Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

Melia Bugeja, FoE Melbourne Food Co-op.
The largest FoE group in
Australia is based in Melbourne
and was set up in 1973.
FoEM (Melbourne) or FoEM
has always been physically
located in the city’s inner
north, moving through six
offices over this time. The
group changed its name many
times to better reflect the
geographical coverage of its
campaign activity. It started as
FoEM Carlton, then changed
to Collingwood, then Fitzroy
and finally FoEM in 2000. It also
moved offices many times,
starting in McArthur Place
in Carlton, then Nicholson
Street and 366 Smith Street in
Collingwood.
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Over that period, FoEM has been active
in an extensive range of campaigns: on
hazardous chemicals and community
Right to Know legislation, brown coal
development in the Latrobe Valley, genetic
engineering, solidarity with the East
Timorese struggle, food irradiation, antimilitarism,
public transport and renewable
energy, to name a few. In the 1980s,
FoEM groups in Melbourne and elsewhere
pioneered national work on recycling,
waste minimisation and deposit legislation.
FoEM has run a food co-operative since
1975. Originally a ‘dry foods’ co-op, this
is now the largest and one of the longest
running co-ops of its type in Australia. It
stocks minimally processed food, where
shoppers bring their own containers, food
is organic and locally grown wherever
possible, and fairly traded. It now also
includes an organic vegetarian café. The
FoEM co-op is a bold and well regarded
venture that feeds both body and spirit and
Beth Cameron and Leanne McLean have
been involved in its co-ordination for over
a decade.
Bookshop, FoE Melbourne.
FoE 30 Years 105