“The people of Sydney need to think urgently about where their food comes from”, says Ian Cohen at the launch of ‘Hungry for Change’: the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance Summit 2009.
Launching the summit with co-host Clover Moore, MP and Mayor of Sydney, Mr Cohen said “We are a society divorced from the source of our food and the means by which it is delivered to us and we remain ignorant at our peril. This Summit brings together healthcare professionals, primary producers, urban planners, organic producers and academics to look at ways we can safeguard ongoing, sustainable food production for Sydney.”
“Whether it is the adoption of on-farm Environmental Management Systems or organic production methods, initiatives must be also supported by enhanced food labelling laws so that consumers can have a real and informed choice about the foods they buy” says Mr Cohen.
“We know there is a direct link between the exercise of consumer choice aided by appropriate labelling laws and the financial price signals to farmers producing food in an ecologically sustainable manner.”
“It is simply madness that healthy food is becoming increasingly expensive while junk food costs less and less — meanwhile diabetes, obesity and heart disease are becoming epidemic. These cheap foods are highly processed and not nutritional. For more and more people good food - which should be a right not a privilege - is priced out of their reach.”
“In an affluent country like ours, it is an insanity that our children’s generation may not live as long as our generation. This is a bleak future we can arrest if we act now.”
“As oil supplies are in decline, petrol prices will rise and our current agricultural production and supply systems will not be sustainable. Food must produced closer to where populations are”, says Mr Cohen.
“The city is sprawling further each year, eating up good fertile agricultural land that currently supplies Greater Metropolitan Sydney with many fresh foods. We need policy that safeguards this land for food production. The State and Federal Governments need to sever the vested interests from the policy debate and adhere to the personal sovereignty of each person to determine what they eat.”
“Unfortunately, recent developments in the non-segregation of GM Canola by Graincorp show that consumer choice under multinational agribusiness self regulation will be fundamentally eroded. Let’s hope this Summit can be the start of a major rethink of the food supply chain.”
Further information: Catherine Coorey 0402 315 345 or Ian Cohen 0409 989 466
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