Fair Food Week at Coburg Farmers Market Sat 24 August

It is Fair food week at Coburg Farmers Market this Saturday with a Farmers’ Market Fair organised. Transition Coburg have organised 3 candidates standing in Wills to attend the Coburg Farmers Market this Saturday 24 August to discuss agriculture and food security and food sovereignty. Come along from 10am to hear Kelvin Thomson (ALP), Tim Read (Greens), Margarita Windisch (Socialist Alliance) discuss this important topic.

Coburg Farmers Market happens at Coburg North Public School at 180 O’Heas Street, Coburg from 8:00am – 1:30pm every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. Entry is by gold coin donation which goes to school community projects.

According to a media release by Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance on 21 August, both the Labor Government and Coalition parties fail badly AFSA’s Fair Food Electoral Scorecard.

“We want to let our members and the broader voting public know where the parties stand on the key issues of fairness and sustainability in our food system”, said AFSA spokesperson Dr Nick Rose. “In a nutshell, only the Greens have developed the sort of integrated policy approach we believe is needed to meet the serious food supply challenges we face in the coming years and decades.”

“The Coalition more so than the government has a relentless and myopic focus on increasing productivity and boosting exports regardless of the social or
environmental cost. This is very disappointing, particularly when there are such good precedents of how to support a fairer, more dynamic and more sustainable food economy in the United States, Canada and Britain, among other places”, said Dr Rose.

The inaugural Fair Food week is organised by the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance to encourage “organisations and individuals working together towards a food system in which people have the opportunity to choose, create and manage their food supply from paddock to plate.” Events are being held around Australia to highlight the People’s Food Plan and the importance of supporting our farmers and food producers to transition to sustainable and viable farming systems that tackle food insecurity and food injustice.

Liberal Candidate dodges discussion with Wills voters, again

At the talk organised by Transition Coburg in the speakers pit, initially Shilpa Hegde, the Liberal candidate was slotted to participate. See the posting below from Transition Coburg website events update:

First, Nat has organised for three local politicians to speak, asking them to “present their opinion and policies on food security, food sovereignty, and agriculture.” They are Kelvin Thomson, ALP member for Wills; Tim Read, Greens candidate for Wills; and Shilpa Hedge, Liberal candidate for Wills, and they’ll be speaking from around 10.30am. If you would like to propose questions, please reply to this email / post and I’ll forward them to Nat.

It now seems Shilpa Hegde has pulled out of this event. She also did not present at the Climate Action Moreland public forum to discuss climate and sustainability issues, while 4 candidates – Kelvin Thomson, Tim Read, Margarita Windisch and Dean O’Callaghan – were willing to discuss the topic. Another candidate, Adrian Trajstman sent his apologies due to another engagement.

Nat Aboud from Transition Coburg tweeted the fact that the Liberal candidate was not going to attend the Farmers Market discussion:

https://twitter.com/nat_rumi/status/370017271994806272

One has to ask why Liberal candidate Shilpa Hegde does not seem to want to meet voters in public forums.

Come along and enjoy the market fair, indulge in some political discussion, and get active among the many stalls and activities.

Image – Alemany Farmers’ Market – by S McGarrigle/Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0)