Food’s world of opportunity

IN Tasmania’s government and business circles the conversation about food is either about exporting it for someone else to eat or using it to entice tourists here to eat it, says Leah Galvin, state manager of Eat Well Tasmania.

Her personal passion is what Tasmanians eat here and what they would like to eat – not just in their homes, but in cafes, hospitals, aged-care homes, schools and universities.

She knows what that is.

“All the research says that, just like in other places, Tasmanians are really interested in eating locally produced food,” she said.

“It has been a consistent trend over time, especially when it comes to fresh food.

“In Tasmania we are producing a huge variety of first-quality produce, but what we are purchasing in shops, eating in restaurants, what is served in hospitals and aged care is not necessarily sourced locally.”

Leah has won a Churchill Scholarship, and next May she will spend seven weeks travelling in the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark and Sweden, visiting places that have been able to achieve sourcing of local food, not just in farmers’ markets and highend restaurants, but in businesses and government institutions.

She says we are about 10 years behind the northern hemisphere when it comes to large-scale purchasing of local food, and she wants to examine what approaches have been used to accomplish “relocalisation” of the food buying, and bring some ideas home. “There have been different approaches in different places,” she said. They include incentives, legislation, strategies by government and clusters of businesses working together.

“You always have to respond to what the opportunity might be locally. I am looking at largescale procurement, because my idea is that if we can disrupt the system at a big scale that will have all sorts of benefits for all sorts of other people who are interacting with the food supply system,” she said.

“If, for example, you are a wholesaler supplying the Royal Hobart and you now have to source your fruit and vegies from Tasmania, then that is going to mean there are all sorts of relationships with growers, suppliers, processors involved.

“It will create a benefit for other people who would like to buy locally sourced fruit and vegies.

“And that is pretty much how they have managed to do it overseas.”

She said a few years ago UTAS did some research that found a reasonable number of Tasmanian growers who were exporters had an interest in also selling their produce locally if they could make that work for them.

“And it wasn’t necessarily about whether they were small or large businesses, it was really more of a mindset,” Leah said.

“From all my reading, when you change things like this it’s actually a job creator.”

On her scholarship trip Leah will visit: Berkeley, USA: The University of California has a policy of sourcing local, sustainable and just food for all campus catering, and to diverting all food waste away from landfill. Detroit USA: Home of FoodLab Detroit run by Devita Davison (who visited here in March) where urban and small farms grow directly for 400 different city cafes and restaurants.

The Michigan state government has a policy to have 25 per cent of food produced in the state consumed in the state.

Another scheme means that one welfare dollar becomes $2 if it is spent on locally produced food. Boston, USA: Massachusetts has a Food is Medicine State Plan initiated by a food and nutrition program Community Servings, and Harvard Law School. Vermont, USA: A state with a population similar to Tasmania’s. Its 10-year-old Farm to Plate system is designed to increase economic development in the farm and food sector and improve access to local food. Toronto, Canada: The Ontario Local Food Act of 2013 removes red-tape barriers to make it easier for colleges, universities, municipalities and hospitals to buy local food.

Leah says they are the pioneers in using different mechanisms to get people across the supply chain to work together. Norway, Sweden and

Denmark: These countries use business clusters – industry-led groups of business, government and interest groups – to valueadd, build skills and connect back to the community.

Leah says it is a different approach from those employed in North America “but kind of landing in the same place”.

Scandinavia also has policies that work across different countries.

It might show ways Australian states could work together.