Creative Food Economies Part 2 - Actions for Southern Melbourne

The food and farming sector in southern Melbourne is in transition, as are food systems all around the world. These transitions are being driven from behind – by conflicts over prime farmland, changing resource prices and physical constraints of some key inputs, the pressures of global competition for trade-exposed sectors, skilled labour shortages, and a rapidly changing climate. But they are also being pulled from ahead. The rapidly expanding populations of Casey, Cardinia and Mornington Peninsula – along with the northern parts of the Southern Melbourne region (reaching into Melbourne) represent opportunities – there is a large and increasing segment of this population that want healthy, ethical, sustainable and locally produced food. A local or regional food economy suggests food that is grown, processed and sold primarily for local or regional markets, contrasting with commodities produced for national and global markets. The movement for local and regional food – alongside demand for ethical and sustainable food production practices – is growing rapidly, both in Australia and around the world. In North America, Japan, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe, it has grown so rapidly that it is possible to speak of a still young but maturing ‘creative food economy’. In many regions, these have been the most dynamic and innovative sector of the food economy for the past two decades, ‘comprised mainly of specialty, local, ethnic and organic food-processing firms that are thriving in response to consumers’ demands for high-quality, local, fresh, ethnic and fusion cuisine’.1 Demand for local and regional foods is especially strong2, driven in part by the ‘dissociation between traditional large firms and the local consumer base’,3 itself a consequence of a globalised food system that produces ‘food from nowhere’4. This is all good news for economic development in southern Melbourne. Given a market of four million customers on its doorstep, projected to reach six million or more by 2030, the opportunities for the creative food economy in this region are immense. This emerging ‘creative food economy’ can exist and flourish alongside a more traditional food sector – it is not a choice of either / or. Building momentum in creative, entrepreneurial food businesses in this region, attracting and retaining diverse agricultural and value-adding businesses will increase the vibrancy and prosperity of the region as a whole, attracting businesses and investment, creating thousands of new jobs, supporting the necessary transition to healthier eating and living, and encouraging producers to move towards ecologically sustainable methods of production