The Togetherness Project
Today’s Topic – Food Part 2 (updated)
Continuing our series on Food:
- What kind of shortages do we have?1
- What about waste?2
- My Grandma’s garden
- Industrial farming and alternatives
A focus on Famine
The Issue
So today we’re going to talk about food again. Particularly we’re going to be talking about what ways to produce and consume food other than industrial farming and mass production.3
We are talking about the types of food that has been stored for months and transported over long distances, selected for cosmetic appeal and re-manufactured into something that is not in any way a natural food.4
There is an epidemic of metabolic diseases and other forms of illness that have been linked to ultra processed foods. It should be no surprise that this is scientifically linked to loss of important symbiotic gut flora. It should be no surprise that studies reported in New Scientist (How to think about Ageing) find that traditional diets featuring whole foods and connectedness with community are important factors in living a long and healthy life. So why do we choose differently? 5
We previously talked about waste. Food distribution wastes between 15% (packaged food) and 40% (“slow moving” fresh food). Then households throw out up to 30% of the food bought.
Supermarkets are very good at transferring responsibility to us to do the “right thing” while making it easier on themselves
Packaging is a huge problem. It can be hard to buy fresh food that is not packaged in plastic, put in a plastic bag and then bagged again at a checkout. Why?
The Response
What can we do?
- Buy local not high food miles. Better food and potentially cheaper
- Buy fresh and whole foods
- Cooperatives (Wholefood Collective) – NY city run stores
- Hidden Orchard
- Markets/Stalls
- Buy what you need, not what is packaged up (more in Part 2)
- Lobby for change – political and to businesses
- Buy from local farms
- Seasonal produce
- Lets start with the quantities we buy. If I want to make say, potato and leek soup, I can buy packets of celery, onions and potatoes, some cream and a leek or two. Unless I want to make two or three batches, there will be too much and I will have to keep the excess for another recipe. Alternatively, I can buy exactly what I need. I can put what I buy in reusable bags or boxes. I can do so at a place where the produce is sourced locally.
- Today we will talk with Maggie from just this kind of place to buy your food.
- The final takeaway is that we know what we can do to make it better and we need a concerted effort to bring about change.
- Yes it is a bit harder to think through what you need, do meal plans and shop efficiently but there is the good stuff:
- You save money by not buying in excess – even if the per kilo price is a bit higher
- You don’t pay for the packaging and you don’t have to dispose of it (to do so sustainably costs effort and money)
- You get fresher and more nutritious food
- You support producers who are better custodians of the land
- By buying seasonal food, you multiply those benefits
- So lets hear from Maggie, from the Wholefood Collective!
- Have a toolbox of recipes not the same all year
- Urban farms
- Grow your own
Now lets hear from Maggie who is from the Wholefood
The final takeaway is that we know what we can do to make it better and we need a concerted effort to bring about change – TOGETHER
- https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/ozharvest-warns-of-rising-food-insecurity/106594414 [↩]
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-13/australia-food-waste-business-economic-cost/107249996 [↩]
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/regenerative-agriculture-farming-soil-health-food-security/105024708 [↩]
- https://www.foodisfree.com.au/ [↩]
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-08-16/community-garden-changes-food-habits-disadvantaged-town/7735190 [↩]