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Friends of the Earth Adelaide has two main collectives. The Fair Food Adelaide collective works on food sovereignty issues including March Against Monsanto, and the Clean Futures Collective focuses on Mining and Energy; and is pro-renewables, anti-nuclear and anti-fracking.
Fair Food Adelaide
This financial year Fair Food Adelaide focussed on events for Fair Food Week held each October where we held two events – a bicycle community garden tour, and a forum on food poverty co-hosted with Foodbank SA. After a local food Long Table lunch and an end of year picnic, we’ve had a quieter 2015 as two of our main organisers have had to step down due to new jobs. Our monthly Urban Orchard food swap is continuing, and instead of rallying on the anniversary of the first March Against Monsanto we wrote letters to SA’s Agriculture Minister to congratulate him on standing strong to continue SA’s GM moratorium and championing soil improvement rather than GMO crops. We also lobbied the federal Agriculture Minister and Health Minister asking them to ban the weedkiller Roundup (glyphosate) in light of the recent announcement by the World Health Organisation that it probably causes cancer. We have received replies from Barnaby Joyce saying the approval status of glyphosate is under review. We are also collecting signatures for a petition to Bunnings asking them to stop stocking the neonicotinoid pesticides that harm bees. We also work with the GM-Free Australia Alliance as one of its member groups. Member Kim Hill hosted workshop on The End of Agriculture at the Students of Sustainability conference in July.
We’ll continue to keep members up to date with information on our Facebook page, Facebook group, googlegroup and website.
See www.facebook.com/fairfoodadelaide and www.facebook.com/groups/MarchAgainstMonsantoAdelaide
Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page www.adelaide.foe.org.au .
Clean Futures Collective
The Clean Futures Collective regrouped and decided to become more active in the area of renewables as an alternative to nuclear energy early in the year – just in time for the Royal Commission into the Nuclear Fuel “Cycle” to come along. Our Premier Jay Weatherill thinks this is a way forward for the state with jobs and a solution to climate change that will help the economy – we strongly disagree with him and want to see a renewable future. The Royal Commission has taken up most of the group’s time since February. We have hired a part-time Campaigner for 6 months to November and are meeting weekly to progress plans. We have a major fundraising appeal to extend the campaign to the end of the Royal Commission. We made two submissions into the Commission’s Terms of Reference, attended each of the three Adelaide based community ‘consultations’ and are currently writing submissions for each of the four issues papers on uranium mining, enrichment, electricity and nuclear waste. Unfortunately the Adelaide Advertiser seems to be part of the formidable pro-nuclear campaign running articles with extremely biased and factually incorrect information such as nuclear power can provide free energy and abolish state taxes! It has been very difficult to counter such propaganda with actual cold hard technical and economic facts.
We are working closely with the Conservation Council of SA and Nuclear Operations Watch Port Adelaide (NOWPA) and are an active part of the newly formed statewide anti-nuclear coalition. We also work closely with FOE Australia’s nuclear free campaigner Dr Jim Green. Once the Royal Commission submissions are complete by early August we will move towards more community campaigning against the nuclear fuel chain. So far we’ve worked with the SA anti-nuclear coalition contributing to a fundraising poetry-slam picnic, a remembrance media conference on Fukushima Day March 11th, were part of a nuclear-free contingent at the March in March rally, held stalls at nuclear forums, supported Aboriginal people at a nuclear free forum in Port Augusta, and member Dr Philip White held a nuclear power workshop at Students of Sustainability conference along with Dr Jim Green. We participated in the ANFA led banner drop at SOS, and an action in Rundle Mall to support Aboriginal people around community closures/protecting the Murray River/protecting country from the nuclear industry.
We also made submissions to the Senate Inquiries into Wind Farms and the SA Inquiry into gas fracking. We co-hosted a film evening with the Conservation Council, screening “Farmlands not Gaslands” about the success of the Victorian community campaign to keep their farmland free of gas fracking.
Members and friends can keep up to date with progress via our googlegroup, fortnightly e-newsletter, general Facebook page and website.
See www.facebook.com/friendsoftheearthadelaide and www.adelaide.foe.org.au
Sign up for our fortnightly e-newsletter at the bottom left side of our home page.
Contact Secretary Robyn Wood robyn.wood@foe.org.au for more information about either collective.
PDF version FOE Adelaide Report 2014-15