Align in the Sound - New Economy Network / Radio BTL / CoCanberra

When Robert Pekin lost his family’s fourth generation farm twenty years ago, he went into exile. The grief and shame led him on a journey to explore positive ways forward for farming in Australia. That feeling triggered a passion for creating a fairer food system for all farmers and for exploring ways to help people connect to those who grew and processed their food. He believed that this disconnection and the increasing impact of climate change meant a solution was urgently needed.

Enter Food Connect, a social enterprise that Robert, with his partner Emma-Kate, a few local farmers and a small group of motivated mums kick-started in 2005, using the principles of Community Supported Agriculture.

Food Connect's vision is to create a world where everyone has access to healthy, fresh, ecologically-grown food that is fair to growers, eaters, and the planet. We want to transform the food system, and we believe the next step towards this vision is to create a working local food hub for the regional food economy, that is owned by the community.

Andre Le Riviere visited Australia for the Footprints for Peace walk in Western Australia in 2011. BTL caught up with Andre at a friends kitchen table and we had a good chat about the nuclear industry in France.

Rising Tide held a speaking tour at the Polish Club on Sunday 3rd September to promote their planned November action to shut down the Newcastle coal export terminal - the world's largest - for 2 days!

Speakers at the Polo included:

Amy Blain (Peoples Climate Assembly);

Anjali Sharma (19 yo, Duty of Care campaigner);

David Pocock (Independent Senator)

Alexa Stuart (19 yo, Rising Tide Newcastle);

Shaun Murray from Rising Tide Newcastle;

John Wurcker from Rising Tide Canberra

this week, we have Michael Pilbrow, a co-founder of Canberra's late National Health Co-operative - amongst many other things.

Throughout his business career, Michael has used his strategy and community engagement skills to work on complex challenges like affordable housing, sustainable health and education services, and employment in regional areas.

Internationally, Michael has contributed to Australia’s responses to the Asian Financial Crisis, HIV/AIDS and disaster recovery in Asia and the Pacific. Michael has been awarded Outstanding Business Leader for the Yass Valley and was a Local Hero state finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards.

Michael will be chatting with us about all things cooperative, the cooperative model and why it could be the answer to so many of the social challenges we face today.

Canberra Environment Centre Director Fiona Veikannen and sustainability professional Julie Boulton have bought some microphones and are on a mission to interview their local environmental heroes.

This is the official launch of season 2 of the podcast at the canberra food cooperative.

In 2018 Behind the Lines made a road trip to Victoria, Australia to attend the New Economy Network of Australia’s national conference in Melbourne. You can find recordings of that conference through our Align in the Sound playlists on Soundcloud.

Along the way we stopped off at a few interesting places, including CERES, a remarkable urban farm in the centre of Melbourne with more tentacles than an octopus, 160 full time (equivalent) staff, and thousands of volunteers!

Recently, these 5 year old recordings were found in the Behind the Lines vaults, and this is the result. CERES is still a world leading example of a community of social enterprises committed to the common good – it must have been improving even more since these interviews were made.

We spoke mostly with Sieta Beckwith, who holds the role of “Narrative”, and Lucy Snedden showed us through the Grocery store. We apologise to the other speakers, whose names are lost in the BTL vaults… Let us know if you recognise someone and we will credit them.

For the past decade, Sieta has worked in strategic communications roles in Social Enterprise, for profit and non–profit organisations, assisting to discover values, vision and mission through collaborative processes.

With a background and studies in literature, philosophy, psychology and communications, Sieta helps to weave the different stories of CERES into a strategically aligned narrative.

Apologies for the wind noise throughout the recording, we have done our best to keep things easy to understand.

From 2020.

It seems only natural that with our recent shows focusing on the nurturing of food producing gardens and green spaces, that we do a show about how to prepare and cook that delicious fare in a manner which supports our food sovereignty, all the way from the organic green earth to our kitchens and plates.

Joining us this morning to chat about an exciting new project, The Container Kitchen Coop, is ex-farmer come foodie advocate, and owner of The Scrumpers Garden catering, Ruth Gaha-Morris.

Learn about the benefits of kitchen co-ops, community kitchens and retaining food sovereignty within our communities.

This week we are excited to welcome, live in studio, multi award-winning social justice radio and print journalist, mentor and best selling author of Troll Hunting, Ginger Gorman.

Ginger is also the host of the Seriously Social Podcast and has interviewed everyone from eminent scientists and artists, to hardened criminals and vicious Internet trolls. Join us as we delve into the world of online bullying, cyberhate, women in media, including the recent focus on sexual harassment in the political arena. and the precarious line women often walk when they dare to be visible and outspoken in a culture that would prefer their compliance and silence.

School Without Walls (SWOW) was a fully democratic school that ran from 1974 to 1997, when it was forced to shut down by Kate Carnell’s Liberal Party local government.

Many of those (including myself) who had the opportunity to learn at SWOW remain embittered that something quite that good - many would say life-changing – no longer exists.

There are scant records available from SWOW, and this series of oral histories aims to fill that gap as fully as possible.

In the second interview we talk with Biff Ward, a founder, early teacher and co-ordinator of the school.

School Without Walls (SWOW) was a fully democratic school that ran from 1974 to 1997, when it was forced to shut down by Kate Carnell’s Liberal Party local government.

Many of those (including myself) who had the opportunity to learn at SWOW remain embittered that something quite that good - many would say life-changing – no longer exists.

There are scant records available from SWOW, and this series of oral histories aims to fill that gap as fully as possible.

In the first interview, we talk with Lizanne Emery, a founder and early student at the school.