Our reliance on supermarkets has been seriously disrupted – whether by by spikes in demand due to panic buying, closure of of distribution centres, government control, or weather related crop loss. The question natural arises from any free thinking man, are we left with any sustainable alternatives?
In western culture, supermarkets are central to most peoples everyday lives, but they have now become symbols of our vulnerability in times of disruption.The crisis of recent times has caused us to rethink many things we took for granted. This includes the plentiful supply of a great variety of food at relatively stable prices in our supermarkets.
It’s important to remember that so much goes into putting food on our tables, and that every step of the way, there are people involved in making that happen. And we need to be able to take care of them. A farmer depends on himself, the land and the weather. Unfortunately, the way our food supply chains and food industry has developed over time, the farmers bear the majority of the risk and get a very, very small cut of the profits.
We need to think about ways to complement and enhance existing arrangements for supplying food. So lets get into it…
Strategies for a farm to table community:
1. Buy more locally produced food staples, support local producers at a farmers’ market, join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group, oxar take advantage of online platforms that make a range of locally grown food more readily available.
2. Local businesses making arrangements to ensure access to locally produced food within their business plans, building greater capacity to keep local economies operating.
3. Grow your own food. We touched on this in our Victory Gardens article where it was highlighted Australians response has been a return to the responsibility of feeding themselves.
It is no secret, societies have faced significant food and health crises over the centuries. Now, though, we have almost real-time data on food production, YouTube to learn how to grow anything under the sun, and researching the internet to connect to anyone supplying anything. So, what are we going to do about it?
More info from the Australian Government — Food insecurity in Australia:
What is it, who experiences it, support for families experiencing it
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