Joel Orchard on a fair and just future driven by young farmers

It isn't magic that food grows in our backyard?! And Joel Orchard is just the gent to encourage the farmer in all of us.

Joel is the founder of Young Farmers Connect and the Australian/New Zealand CSA Network; a fair food advocate, educator and a passionate agricultural networker. He's super calm, absurdly inspiring and imparts hard truths about our world with intense kindness.

Wrap your ears around this episode and be reminded that through farming,  we can be social and environmental activists, impacting cultural change. And simply getting to know where your food comes from is a profound way to make a difference.

SHOW NOTES

• Recorded on Bunjalung country in the Northern Rivers
• Despite being surrounded by progressive thinkers, there are still boundaries to small scale regenerative food production
• Why language builds boxes that can limit opportunity
• The difficulty in making small scale farming work: Cost, land access, paths to market
• What the new face of farming looks like
• Changing the narrative about the reality of a successful small scale farming business
• Why it’s not necessary to be a full time farmer
• The young professionals who are moving into agriculture
• Diversification of on farm/off farm existence 
• Identifying the structural concerns that make eating consciously difficult
• Why farming is the most meaningful way to “walk-the-talk”
• Creating a circular economy, no waste, mushroom business 
• Why it’s important we all continue to share and learn together
• Cultivating networks where we feel “safe” to learn. Peer-support learning.
• What does ‘CSA’ mean? And creative paths to market.
• Shortening supply chains for our food is critical in creating a genuine shift away from nationalised, commodified growing practices
• Ensuring fortified perpetuity for the small scale farming sector
• The strength in collectivisation
• Why beauty matters
• Finding ways to slow down and observe the small things
• The importance of telling the complete and imperfect realities of farming to remove the cultural elitism -- not just bucolic, romantic images
• How do we make sure everyone can access local food?
• The true cost of food -- mother nature is already paying the bills for us
• Supporting each other to ensure those who are pushing envelopes can continue
• Creating spaces and places for safe support, development and solidarity
• Shifting the scarcity mindset to a sharing/collaborative mindset
• Working with kids -- the next gen farmers
• Demystifying farming  -- it isn't magic that food grows in your backyard
• Bringing life back to a place that limits over stimulation 
• Revelling in repetitive tasks that use your body
• What is a locavore? Why should be all eat local
• Shake the hand of the person who grows your food

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

• Call of the Reed Warbler - Charles Massey
• Farming Democracy - Food Sovereignty Alliance
• Foodies Guide to Capitalism - Eric Holt-Giménez
• Young Farmers Connect Network
• Prom Coast Food Collective
• Open Food Network
• RECO Hubs (Qld)