COVID-19 has highlighted the vulnerabilities and inequities of global and national food systems. Even as Australia was repeatedly reassured of the security of its food supply, in 2020 we’ve seen panic buying that emptied supermarket shelves, rising rates of unemployment and food insecurity, and a disproportionately affected migrant seasonal workforce. With the critical challenges of climate change at our doorstep, and rapidly rising costs of dietary-related ill-health, the integrity of our food and farming systems demands our attention. Across three webinars, Farm to Plate Program Director Jake Claro and Network Manager Sarah Danly will discuss how the decade-old program, recently renewed for a further ten years, has successfully increased employment, business creation and food security through collaborative, whole-of-system actions and networking, aligned to a shared agenda of a better food and farming system for Vermont. They will be joined by practitioners and policy makers from across Australia who will share state and local initiatives, and discuss how the Vermont approach might be applied to an Australian context. | |