In this month's episode, Lucy Ridge is joined by Tammi Jonas and Raj Patel.

Tammi and Raj have been in conversation over the last few years in various contexts, here they focus on the role of the state in our food systems, and how to create the counter hegemony.

The conversation explores the deeply human work of movement building with Raj talking to his lived experiences in South Africa, the Americas and beyond. In these times of trouble this conversation brings hope to the table to build the future we need.

Tammi Jonas is AFSA's focal Point for Farmers and grows uncommonly delicious pork and beef on the unceded  lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung. 

Raj Patel is an award-winning author, filmmaker, and academic who has been deeply engaged in the work of food sovereignty across the globe. 

AFSA: https://afsa.org.au/

Follow this link to help fund this podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Raj Patel: https://rajpatel.org/

HEAL Food Alliance: https://healfoodalliance.org/

Abahlali baseMjondolo: https://abahlali.org/

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

In this episode of the Agroecology Radio Hour, host Lucy Ridge talks with John Monaghan and Alan Smith from Rocking Chair Farm in the Hunter Valley (Wonnarua country) about how chance meetings, shared meals, and big conversations grew into an intergenerational farming partnership. John and Alan farm angus beef, Australian white lamb, chooks, hops, and veggies on 800 acres and sell direct to the public.

They unpack their journeys from diverse past careers to farming and then from conventional production to holistic, regenerative decision-making, and dive deep into their unusual succession and land-share arrangement that has been built on trust and relationships. Along the way they explore the real costs and legal complexity of doing succession differently, the value of involving partners and community, and why selling direct to customers has helped them build both profitability and stronger relationships. The conversation ripples outward into local food sovereignty in action, from field days to a micro-abattoir co-op and on-farm events.

AFSA: https://afsa.org.au/

Rocking Chair Farm: https://www.rockingchairfarm.com.au/

Follow this link to help fund this podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

In this months episode we chat with Chris Smaje; he is an aspiring woodsman, stockman, gardener, and peasant in Somerset, southwest England. Chris is also an author who writes urgently about the need for a small farm future, making the case for organising communities around small scale local agroecological farming in order to meet both the environmental and political challenges of our times. 

Chris is the author "Saying NO to a Farm-Free Future" and "A Small Farm Future".

Chris has just finished a new book "Finding Lights in a Dark Age: Sharing Land, Work and Craft". It will be released on the 11th of November 2025. It can be pre-ordered here.

Follow this link to help fund this podcast:

 https://buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Links:

Become a member of AFSA: https://afsa.org.au/join-us/

Chris Smaje: https://chrissmaje.com/

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

'...all people come from [a] connection to the land ... whether it was our parents or our great-grandparents, or our distant ancestors. We've all sort of had our hands in the soil, being deeply connected to the landscape, and it doesn't matter where you come from, whether you're Indigenous or anglo or from any other part of the world,  we've all been involved in that practice. So it's just something that's inherently within all people.'

Welcome back to Agroecology Radio Hour, the podcast by the Agroecology & Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) that brings you conversations about the food sovereignty movement in so-called Australia and beyond.

This month we chat with Jacob Birch, a Gamilaraay man, agroecology-oriented farmer, PhD candidate (UQ), Churchill Fellow and AFSA First Peoples Focal Group convenor, who is doing some incredible work in Indigenous food sovereignty and the reawakening of native grain food ways with Yaamarra and Yarral.

Sadly, due to some technical issues with the audio we lost the last section of the interview. Luckily we managed to capture the majority of the conversation and we are still able to share it with you.

For more information:

Yaamarra and Yarral

Churchill Fellowship – Jacob Birch

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

'Peasant means a person of the land ... And the aims of the global peasantry, of the peasant, are the reproduction of the farm and the ecosystem in which it exists ... not profit maximization. They are, "I want to be able to do this here forever, and I want everyone else to be able to as well." And to do that, I'm going to have to look after this place ...'

Welcome back to Agroecology Radio Hour, the podcast by the Agroecology & Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) that brings you conversations about the food sovereignty movement in so-called Australia and beyond.

This month, we chatted with Tammi Jonas, AFSA Focal Point for Farmers. Tammi has been farming on unceeded Dja Dja Wurrung country for close to 15 years at Jonai Farms and has long been engaged in activism. Tammi and Lucy chat about Jonai farms, the language of "peasant" in so-called Australia, how the food sovereignty movement has grown over recent years and more!

Find out more about Jonai Farms here: https://jonaifarms.com.au/

This episode was produced by Ivan Blaket.

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

This months episode is a chat with renowned  evolutionary epidemiologist Rob Wallace. Lucy and Rob weave through a range of topics surrounding the current avian flu outbreaks including the history and potential futures of avian flu all while dissecting the systemic struggles of farmers in the face of industrial agriculture.

Follow this link to help fund this podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Links:

Become a member of AFSA: https://afsa.org.au/join-us/

Pandemic Research for the People: prepthepeople.net

Agroecology and Rural Economics Research Corps: arerc.wordpress.com

Midwest Healthy Ag: midwesthealthyag.org

Rob Wallaces books: monthlyreview.org/author/robwallace

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

'...what we say in La Vía Campesina is globalise struggles, globalise hope, because we do believe that if we struggle, we can have a better life.'

Welcome back to Agroecology Radio Hour, the podcast by the Agroecology & Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) that brings you conversations about the food sovereignty movement.

In this episode, we interview Morgan Ody, a small scale farmer in Brittany, France, and general coordinator of La Vía Campesina (LVC), the global peasant movement. We explore the international context of the food sovereignty movement, the need for international solidarity from Europe to Palestine, to Africa to Asia, and how AFSA and so-called Australia fit into this global puzzle.

More on La Via Campesina here: https://viacampesina.org/en/

Further, we caught up with AFSA's Focal Point for Farmers, Tammi Jonas, for an update on the national abattoir campaign.

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

AFSA's focal point for farmers, Tammi Jonas, recently spoke at Grounded festival in Lutruwita, Tasmania about the plight of small scale farmers across Australia as more abattoirs close their doors to small scale meat producers. This was a live conversation and we apologise for some of the low quality audio of the audience questions.

Big thanks to Grounded for giving us permission to share this recording!

AFSA is currently running a survey to better understand the needs of livestock producers in Australia and can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeI0q0EyBWnx6sJOZrc1rLZoWmjuXl-YtgfVgx7gOMU_4FsFQ/viewform

And please sign and share this parliamentary petition:

https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/petitions/small-scale-livestock-farming/ 

Support this podcast here: https://buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Grounded festival: https://groundedaustralia.com.au/

AFSA: https://afsa.org.au/

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.

Welcome to the very first episode of Agroecology Radio Hour!

Agroecology Radio Hour, a podcast powered by the Agroecology & Food Sovereignty Alliance - AFSA (former Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance), explores food sovereignty issues in so-called Australia, bringing to you stories from across the country and beyond, to inspire dialogue and movement. We can only change our broken food systems by working collectively.

In this special debut episode, Jessie Power (AFSA General Coordinator 2022-2025) shares the origin story of AFSA and its work in advocacy and activism over the past 14 years. AFSA is today at the forefront of the food sovereignty movement in so-called Australian and part of the wider international solidarity network, seeking and enacting radical transformation in our food systems and beyond.

This conversation leads into a deep dive about Indigenous food sovereignty, a fundamental dialogue when thinking about food on stolen land and everywhere. We have interviewed Dominique Chen, a proud Gamilaroi woman now living on Jinibara Country, south-east Queensland, where she is an interdisciplinary researcher and educator, dedicated to furthering community and Country aspirations, well-being and self-determination through food, agriculture and creative practice. 

For more information about Dominique Chen's work go to:
www.walkingstory.com.au
www.yuruwan.org.au
www.growingoncountry.com.au
www.theblaklaundry.com.au

This episode was produced by AFSA National Committee Member Ivan Blacket.

As most of AFSA's work, this podcast is run entirely by volunteers, we are grateful for any contribution to help the production continue: buymeacoffee.com/agroecologyradiohour

Follow AFSA's work and join us at www.afsa.org.au

Agroecology Radio Hour is hosted by Lucy Ridge, member of AFSA National Committee, food writer, former chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems.