Where did your last meal come from? Does it even matter?
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At Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening Eurobodalla (SAGE) we think it does.
The Eurobodalla economy was once driven by agriculture but over the decades, as the food system shifted to centralised mass production, farming became less viable and the Eurobodalla produced less and less.
Our local economy is now mainly driven by tourism and health, with agriculture making a small, but important, contribution.
Large scale farming in the Eurobodalla isn’t possible anymore, as the old farms were mostly divided up into smaller and smaller lots. Some residential estates are old dairy farms.
Farming on a small scale makes participation in the supermarket food system unrealistic, as the available land simply can’t support the demanded output. That’s why a local food system is important.
By creating a local market for food produced on a smaller scale, the remaining agricultural land in our shire can remain productive, rather than descend into yet more residential sprawl, placing more demand on shire infrastructure.
Eating locally connects you to the surrounding landscape in a real and profound way. It creates an awareness of how the land in our shire is being used that shopping at a supermarket can never provide.
It makes you an active participant in shaping the character of our shire, which itself becomes what attracts people to visit and experience what we get to enjoy every day.
That’s why SAGE runs workshops to help people reconnect to growing and eating food.
We are also the only (so we believe) organisation in Australia that offers a paid market gardening internship every year.
It’s an intense 10-month opportunity for an aspiring market gardener to gain the knowledge and practical skills to grow vegetables for profit.
SAGE stands for Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening Eurobodalla and everything we do works towards those four pillars: sustainability in the face of an uncertain future, developing local agriculture, promotion of and education in home gardening; and building community within the Eurobodalla.
After almost 10 years of work, we hope we are making some progress.
You can be part of what SAGE is doing by becoming a member.
Join online at our website sageproject.org.au or in person at the SAGE Farmers Market every Tuesday from 3pm at Riverside Park.