www.ofa.org.au

A reminder that the OFA AGM is scheduled for afternoon of Dec 3 at Warragul in Gippsland, Victoria. A farm tour of local organic farms is proposed for Dec 4.

The venue will be the University of Melbourne, McMillan Campus, Kurumburra Rd Warragul. The day will start at 10.00 with two speakers followed by a workshop on the new proposed structure for the OFA. The election of office bearers will take place in the afternoon, followed by a BBQ.

There is accomodation at $35 head at the venue with a student style shared kitchen and breakfast included. There are numerous train from Spencer Street to Warragul - takes 1.20 mins. Friday Morning - Leave Spencer St Station (Melb) - 6.41, 7.47, 9.39. 10.39, 12.28 etc. Train times Warragul - Spencer St (buses to the airport leave every half hour from Spencer) Warragul Saturday arvo - 10.34, 15.21, 18.08. Sunday Wgul - Spencer - 9.09, 10.39.

The notice with full details and nomination forms is currently being mailed out to all members. We will include the full agenda.

One of the important events at this AGM will the workshop on the proposed changes to the OFA structure. The draft of the proposed restructure, being developed by the Industry Working Group, is almost finished. The Organic Industry Roundtable, held in Sydney, set a date of the second week of November for this document to be finished and presented to the roundtable participants, industry and government. We will ensure that this document will be available on the OFA website for comment

The workshop at the AGM will be an excellent opportunity for members to contribute to this process. I hope that as many members as possible will attend the AGM and participate in the field trip, the organic BBQ and workshop.

I was privileged to be able to attend the Terra Madre event in Torino, Italy. Around 5000 people participated, mostly farmers from over 80 countries including 17 delegates from Australia. This huge forum was organised by Slow Food International to allow producers and food communities from around the world to meet and discuss the various issues that are important to us.

It was also a celebration of quality and unique regional foods and the people who produce them. Slow Food was founded as an antidote to the homogenous mass produced industrial fast food that is poisoning our planet with obesity, diabetes, cancers and other degenerative diseases.

While this event was not specifically an organic event, the majority of participants were organic farmers as our philosophies and production methods fit very well into the concepts of the Slow Food movement.

The event was held in conjunction with Salone del Gusto which is the world’s largest trade fair of quality regional foods. Salone del Gusto has thousands of stalls displaying unique cheese, hams, sausages, breads, chocolates, sweets, grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, preserves, wines etc in a bewildering diversity.

The highlights of Terra Madre were speeches by Prince Charles, Carlo Petrini, Vandana Shiva, Percy Schmeiser and Bernward Geier.

Prince Charles was the closing speaker. His attendance was announced just before he entered the stage to speak. His speech was well researched and well received by all the attendees and summed up the purpose of the event very eloquently. He covered the important issues of the future of our planet and the type of fair society that we need to build to ensure human rights for all. Foremost in his talk was the right for all people on this planet to have adequate good quality food. He stated that this was clearly not happening with our current industrial food production models where poor quality food is mass produced in monocultures using toxic chemicals.

Prince Charles talked about how organic agriculture is the most effective way of feeding everyone on the planet, giving examples from around the world where it was producing higher yields and most importantly producing this quality food where it was needed.

This theme of organic agriculture as the most suitable method of feeding the world was also highlighted by Vandana Shiva in her opening Keynote speech and also in a forum on fair trade.

Bernward Geier from IFOAM gave two very succinct talks in forums showing how organic agriculture is a positive solution to the issue of ensuring adequate nutrition and income for the hundreds of millions on this planet who are currently undernourished.

All the major speakers talked about the problems of GMO’s and how we need to keep these out of our food supply. Percy Schmeiser was an outstanding speaker on this issue with his chilling personal story of the implications of GMO contamination of his crop.

Carlo Petrini, the founder and President of the Slow Food movement was an impressive speaker on the importance of regional production, fair trade, food security and food quality. It was easy to understand why Time Magazine nominated him as one of the most outstanding people in Europe.

There were numerous workshops and breakout sessions on a range of interesting topics. It was impossible to attend them all.

One of the workshops was on the costs of certification, especially on small farmers with the intention of looking at positive solutions. There were a range of speakers and views from a very negative response from a Mexican delegate calling certification a ‘violence on producers’ through to others who were happy with the status quo. The two outstanding presentations came from Ecovida in Brazil and Bernward Geier from IFOAM.

Bernward spoke on the success of the IFOAM small farmers certification system. This works by certifying an organisation of producers and having an internal inspection system conducted by the organisation to ensure that all the members are conforming to the requirements of the certification system. This system has now been accepted for entry into Europe. Bernward gave the example where it is allowing thousands organic Mexican coffee farmers to achieve premium prices for their products and has resulted in a significant improvement in their standard of living.

The Brazilian model is different in that it isn’t based on a fixed standard. It is based on groups that have their own individual ethical committees. These committees use visits to farms and processors to decide if the participants can use the Ecovida trademark for market access in Brazil. So far about 200 groups comprising of about 2000 families are using this system. It is highly unlikely that this system in its current form would allow the producers to get international market access.

It is encouraging to see that there are organisations that are taking positive steps in finding workable solutions to this important problem.

My thanks go to the organisers, the hundreds of volunteers and the sponsors of Terra Madre. This was a huge event that involved an enormous amount of organisation. They looked after all the delegates by providing accommodation, transport, food, translation services, numerous workshops and other assistance at no charge. It was a very successful event, especially as it enabled the participants to from all over the world to meet and establish linkages.

Andre Leu

Chair

The 2004 Food Irradiation Awareness Tour will take place in the between November 16 - 26, 2004. The international guest speaker will be Wenona Hauter, Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program (USA), will be in the following regions on the dates below.

The issue of food irradiation is rapidly becoming one of the major areas of concern for the international organic industry now that there is a push by countries like the USA and Australia to allow our food supply to be treated with ionizing radiation. A serious emerging issue is that some governments, including our own, seem to be considering food irradiation as a mandatory quarantine requirement for imports and exports. This would mean that no organic food could be imported or exported to and from Australia.

Another major concern is that most of these plants use radioactive isotopes that cannot be disposed of safely. These so-called ‘spent nuclear wastes’ could fall into the wrong hands and be used by terrorists to make dirty bombs that would make areas uninhabitable for generations.

We need to actively oppose any industry that tries to legitimise the use of these highly dangerous products of the world’s nuclear industry. After 50 years of promises of cheap unlimited energy, this industry has failed to deliver any unique benefits to human society and instead is leaving a disastrous toxic legacy for millions of years.

The benefits and safety claims of food irradiation seem to be of the same deceptive quality as the claims of unlimited cheap energy and the safe disposal of nuclear wastes.

The Public Citizen’s Safe Food Campaign has spent several years documenting the irradiation industry’s history and the many dangers posed by irradiated food. They state ‘The proponents of irradiation are misrepresenting the research on the technology and the acceptance of irradiated food by American consumers.

‘Irradiation is the process by which food is "treated" with high-energy ionizing radiation in the form of gamma rays from radioactive cobalt-60, x-rays, or electron beams for the purpose of eliminating bacteria, extending shelf life and killing invasive pests. The negative health effects that irradiated foods have had on lab animals are well documented, including premature death, mutations, fetal death and other reproductive problems, immune system disorders, fatal internal bleeding, organ damage, tumors, stunted growth and nutritional deficiencies. In legalizing and endorsing food irradiation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization have ignored a vast amount of research suggesting that irradiated foods are not safe for human consumption.

‘Irradiation significantly alters the composition of food. Chemicals that do not occur naturally in any foods ­ called 2-alkylcyclobutanones or 2-ACBs ­ have been linked to cancer development in rats and genetic damage in human cells. Many other chemicals are also formed, including several known or suspected to cause cancer and birth defects, such as benzene and methyl ethyl ketone. Irradiation also destroys and disrupts vitamins, protein, essential fatty acids and other nutrients in food. Further, several deaths and numerous injuries have occurred at irradiation facilities throughout the world. Dozens of mishaps and acts of misconduct have been reported, some of which have led to criminal convictions of company executives.

‘Moreover, irradiation masks the filthy conditions in slaughterhouses and food processing plants that cause meat to be contaminated with foodborne pathogens. Irradiation does nothing to remove the feces, urine, pus and vomit that often contaminate beef, pork, chicken and other meat. In Australia, the government’s inappropriately named "Meat Safety Enhancement Program" allows company employees to perform inspection duties once conducted by government inspectors. Standards have dropped to the point that sanitation practices are superior at facilities slaughtering horses and donkeys for pet food, compared to meatworks producing food for Australian consumers. Among many documented problems, up to three-fourths of carcasses have been smeared with feces, old "black" meat has been integrated into meat pies, and fat, rotting meat, blood and grease have accumulated on infrequently cleaned equipment. Slaughterhouse line-speeds have increased by 50-100 percent, making comprehensive inspection virtually impossible. TheEuropean Union has refused to accept any beef inspected under Australia’s new system.

Wenona Hauter ­ Director, Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Washington D.C., USA

Wenonah Hauter has worked extensively on energy, food, water and environmental issues at the national, state and local level. Experienced in developing policy positions and legislative strategies, she is also a skilled and accomplished organizer, having lobbied and developed grassroots field strategy and action plans. She joined Public Citizen in 1997 as Director of the Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, which focuses on nuclear power, nuclear waste, energy policy, food safety, and water issues. From 1996 to 1997, she was Environmental Policy Director for Citizen Action, where she worked with the organization's 30 state-based groups to develop environmental campaigns ranging from stopping pesticide use in schools and funding the Superfund program to advocating for renewable energy and watchdogging electric utility deregulation. From 1989 to 1995 she was at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) where as a Senior Organizer, she coordinated broad-based, grassroots sustainable energy campaigns in several states.

Previously, Wenonah spent ten years working on poverty and aging issues in rural and urban Virginia. Wenonah is also a grassroots trainer for the Midwest Academy, and she has a Masters Degree in Anthropology from the University of Maryland. She lives on her family's organic farm 40 miles west of Washington, DC in Virginia.

Plus speakers from the Organics and Anti-GE movements...and more

If you are interested in holding a Food Irradiation event in a region that is not being visited by this tour please contact please contact Robin 0411 118 737 or Anna 0405 092 445 They can send you a CD presentation on the issue, campaign materials, promo materials, t-shirts, and possibly videos of the Tour or on the campaign. They may also be able to visit you at another time.

For more info on food irradiation: www.public.citizen.org

For more info on the Awareness Tour: Ph 0411 118 737 or www.foodirradiationinfo.org

IFOAM Summit 2004 - Towards Adelaide 2005
November 8-9, 2004
Bonn, Germany
Email: t.cierpka@ifoam.org

The First International Biodynamic Wine Forum
19-21 November 2004, La Trobe University in Beechworth, Victoria
web: www.biodynamicwineforum.com.au
Bookings email: booking@biodynamicwineforum.com.au

Middle East Natural Products Expo - 2004
December 5-7, 2004
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
www.globallinksdubai.com
Email: info@globallinksdubai.com

International Conference on Sustainable Crop Production In Stress Environments:
Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), India
Dates : February 9-12
Dr. V.S. Tomar, Director of Research Services, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Adhartal, Jabalpur 482 004 (M.P.),
Phone: +91-761-2481074 (O), Fax: +91-761-2481074,E-mail:tomarvs@mailcity.com, drsjnkvv@sancharnet.in

BioFach
February 24-27, 2005
Nuremberg, Germany
info@nuernbergmesse.de
www.biofach.de