A travelogue from the Cities Feeding People conference in Melbourne, Australia Malaika Edwards March 2007

I recently went to the Cities Feeding people conference in Melbourne, Australia to share some inspiration and learnings from the work People’s Grocery and others are doing to build healthy regional food systems in the U.S. and to learn what they are doing about these issues on the other side of the world. I found a strong network of organizations collaborating to put on a conference which was both inspiring and informative. I stayed for a week taking in both the conference as well as a rich variety of post conference events around the city. Here are my reflections….

I left San Francisco on Monday and arrived in Australia on Wednesday, I’m not sure where Tuesday went. Upon arrival I had an enjoyable journey via public transportation which took me directly to Collingwood Town Hall, where the conference was already in full swing. I arrived in the middle of a talk (via computer conferencing) by Vandana Shiva about the Navdanya programs in India. (http://www.navdanya.org/about/founder-message.htm) The previous day had focused on school gardens, and today’s focus was Seed Saving. There were displays from the Seed Savers Network of Australia and a beautiful seed mandala on the floor . After taking some time to explore the displays and snack on the remains of lunch (delicious fried potato kofta’s and lentil patties with a sweet coriander topping), I traveled to my home for the next two days with my host Peta and her four month old baby Milo. Peta and her husband Chris visited People’s Grocery on a 6 month food systems tour they did two years ago, and she described the area we were driving through as “the West Oakland of Melbourne.” To me, though, it seemed better off than West Oakland and only lasted a couple blocks. We passed public housing where low-income residents paid a portion of their “dole” (like Welfare) in return for their accommodations. The residents, she said, were immigrants from places like Turkey, Hungary, Iraq, and Vietnam. I tried to listen calmly, while inside I was trying to adjust to the fact that Peta was driving on the WRONG side of the road; and so was everyone else!

During dinner I learned about Peta’s recent work at Cultivating Community. This organization helps residents of public housing to design and build gardens in their complexes, and holds a weekly produce market to provide the residents with access to nutritious fresh foods. Chris works as the organic farm and training programs manager at CERES, a 9 acre ecological park within the city, which is like a Disneyland turned eco and grassroots. CERES, named after the old Italian goddess of agriculture, has over 100 employees, and more going on than it is possible to recount.

Some of the highlights include; a renewable energy demonstration park, a native plant nursery, a worm farm, a café, a produce and bulk foods market, animals, community garden plots, children’s playgrounds, mushroom cultivation, a multi-cultural village of traditional homes from throughout the world, an eco-house and a 2-acre farm. The dinner of fresh crisp corn, eggplant and tomatoes put my taste buds into shock and made me realize instantly that it was SUMMER here!
The next morning at the conference, Helena Norberg-Hodge (long time local foods advocate and founder of ISEC www.isec.org.uk) and David Holmgren (co-founder of Permaculture) spoke. Helena talked about the fact that the “dominant system” is not based on efficiency but on hidden subsidies. For example, it is not actually more efficient to produce milk in Holland and ship it to England, but the hidden subsidies on transportation make it seem so in the global marketplace. David Holmgren followed up by illustrating what sustainability movements have to gain from the Peak Oil dilemma. As soon as the “dominant system” is no longer subsidized by cheap oil, the inherent efficiencies of local, ecological systems will become apparent. Things like decentralized solar and wind power, public transportation and small scale regional farming will be seen as more economically viable.
My talk that afternoon was well received. I spoke about the crisis of disconnection from nature in our urban environments, the consolidation of the food system, food deserts in low income communities and communities of color, and the subsequent epidemic of diet related disease. I brought in examples of security in aboriginal and immigrant populations, and food consolidation in Australia (two food retailers control 80% of the countries market!). Follow this link under Thursday for the audio recording of my talk: http://www.ceres.org.au/community/conference.htm
That afternoon I went on a tour of the Melbourne Children’s Farm where there are several acres of permaculture gardens, horses, chickens, pigs, and sheep for the area children who arrive by the busload to experience a piece of nature. It is only 20 minutes from downtown but has a very rural feel.
After the tour, we all walked from the farm just up the road for dinner at “Lentil As Anything” where we met several dozen more conference goers. This restaurant is unique in that the owner has employed a “pay what you will” policy. There are no prices on the menu at all; just an inconspicuous metal box for customers to add whatever they feel is fair for the meal they have consumed. The model works! In fact it has been so successful that they just opened up their 4th restaurant this year. Not just in well healed neighborhoods, I might add. You’ll find their restaurants in all sorts of neighborhoods serving generous portions on faith that the spirit will be returned. Their multicultural staff cooks a wide variety of dishes, the restaurant we went to specializing in curries and other Nepalese treats. They were happy to write down the recipe of the potato Kofta balls I had enjoyed so much at lunch the day before.
Kofta’s
Boiled potatoes
Coriander, Ginger, Garam Masala, Turmeric, Salt, Pepper, Potato flour
Mix and roll
Deep fry
Sauce: Tomato, milk, and cardamom seeds
I am hoping to recreate some of that delicate flavor and texture at home.
The highlight of the next day of workshops was a talk by microbiologist Elaine Ingram from Oregon, who talked vivaciously, bringing soil science to life. At the end of her talk, she had us hanging on her every word for the secrets of properly prepared compost and compost teas to reduce erosion, water use and pests and increase production. And I thought I knew a little something about compost! Her key methodology is increasing the number of biological organisms in the soil and creating the right balance of fungal and bacterial organisms for each given ecosystem. Orchards, for example, thrive in a more fungal environment, while veggies like it on the more bacterial side. Her lively descriptions of the functional properties of nematodes, flagellates, amoebae, ciliate and arthropods (the nutrient taxis) kept us all entertained. Properly prepared compost, I learned, is neither hot nor smelly; is brown not black, and has a spongy texture.
In the afternoon, I went to a workshop with David Holmgren’s wife Su Dennett who talked about food preservation; canning, drying, fermentation, freezing and everything in between. The most innovative idea I gleaned is that of a “cool cupboard,” which keeps produce fresh without electricity by making use of cool air circulation from the ground or basement. You can find instructions for building your own cool cupboard in David’s e-book, Melliodora, A Case Study in Cool Climate Permaculture, at http://www.holmgren.com.au/html/Publications/eBook.html. Su also introduced me to my other “find” of the day, a book called Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz which has simply written recipes and anecdotes on how to make everything from yogurt to tempeh to sauerkraut.
The conference ended with a sorely needed rain. Melbourne is in a 7 year drought and the government has instituted water restrictions which don’t allow you to wash your car (or driveway), and only allow watering of home gardens 2 times a week during a 2 hour window. They are on the edge of stage 4 water restrictions which would limit things like laundry and possibly even showers. On the up-side, all homes and public venues have dual flush toilets—toilets with one flush for “heavier loads” and another for “lighter loads”—both options are extremely water efficient. Also, water catchment tanks and greywater use (which is allowed and encouraged) are also becoming more and more popular. On a similar note, the Australian government is now phasing out the sale or use of any light bulbs that are not energy efficient.
After clean up, Chris and I took the “eco-events” trailer, packed with reusable dishware which can be rented for next to nothing, back to CERES where it would be used for a festival the next day. No disposables were used the entire week.
That night I moved lodging to stay with Amatis, an urban permaculture garden designer, and her husband Gilbert, a mall manager turned sustainable development consultant, in their beautiful artistic home in one of the less gentrified neighborhoods of Melbourne. In the morning we went to the CERES market which featured breads, bulk goods, packaged goods, and a wide variety of produce from their farm and from a nearby wholesale market. They also had beautiful mushrooms there that CERES had grown on site in converted shipping containers, which is proving to be a successful business for them. Signs told customers how many kilometers each item had traveled if it wasn’t grown directly at CERES. Signs for the market advertise:
“delicious
fresh
local
sustainable
oil-shunning
land-supporting
wildlife protecting
farmer empowering
community nourishing
CERES funding
hope building
fabulous
Organic Fruit and Veg”

After the market, I took a self guided tour of CERES and took the electric tram to the starting point of the post-conference school garden tour. The tour took us to 3 schools that have impressive garden programs. One has a beautiful new kitchen set up with 4 work stations and small dining tables. The school has made a strong commitment to incorporating the kitchen and garden into their curriculum. Each child grades 3-6 spends an hour on Thursdays in the garden and 1.5 hours on Fridays in the kitchen. This is one of about 25 schools that are partially funded by a kitchen garden foundation set up by chef Stephanie Alexander, the Julia Child of Australia. Another school had a more environmentally focused program with a small forest ecosystem, a wetlands ecosystem, water conservation and more.
Our tour group met up that evening with those who had taken the Community Gardens Tour, another post-conference activity. Dinner was a delicious buffet in a big community garden called “Veg Out” which was started by a number of artists. There were several hundred individual plots spanning an entire city block with the most creative garden designs I’ve ever seen.
In the morning, Amadis made a yummy omelet for breakfast with asparagus, CERES mushrooms, spinach, goat feta and fresh herbs from their garden. They have a lovely little yard in the back with veggies, chickens, a tiny pond and a Maurisian style thatched shade structure with a hammock and pillows. After breakfast I biked along Meri Creek, a beautiful waterway through the city, to get to the 2 acre CERES farm. This farm is the last of what used to be dozens of market gardens operating in the fertile flood plain of the river. The top soil was remarkable. A rich silty loam that is deeper than Chris has managed to dig. I worked with Chris and his co-worker for most of the day planting rhubarb and weeding rows of summer crops. My “revelation of the day”, was a GREAT farm tool I had never seen before. It is like a hula hoe with a wheel on it and two handles so that you can easily run it between farm beds to weed crops! Ooh, I had so much fun with it. Chris said they bought a bunch of different hoes and weeding tools and this was by far the best.
I thought I was really on to something new, but I got home to find out they are everywhere, even in our local farm supply store which calls it a “standard wheel hoe”. Hmmm. http://www.groworganic.com/item_GCU200_GlaserStandardWheelHoe.html
The next day Amadis and I headed to the outskirts of the city to Petty’s Orchard, where the Heritage Fruits Group was hosting an apple festival. They had tours of the apple orchards which demonstrated various pruning and trellising techniques. There were over 100 varieties growing, maybe 60 on display and 40 or so varieties available for tasting, such as dessert apples (which are sweet and crunchy for eating), softer cooking apples and more acidic cider apples. My favorite dessert apples were the Prince Alfred and the Spartan.
From there, I caught a ride with some conference goers to CERES, where the annual harvest festival was just getting underway. Fifteen ethnic chefs from all over the world prepared their traditional dishes at booths where the public could watch, help and ask questions. There were Iraqi refugee women making breads in a tandoor oven, Turkish women making a sugary almond sweet with rose petals, Greek women making dolmas, Indian and Pakistani men making curries, Vietnamese folks making spring rolls, a tamale stand, an Asian dumpling stand and more. There were also vendors, music, metal working, and a play about the history of the grape. I had a roasted dandelion root latte from the café. Once all the food was prepared, we sat down to a beautiful feast; a taste of each of the dishes.
The next morning, my host Gilbert took me to visit Victoria Market, the oldest and largest vendors market in the country. It was phenomenal. There were probably over 1,000 stalls with vendors selling everything you can imagine; fruits and vegetables of all kinds (including an extensive organic section), meats, fish, clothing, breads and dozens of deli shops with cheeses, huge squares of local butter, yogurts, meats, olives, pestos, humus, tapenades, dolmas and more. I got some yummy snacks for lunch and everything tasted better than normal. After the market Gilbert’s friend Alan agreed to take me down to Healesville Sanctuary where I could be sure to see some koalas and kangas before I left Australia. At the sanctuary, I saw kangaroos lying on their sides propped up on their elbows like lounging humans and even got to pet one. We also saw cute koalas munching eucalyptus, as well as platypus, wallaby, wombats, echidnas, dingoes and emus. I rode home with Alan for a goodbye dinner with Chris, Peta and family.
I spent the rest of the evening reading Amartis’ Biodynamic Growing magazines. http://www.bdgrowing.com/ Biodynamics, founded in Austria by Rudolf Steiner (who also founded Waldorf Schools) is very popular in Australia largely due to the work of Alex Podolinsky. Podolinsky has taken biodynamics to a new level of success with large scale farms, and has reinvigorated a movement which was beginning to fade even in Europe. I had some familiarity with biodynamics, but reading Alex’s articles on biodynamic farming and composting got me so inspired that I sent away for some Biodynamic preparations from the Josephine Porter institute here in the U.S. as soon as I got home. http://www.jpibiodynamics.org/
It was inspiring to see so many successful projects promoting urban agriculture and local foods, and to see how much we have in common across the world from one another. I left energized with plenty of new ideas to try. I am grateful to my generous hosts and look forward to returning the favor one day. On the way home I left Melbourne at 11:15am on Monday and arrived in SFO at 10:55am the same day! I guess I got that day back after all…..

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