From what my parents told me, hard times can be faced and overcome if there is a positive, happy attitude in the family.
Simple pleasures , simple food well prepared, more time spent on people than things.
Mum’s ability to rise above the occasion stemmed from thick soups (for example, barley, vegetable and dumpling), lots of singing, reading, gardening, chickens and keeping busy.
Nothing was wasted
Old clothes were turned into blanket-like things Mother called ‘Waggas’.
These she made from corn bags opened out, stitched together, padded with worn out clothes, quilted and finally bound with floral material. Likewise, sugar bags were unpicked, and edged with floral scraps to become aprons, bath mats and foot towels.
– Vera Deacon in Depression Down Under, 1977.
HOW TO SWAP AND SHARE?
- swap your backyard crop
- share community garden produce
- Rescue & pick up food from local growers
- connect with community & preserve food together
- community cook-ups
- collect rejected veggies from farms
- buy from local and organic growers
- buy ‘seconds’
FOOD SOVEREIGNTY and why it is so important:
Food sovereignty is a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food also control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution. This stands in contrast to the present corporate food regime, in which corporations and market institutions control the global food system.
Food sovereignty emphasises local food economies, sustainable food availability, centred around culturally appropriate foods and practices.
FOOD WASTE
Globally we waste > 40% % of the food we produce & most of the waste occurs in wealthy countries.
We produce enough food on this planet to feed everyone twice over yet 1 billion people on this planet are malnourished and every 3.5 seconds someone dies of starvation, mainly children.
We have created a global food crisis by wrong distribution of food and by producing in ways that are not sustainable: depleting soils, destroying biodiversity & forests, polluting waterways & oceans.