Local food growers, processors, retailers, and consumers in SE Qld and NE NSW are invited to register their interest in participating in one of three Local Food Value Chain Workshops to be held in May 2008.

The workshops will be convened by the Ethos Foundation and Food Connect (Australia's leading community share agriculture scheme) and will feature keynote presenter Judy Wicks, co-founder of the US Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

The workshops will be held in Lismore on May 26, Ipswich on May 27, and the Sunshine Coast on May 28.

These three workshops will offer local food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers an opportunity to identify the barriers to viable local food production in their regions and develop strategies to overcome these barriers.

Australia's food economy is dominated by the two supermarket chains. Their centralised buying and pricing policies have driven down the returns to small-scale farmers and effectively destroyed the local food production and marketing capability that existed in most areas until the 1960s.

This has serious implications for food security as we move into a period of steadily rising energy prices, greater climate instability, and global food shortages. It has also driven many small farmers out of the industry.

What will happen at the workshops?

The Local Food Value Chain Workshops will be in two parts:

The first session will be open to the public and will feature our keynote speaker, Judy Wicks. Judy was the co-founder of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) in the United States. Starting with her own busniess, the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, Judy has been at the forefront of the local food movement in the USA for 20 years. Other speakers will explore emerging threats to our food security.

Representatives of regional stakeholder groups like farmers' associations, local government, community peak bodies, local action groups, researchers and educators, business associations, and government departments will be invited to attend.

Getting down to business

The second part of the day will involve invited local food growers, processors and retailers and their value-chain partners, i.e. the businesses that directly add value to local food production like seed merchants and soil health consultants.

This will be where the real work of the day will be done, as the value chain players map the production process in their region and identify the weak points that make it difficult for local growers to make a living by producing for local consumers.

In the last part of the day the focus will shift to developing strategies and alliances that can help rebuild our local food production capability.

After these workshops Ethos and Food Connect will convene a Local Food Policy Roundtable involving representatives of the government agecies and local councils in SEQ and NNSW responsible for the policy settings and planning controls for food production. The outcomes of the Value Chain Workshops will be reported and proposals for policy reform put forward.

Registering your interest

If you are involved in any aspect of the production, distribution and selling of local food and would be interested in participating in one of these workshops, please register your interest as soon as possible. The numbers of participants after the public session will be limited and invitations will be issued to achieve the widest representation of the local food sector in each region.

REGISTRATION OF INTEREST CLOSES MONDAY APRIL 21

For more information contact the following:

LISMORE - MAY 26
Ken McLeod
0412 871 789
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IPSWICH - MAY 27
Robert Pekin
0404 777 491
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SUNSHINE COAST - MAY 28
Sharon Stott
0419 666 595
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Additional information can be downloaded from the Ethos Climate Change Leaders Network website: www.climateleadership.net.au