Councillor with the City of Sydney, Naomi Lacey, President, Community Gardens Australia (pictured), and Dr Nick Rose, Executive Director, SUSTAIN The Australian Food Network and Lecturer, Food Studies and Food Systems, William Angliss Institute, to hear about ‘what’ it’s all about.  

The UAM includes the Urban Agriculture Forum (UAF) with inspiring local and international speakers, diverse webinars and community workshops and events across the country. UAM and UAF offer an amazing opportunity to everyone, wherever you are, to learn, be inspired and get involved to help grow urban agriculture - a story the 2020 National Pandemic Gardening Survey & Findings has done great things to picture and promote. 

Care Gardening in times of crisis – for resilience, food security, community & connection – to green our cities, heal ourselves and our places, can gives us joy, and a greater sense of confidence,  agency and comfort in uncertain times. 

They’re thing’s we can all do with a lot more of now - and individuals, communities and social innovators across the country are getting in and on with it: reinventing ‘wartime Victory Gardens’, community gardens and more in diverse and creative ways to have fun, and respond to our current crises – health, climate, social isolation, environment. 

Learn more and get involved in Urban Agriculture Month and register for the Urban Agriculture Forum, ‘Care Farming & Gardening in the Climate Emergency’ at uaf.org.au 

In Sydney, the Royal Botanic Gardens Community Greening team, SUSTAIN and Foodswell, with support from the City of Sydney CBD Activation Grant Program, have put together some fabulous Lunch & Learn Workshops for UAM as well as a highlight event that will be held on April 15, Live at The Calyx – ‘First Nation’s Enterprise in Conversation & Action’ a discussion hosted by Clarence Slockee, in conversation with Sharon Winsor, Chris Andrews and Brenden Moore. 

To learn more and reserve your  tickets head to the RBG What’s On page at https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/what-s-on or the City of Sydney What’s On page at https://whatson.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/  . 

Be sure to search for (by date!) and check out the Lunch-n-Learn Wild Weeds Foraging Workshop with  Diego Bonetto on March 31, ‘First nation’s enterprise in Conversation & Action’ on April 15, and Lunch-n-Learn Create a Bee Hotel on April 28, and Lunch-n-Learn Bush Foods for Urban Place, May 12. 

Instagram

@Urban_agriculture_forum 

@sustainaustralia

@austcommunitygardens

@cityofsydney

@communitygreening

@nourishing_matters

@foodswellaustralia

Facebook

Urban Agriculture https://www.facebook.com/urbanagricultureforum/

@CommunityGardensAustralia 

@CommunityGreening

@Foodswell 

Sustain https://www.facebook.com/sustainaustralia

Twitter

@sustainaus

@foodswell1

@pettitt_phil

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

‘Catchment Keepers’, is a great new program for women farmers in the Murrumbidgee catchment that kicks off this winter that we’re keen for you to know about!

(Picture/acknowledgement: Jenny Grant-Curnow of Canberra, tree planting at Grong Grong, NSW)

In this episode I chat with Gemma Meier about Catchment Keepers and how it aims to support women – who juggle many roles - to connect, learn and share knowledge, information and social support to help plan and grow on farm natural resource management on their farms in the Murrumbidgee catchment that spans from the ACT to Hay in western NSW. 

Gemma is a farmer from Grong Grong, near Narrandera in NSW. She’s a member of the Murrumbidgee Landcare Committee and is involved with diverse, nourishing community projects that include community energy enterprises, the Grong Grong Earth Park and a very special open greybox woodland ‘forest’ on her farm that she, partner Reiner and family have established with the help and enthusiasm of neighbours and city mates. 

Such a pleasure to speak with Gemma, a dear friend and member of the Foodswell team – thank you Gem! 

To learn more and get involved with Catchment Keepers contact Nicole Maher, Regional Coordinator for Murrumbidgee Landcare, and head to and join the Catchment Keepers Facebook group, on Facebook at: 

Catchment Keepers

And for joyful, messy and risky fun things for kids that you might build with and for kids and community where you live head to the Grong Grong Earth Park’s Facebook page for inspiration and tips at:  

https://www.facebook.com/ggearthpark

The Grong Grong Earth Park is also on Instagram @ gronggrongearthpark 

Picture: Jenny Grant-Curnow of Canberra tree-planting at Grong Grong

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

INTRODUCING NOURISHING BOOKS & BITES a series of fun mini-episodes that explores the inspiring projects, events, books and media that other people are involved with, to help shape a better tomorrow, today. People who are having conversations and taking action within their communities to create change and share hope and joy along the way. 

In this first episode of Nourishing Books & Bites, part of Foodswell’s Nourishing Matters series, I speak with Jade about Futuresteading – the ideas, the podcast and her forthcoming new book ‘Futuresteading - living like tomorrow matters’.

How do you live your life, like tomorrow matters? 

That little-big question is one Jade Miles and co-host Catie Payne approach with joy, wisdom and wit each week in their fabulous podcast Futuresteading. 

Jade and Catie reckon a slower, simpler, steadier existence is the first step - one that’s healthier for humans and the planet and I reckon Jade’s new book will inspire and nourish you in ways, large and small.  

‘Futuresteading - living like tomorrow matters’ will be available for pre sales by the end of March and it will be in bookstores from August 3. Murdoch publishing will release it and it also features artwork by Megan Grant.

Jade and co-host Catie release a weekly futuresteading podcast on Monday mornings with a wide and varied array of incredible humans doing bloody amazing things in the name of solidarity and inspiration.

The seven futuresteading principles are:

Meet mother nature

Celebrate Simple

Make your place

Seek Ritual

Create your clans

Salute the seasons

Love Local

...and break it into:

Feast, Create, Nourish, Grow, Ritual

...across six seasons:

Awakening, Alive, High Heat,Harvest, the Turning and Deep Chill

A new futuresteading website will be launched by 1 April and will not only host the 50+ podcast episodes but also an ability to order a signed book as well as a growing range of content on futuresteading know-how.

The tail end of 2021 will also see the futuresteading team kick off a range of intro and retreat futuresteading events and workshops.

Instagram: @futuresteading

Instagram: @black_barn_farm

Facebook:@ futuresteading

Facebook: @black_barn_farm

website: (both due to launch a new site on April 1) @

www.blackbarnfarm.com.au and www.futuresteading.com.au

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate @ https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So what does the future for broadacre farming look and feel like out west after the drought and its cocktail of extreme dust storms, water shortages and the daily stress of feeding stock and planning for the future in an increasingly uncertain climate?

Listen in to this episode to hear from farmer Richard Bootle (who wears a few lively hats) about how the drought impacted his family and farm and how Bogan Farms are transitioning their broadacre cropping and grazing for greater economic and environmental resilience.

https://www.instagram.com/boganfarmer/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-bootle-8aa4b541/

Richard and his partner Ian Perkins founded the Moxcol Group whose philosophy is to take traditional businesses and transform them through re-engineering business processes and applying tailored technology. 

The Group consists of:

• Bogan Farms - agriculture
• Smartlaw – a purely digital property lawfirm catering to people who can’t or don’t want to meet their lawyers face to face.
• lawlab – the largest national full service property law firm specialising in conveyancing and legal processes
• Rundl - an open business network for digital service delivery
• Kodum - integrated audio, video and control technology to connect your business

If you’d like to give Foodswell a hand to grow Nourishing Matters and other good-food, healthy-landscape things we do, donate here:  https://www.givenow.com.au/foodswell

Find more Nourishing Matters to Chew On at the Foodswell Website: www.foodswell.org.au/nourishing

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen in to the second part of my great conversation with Daryn McKenny, CEO of Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology about the work he and Miromaa do with First People's language centres, individuals, rangers and communities to help preserve and conserve their languages in Australia and internationally.

It's all about inspiring work Daryn has been doing for over twenty years, work that's set to grow and be amplified by the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages 2022-2032. The Decade calls for urgent steps at national and international levels to revive and strengthen indigenous languages whose complex knowledges and the cultures they foster embed human rights and are key resources for good governance, peace building and sustainable development.

Daryn is a Gamilaraay and Wiradjuri man born on Awabakal country, where he lives and Founded the Miromaa Aboriginal Language and Technology Centre in 2002, with an initial focus to revive the Awabakal language and culture in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Lower Hunter Valley. Miromaa is an Awabakal word, meaning "Saved, to stop from loss" and that's what Daryn, his team and the technologies they've developed and freely share powerfully enable and 'do'.

Our conversation leads off with some of the highlights from the PULiiMA Indigenous Language and Technology Conference 2019, held during the International Year of Indigenous Languages in Darwin.

We then dig in to talk about Miromaa's technologies and the free services they offer. Technologies developed by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people - unique, practical can do options that provide culturally safe, secure and easy ways for people to take action to conserve and preserve their languages. Check out the Miromaa website for impressive  testimonials and the map of where Miromaa are creating change internationally. I love the stories Daryn shares in our chat: about working with Santa Fe youth to support their Young Ancestors language projects; about how a Turkish teenage grandson contacted Miromaa for help to record his grandmother's rare and endangered Turkish dialect. 

Miromaa is a not for profit well worth supporting.

Listen through to hear Daryn's three call outs for support to help Miromaa grow their reach and impact (and get in touch with Daryn to support Miromaa!).

1. Technology and architecture upgrades to keep pace with growing needs and wants of communities;
2. App Development Support - so more people can use their pocket 'computers' - their phones - to record their languages, and
3. Team Capacity and Resources - to help meet the huge and growing community demand for Miromaa's support (time is of the essence to preserve and conserve languages 'now'!). 

As Daryn shares, protecting, knowing and using language is not just for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - it's for all of us, wherever we're from, so that together we can better hear, see and care for country and this beautiful place we call home. 

Bravo Daryn. Thanks so much for sharing your passion and the Miromaa story. 

Learn more about Miromaa, partners, supporters and where they work; to contact Daryn; or to get involved via their website @ https://www.miromaa.org.au/

And follow Nourishing Matters

Instagram @nourishing_matters 

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Web: Foodswell, Nourishing podcast

Twitter: @foodswell1

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, eminent Tasmanian agricultural scientist Bruce French, OA, Karalyn Hingston and Dr John McPhee speak with Anthea about Bruce’s voluntary mission and pioneering work to create a free database of over 30 000 edible plants to help tackle malnutrition and hunger. Listen in to hear how this amazing resource has fed the creation of Food Plant Solutions (FPS) and fuels their work around the world and here at home to help address hunger. 

In collaboration with Bruce and his wonderful database, the Food Plant Solutions team undertake research to document, produce and share ‘place and people’ based edible gardening information and community tools that are fit for purpose, people and targeted to nutrition needs and local growing conditions. 

FPS focus on what are often neglected and underutilized plants, plants that are growing in and adapted to their environment, and are high in the most beneficial nutrients. FPS materials are designed to empower people, particularly women, so that they can make informed choices on what plants to grow and eat that will nutritiously feed themselves and their families. 

There are more than 50,000 known edible plants on Earth, but fewer than 300 species reach the market and the big three – corn, wheat and rice – make up a whopping two-thirds of plant-sourced food. Increasing the agrobiodiversity of food sources diets is critical in the face of climate change, pests and quest for greater food resilience. 

Food Plants International’s database and the work that Food Plant Solutions do to create and share educational materials around the world are responding to this challenge with positive, high impact. 

To learn more and access the Food Plants International database go to: 

https://foodplantsinternational.com/

https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/

Visit Food Plant Solutions website to read more about their work, and the many countries where they make a positive difference, to volunteer or donate to help them do what they do so well at:   https://foodplantsolutions.org/

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In conversation with Professor Robyn Alders and Matthew Evans

In two special episodes Professor Robyn Alders, Matthew Evans and Anthea enjoy a wideranging conversation about ‘eating meat’ and what’s done in our name so we can eat meat and the decisions we can each make to help promote more sustainable, humane and ethical care for animals and of the environments that make our food and biodiversity possible. 

Both episodes take their cue from Matthew’s brilliant book On Eating Meat – The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it, his research and Robyn’s extensive knowledge as an internationally reknown veterinarian and expert in sustainable food and nutrition security.

Robyn and Matthew are both farmers and know an incredible amount about animals, landscapes and the health and environmental issues that travel with ‘why’ and ‘how’ we can choose to eat meat ‘better’ – for our health and for the wellbeing of the animals and places that nourish us. 

I was incredibly lucky to speak with Matthew and Robyn for my first interview for Nourishing Matters,  with Matthew joining the conversation from Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania and Robyn from her car in Crookwell to get decent reception! Thank you!

Matthew is well known as the host of Gourmet Farmer, the popular SBS TV series. A former food critic and chef, he now is a farmer, restaurateur and co-steward of Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania with his partner where he continues to research, write and share his ever expanding knowledge about ethical and sustainable food production. 

Enjoy reviews and hear Matthew talking about his book and more at: 

Interviews: Want an ethical diet? It's not as simple as going vegan, ABC 3 July 2019 @ 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-03/vegan-diet-doesnt-mean-no-animals-die-says-matthew-evans/11266420

Reviews: eg. On Eating Meat – Book Review, Eating for you @ https://eatingforyou.com.au/eating-meat-book-review/

Other Podcasts: Matthew Evans, On Eating Meat – The RegenNarration, Ep #060 @ https://www.regennarration.com/

Visit and learn more about Fat Pig Farm @  https://fatpig.farm/  and https://www.facebook.com/FatPigFarm

Robyn is an eminent Australian veterinarian who lives in NSW on her farm where she raises merino sheep. She is a Senior Consulting Fellow with the Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House, UK; Honorary Professor, Development Policy Centre, Australian National University, a Director of the Kyeema Foundation, Australia and Mozambique; current Chair of the Upper Lachlan Branch, NSW Farmers' Association, as well as being an Adjunct Professor, with the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University.

To read or listen to more about Robyn’s research and work see: 

Global Hunger Index: One Health, Zero Hunger, October 2020 @ https://www.globalhungerindex.org/issues-in-focus/2020.html

A planetary health approach to secure, safe, sustainable food systems: workshop report @  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-018-0780-9

TEDxANU Robyn Alders, Eating for the Future @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9FPQxzulk

In which Robyn talks about agriculture and its contribution to greenhouse emissions. She answers how do we nourish ourselves without harming the environment, how farmers and fisheries can transition to more sustainable ways of producing food and how can we drive change at a global level to think and to do food system differently.

Twitter  @Robyn Alders 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.alders

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In conversation with Professor Robyn Alders and Matthew Evans

In two special episodes Professor Robyn Alders, Matthew Evans and Anthea enjoy a wideranging conversation about ‘eating meat’ and what’s done in our name so we can eat meat and the decisions we can each make to help promote more sustainable, humane and ethical care for animals and of the environments that make our food and biodiversity possible. 

Both episodes take their cue from Matthew’s brilliant book On Eating Meat – The truth about its production and the ethics of eating it, his research and Robyn’s extensive knowledge as an internationally reknown veterinarian and expert in sustainable food and nutrition security.

Robyn and Matthew are both farmers and know an incredible amount about animals, landscapes and the health and environmental issues that travel with ‘why’ and ‘how’ we can choose to eat meat ‘better’ – for our health and for the wellbeing of the animals and places that nourish us. 

I was incredibly lucky to speak with Matthew and Robyn for my first interview for Nourishing Matters,  with Matthew joining the conversation from Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania and Robyn from her car in Crookwell to get decent reception! Thank you!

Matthew is well known as the host of Gourmet Farmer, the popular SBS TV series. A former food critic and chef, he now is a farmer, restaurateur and co-steward of Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania with his partner where he continues to research, write and share his ever expanding knowledge about ethical and sustainable food production. 

Enjoy reviews and hear Matthew talking about his book and more at: 

Interviews: Want an ethical diet? It's not as simple as going vegan, ABC 3 July 2019 @ 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-03/vegan-diet-doesnt-mean-no-animals-die-says-matthew-evans/11266420

Reviews: eg. On Eating Meat – Book Review, Eating for you @ https://eatingforyou.com.au/eating-meat-book-review/

Other Podcasts: Matthew Evans, On Eating Meat – The RegenNarration, Ep #060 @ https://www.regennarration.com/

Visit and learn more about Fat Pig Farm @  https://fatpig.farm/  and https://www.facebook.com/FatPigFarm

Robyn is an eminent Australian veterinarian who lives in NSW on her farm where she raises merino sheep. She is a Senior Consulting Fellow with the Centre for Universal Health, Chatham House, UK; Honorary Professor, Development Policy Centre, Australian National University, a Director of the Kyeema Foundation, Australia and Mozambique; current Chair of the Upper Lachlan Branch, NSW Farmers' Association, as well as being an Adjunct Professor, with the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University.

To read or listen to more about Robyn’s research and work see: 

Global Hunger Index: One Health, Zero Hunger, October 2020 @ https://www.globalhungerindex.org/issues-in-focus/2020.html

A planetary health approach to secure, safe, sustainable food systems: workshop report @  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-018-0780-9

TEDxANU Robyn Alders, Eating for the Future @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9FPQxzulk

In which Robyn talks about agriculture and its contribution to greenhouse emissions. She answers how do we nourish ourselves without harming the environment, how farmers and fisheries can transition to more sustainable ways of producing food and how can we drive change at a global level to think and to do food system differently.

Twitter  @Robyn Alders 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.alders

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this Episode, Dr Angela Pattison joins me in conversation to talk about the groundbreaking Native Grains From Paddock to Plate research project that she and her team from the University of Sydney have pioneered. Their research digs in to explore how Aboriginal people sustainably produced food from native ecosystems for thousands of years, and how, with Aboriginal oversight, to bring this knowledge to modern agrosystems and foods.

Industrial food systems rely on too few crops. The quest for greater agrobiodiversity in our food systems – for health, culture and environmental benefits – is a challenge to be met if we want to secure sustainable, diverse and healthy food for the future.

Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu, Black seeds: agriculture or accident has and continues to  transform the way we re-see Australian history and better understand the industry and ingenuity that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples applied to food production over millenia. It’s only seven short years since Dark Emu was published and already, its impact has been huge and continues to grow.  

Listen in to hear more about the world’s oldest breads, and future directions to grow, harvest and enjoy native grains as foods for the future. Hear from Angela about the challenges and opportunities for ‘factory’ and ‘pantry’ farming options and more.

Angela and her team released their first Native Grains From Paddock to Plate report during NAIDOC Week 2020 along with an incredible series of webinars. They’ve also produced a series of short videos and other resources that you can access, listen to or watch for free. 

Read the report from the one year Native Grains from Paddock to Plate study at:

https://www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/faculty-of-science/research/life-and-environmental-sciences/sia-native-grains-paddock-to-plate.pdf

Access the webinars, short videos and learn more about the research findings by visiting the University of Sydney website link at: 

https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/our-research/research-areas/life-and-environmental-sciences/indigenous-grasslands-grain.html

In conversation with: 

Dr Angela Pattison
Plant Breeding Institute, Narrabri, NSW

School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Sydney 

Twitter @AngePattison

Foodswell

Web: https://www.foodswell.org.au

Twitter: @foodswell1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Foodswell-800405613378218

Instagram: @nourishing_matters and @foodswellaustralia 

Anthea Fawcett

Facebook: @nourishingmatterstochewon

Instagram: @foodswell1

Support the show: https://www.givenow.com.au/nourishing

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.