Fusion Canberra will host a Local Food Security Mini-Expo on the 16th of November at their premises at the Carleton Street Shops, Kambah, to demonstrate different ways to get fresher, healthier and cheaper food closer to home. From 11 am to 3 pm, a variety of fun and engaging activities will be available for everyone to enjoy.
There’ll be entertainments for the little ones and the grown-ups, making it a great way to spend some quality Saturday time with the family. The children will love the face painting and themed lucky dip, and there’ll be information sessions and seminars throughout the day on aquaponics, local food and urban homesteading to occupy the adults. You can pick up a few vegetable seedlings for the garden too.
Bec Pollock and Genevieve Hopkins from Growing Home (http://www.growing-home.com.au/), and representatives from Canberra City Farm as well as other local food experts will be there throughout the day to share their wisdom, and the Fusion team will also be on hand to answer your questions.
The event will be catered with a sausage sizzle run by Namadgi School, and there will be free sausage sandwiches for the first one hundred people, so get in early! Also available will be reasonably priced Australian organic coffee from Here’s The Coffee, and free chilled water.
Organizers SEE-Change and Fusion Canberra are two community-based organizations that aim to promote community action on many issues like food security. “In 2013 we’ve been running the Our Hungry Future? campaign, aimed at raising awareness about food security, and opening up discussion of how we can deal with it,” said Anne Clarke, Executive Officer of SEE-Change. By organising this event, they are aiming to showcase existing initiatives and demonstrate that food security is an issue of concern for us all.
With most of Canberra’s food coming from outside the Capital Region, Canberra relies almost exclusively on road freight to maintain its food supply, something which makes the ACT extremely vulnerable to changes to any part of the fuel supply chain or transport network: eg. the recent fires which closed main arterial roads into Canberra. But there are alternatives which everyone can access with a little support.
“There are so many organizations in Canberra that are helping us find ways to improve our food security, and we’d like to make sure everyone in the local area is aware of the resources that are at their disposal”, adds Clarke. “Fusion has been working in this area for many years and it’s been terrific to collaborate with them on this project.”
“Aquaponics is a great way to grow vegies, herbs and fish, because you don’t need much water or to have access to good soil”, says Nigel Doecke, Fusion Canberra Aquaponics Support. Fusion’s Aquaponics setups at Kambah will be one of the highlights of the day, with room-sized and verandah-sized units on display.
Guest speakers and guides will represent a wide variety of approaches to this issue: there’s bound to be something for everyone.
“Promoting these activities is also about promoting jobs and another source of revenue for Canberrans” says Brenton Reimann, Team Leader of Fusion Canberra. “It is a great opportunity to diversify and grow our local economy”.
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