Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

ecently reissued their community garden policy, however this has turned an unclearsituation into a bad policy framework:The new council withdrew all the funding for the community gardens, so it’s just ashot through the head. But at the same time the policy from council is very rigid,where it has to be between 1200 and 1800m 2 it has to be this and that. [Thepolicy says that] every community garden has to be 1800m and it has to have 40beds because it was suggested, but when it was written into policy it was lockedin, as if one size fits all. Whereas across the road might have a lovely little bit ofpark and there might be four or five people in those units who would be willing totake control of that little bit of park (that has never been used for anything), butCouncil will not support that community garden because it does not fit within thatpolicy framework [Community gardener and permaculturalist, Gold Coast].Another illustration of the impact of regulation was given by an organic farmer inQueensland:You had the egg argument, it’s just so ludicrous. The regulations are aboutstamping every egg so you know where it comes from. And what it does is itfavours the cage bird rather than free range.[..] We had a guy who ran a poultryfarm on the edge of the mountain and brought his eggs to sell at the Green Shedand they were certified organic and free range, and the egg police came and saidhe couldn’t sell his eggs at the shed, he’d broken several regulations the mainone of which is that he didn’t have them registered with the egg police and put astamp on the eggs saying where they were grown. And if he kept doing it he’d geta $30,000 fine or go to jail for two years. And so when they came back to checkhe said I don’t have a poultry farm and he’d burned all of his chooks. He was soovercome by it all he just gave up and he burned all the chooks.It’s a Queensland thing, the Queensland regulations on eggs are worse thanother states. We could actually sell at the Green Shed eggs that were grown inLismore, New South Wales. We could sell Lismore eggs, we’re allowed to do thatbut not Queensland eggs [Organic Farmer, Gold Coast]It is known that the Federal Government is currently in the process of preparing a firsteverNational Food Plan, but there was little belief amongst our interviewees that thiswill result in a holistic and integrated policy document, or that it will give a place tourban and peri-urban agriculture.Economically, one of the main concerns expressed by many participants is the loss ofprime farmland to residential development in surrounding urban centres. This refers notonly to the physical construction of houses but the amount of land that is left idle due tospeculation and land banking. More notably in Melbourne, interviewees suggested thatan increasing number of individuals and companies have purchased land onMelbourne’s peri-urban fringes, often with the expectation that the urban growthboundary will be expanded, and the land will increase in value in the future. An olderdairy farmer from the Mornington Peninsula expressed his concern on the topic ofurban expansion.The good sandy soil is beginning to run out [due to urban expansion]. There’s alack of water further south (into Gippsland), and reliable water is essential tocommercial agriculture. The urban expansion of Melbourne should take place toUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 135