Supporting local farmers and buying local produce

There’s been a rally cry recently to help support NSW farmers in the drought. To help with this I’ve just written an article here on how to buy food from local farmers around Dubbo where I live.

I also read recently that Dick Smith foods has just announced they are closing due to lack of support for local food. Meanwhile Aldi is booming.

Dick Smith says in his letter that “It’s amazing that foreign-owned Aldi is now our most trusted brand, whereas Coles, Woolworths and Metcash (IGA) have done everything they can to try and keep our products on the shelves, are not as respected.” 

Later he says “It is simply modern “extreme capitalism”.”

I disagree. I don’t think it’s amazing at all that we dont’ trust Coles or Woolworths. It’s a more complex issue.

We were very early adopters of ‘Buy Australian’ and for many years we avoided buying products that were made overseas. Given the choice, we used to pay more for local food. But then we started to see that Australia is behind the rest of the world regarding food health, especially the addition of artificial colours, flavours, and also pesticide and herbicide use. So as a family the healthier we started to eat, the harder it was to buy locally grown food.

So for the mainstream, people will do well to buy Australian and support local farmers. For the healthy, the Australian farmers need to listen to the consumers and produce a healthier product.

For example, we cannot find local organic grass fed butter, or cheese or olive oil near Dubbo. The only brand of organic berries we can find is OOB – from NZ.   It’s very hard to buy organic fruit and vegetables.Many shops do not know whether their beef is grass fed or grain fed.  It’s next to impossible to buy locally grown glyphosate free wheat or flour in bulk. Our last 20kg bag of organic spelt flour was milled from imported grain (I checked with the mill) because there is a shortage of organic spelt grain in Australia.

So while I am wanting to support local farmers (and have written this article to encourage others to do so) there is sometimes a conflict between buying local food, and buying sustainably and healthy food.

So our food choices are now roughly this order:

1. But food that is healthy (no pesticides, herbicides and colours and flavours)
2. Buy food that is sustainably grown (rotational grazing, humane treatment of animals etc.)
3. But food that is low food miles
4. Buy local and Australian

Our family is trying to think about the future of the planet as a whole as well as local farmers. There is no reason these 2 things need to be in opposition – thankfully Options 1 and 2 (healthy and sustainable) are becoming more popular in Australia, and even around  Dubbo. We can now buy, among other things, locally produced and sustainable beef, lamb, pork, and eggs.

With a bit of creativity all 4 of these criteria can be met. But not all the time.

We get a weekly organic fruit and vegetable delivery from Bathurst Whole Foods who try to source their organic food locally where possible. It’s not as local as I’d like, it’s more expensive than Woolworths, but it fits criteria 1,2 and 4. And better than Woolworths for 3.

We have some great local stores who have the same philosophy.

The best shop in Dubbo for this is Dubbo Health Food.  Cathy and Mike Parish are world leaders in this area and we are fortunate to have them in our own city of Dubbo! There’s not enough locally grown organic F&V for them to stock, but they have a great range of other foods.

Here are some other places in or near Dubbo with good options:

http://majosdailyscoop.com.au

A fantastic selection of organic flours, grains, dried fruit, nuts spices etc. Most of it is not locally sourced but where they can they do have local products.

https://myfarmshop.com.au/

Beef, lamb, chicken. Joel Salatin Style.