Monday 29 January 2024

A day engaging with agroecology at Jonai Farms will ground you in the mission to enact food sovereignty on every farm, which includes practising radical transparency and deep engagement with a community of eaters, including the rewarding successes of CSA (community-supported agriculture).

Agroecology promotes complex and diverse agroecosystems that produce food in harmony with nature, and solidarity economies that protect farmers from the risks of climate change and pandemics, and the vagaries of commodity markets, while focusing on feeding local communities. Agroecology has a well-developed theory of change. It works to support horizontal knowledge sharing by empowering farmers and their communities to learn from and with each other and the land and all on it, rather than relying on external experts for inputs of knowledge or other resources.

The day covers everything in our multi-tiered business plan including pastured pig and cattle farming, sourcing waste-stream feed while ensuring a well-rounded diet for pigs, managing a miniscule supply chain with on-farm butchery and a future collective micro-abattoir, direct sales, and education and advocacy as integral to our degrowth model.

We share specs and costings for our on-farm butcher’s shop, curing room, and commercial kitchen, as well as information on working through regulations and planning issues for on-farm further processing for livestock farmers. We also include a session on successful crowdfunding for value chain infrastructure.

We are excited to share progress towards an on-farm abattoir and our rent-free landsharing relationship with market gardeners Tumpinyeri Growers to collaborate in caring for Country with stacked and integrated enterprises!

Finally, by collectivising and uniting the voices of the people in democratically constituted organisations like the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), and actualising shared decision-making, agroecology offers genuine political strength and capacity for policy reform as well as grassroots transformations.

Numbers are limited to 12. The day includes a potluck lunch - we will provide Jonai meats and an assortment of preserves, and ask you to bring something you’ve grown and/or prepared to share, served with a side of food politics. The day runs from 9:30am to 5pm.

From 2024, Agroecology Dialogues are offered at a mutual aid rate, meaning ‘from each according to their means, to each according to their needs’. Farmers are welcome to attend free of charge or offer a donation toward our abattoir project, and others are asked to pay what you can.

Please head over to the Abattoir page to make a donation or pre-purchase one of Tammi’s cookbooks!