We know our products aren’t cheap. We don’t sugarcoat this.
Factory farming produces the cheap food you can get at Coles and Woolworths. Unfortunately, what you don’t see are all of the externalised costs, the ones you don’t pay. Someone pays though.
- Workers pay. Jobs in factory farms are amongst the lowest paid in Australia. They’re also the dirtiest and most dangerous.
- Communities pay. Factory farming stinks, literally. It makes life hell for those who live near them, particularly in our region, where urban development has crept right up to factory chicken and pig farms.
- The natural environment pays. Factory farms industrialise rural landscapes. They leach effluent into waterways. They require millions of tons of industrially-grown grain that wrecks the environment where it’s produced, far away from where you buy your pork.
- The climate pays. Factory farms float on an ocean of fossil fuel – diesel to transport grain, gas to heat chicken sheds, methane and CO2 emissions that can’t be captured in a natural cycle.
- The animals pay. I don’t even need to tell you how the “efficiency” of factory farms brutalise living animals.
- The consumer pays. With poor-quality food that doesn’t taste like it should, and doesn’t contain the nutrients to keep you healthy.
But all of that still doesn’t fix the central problem: Is Belvedere Farm’s produce just for people who can afford it?
FUCK NO. We don’t want to live in a world like that.
Until we smash capitalism and achieve genuine systemic change, it’s up to us to work together and find solutions.
One is surprisingly simple. We already grow good food. We have a distribution network in place. We’re in a position to help, and hopefully you are too.
We’re looking to find a hundred people in our community who have the capacity to give us $5 per month each.
We’ll then provide $500 worth of our delicious, ethical produce to local mutual aid organisations at cost price. They’ll turn it into hundreds of free meals for our houseless neighbours and others who need our solidarity.
It works on every level:
- Your mutual aid dollar buys food that aligns with your ethics
- It goes directly to the people who need it the most.
- There’s no startup costs, no admin costs, no staff costs, no distribution costs. We’re already doing these things.
- It supports our farm, by allowing us to heal more country and put more animals on pasture.
Our Food – Community – Change supporters can also be part of making permanent change on food access.
We’ll cook community BBQs and yarn to politicians at every level.
We’ll prepare home-cooked takeaway meals and we’ll write letters.
We’ll find others to help us.
We’ll make a difference.
If you’re an organisation or individual who needs support, or if you have any questions at all, please CLICK HERE.