I did a wonderful thing on the weekend. It was a real treat and I wish you all could have been there.
On Saturday I went to Town Hall and sat in on the Real Food Forum. US farmer, lecturer, author and all-round-excellent-individual Joel Salatin was the feature act. He spoke about sustainable farming (including the experience of his own ‘beyond organic’ family run farm), about respecting food production, the importance of connecting to it and how in fact to do that. It was awesome.
Informative, entertaining and completely inspiring.
Michael Croft from Mountain Creek Farm, just outside of Canberra, gave us an Australian perspective on providing nutrient-dense, ethically and sustainably farmed produce for the community. If I lived in Canberra, I would seek him out at the markets. If you do, you should.
All the proceeds from the day went to OzHarvest, a food rescue charity that takes excess unwanted food (from restaurants for example) and distributes it to charities supporting Australians in need. This is done at no cost to either donor or recipient and, Australia-wide, they deliver an average of 441, 500 meals per month – equating to 147 tonnes. That is INCREDIBLE! This is food that would otherwise be binned and ploughed into unusable landfill.
I feel very passionate about this topic and I’m often surprised when others aren’t. I know that’s my shtick – it’s the area I work in, so I should get a bit preachy about it. But it should be your shtick too!
It’s all too easy to forget the importance of good food – of real food – and where it comes from when you’re caught up in the whirlwind that is modern life… it happens to me too… but I’m telling you my friends, this is a really important thing to remember. Seriously now.
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This is about our environment. Our community.
This is about our health. And, about the future we’re building for ourselves, our kids and the generations to come.
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In case you don’t know who Joel Salatin is, you’ve not seen him speak before and/or couldn’t make it on the weekend, here’s a 15 minute snippet of inspiration just for you.