Dr Emily Samuels-Ballantyne

Access to nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right (Mechlem, 2004). Food sovereignty defines this right through the empowerment of the people to redefine food and agricultural systems, and through ecologically sustainable production methods. At the heart of the food sovereignty movement are the interests of producers, distributors and consumers, rather than the interests of markets and corporations, which dominate the current globalized food system (Hinrichs, 2003). Food sovereignty challenges designers to enable people to innovate the food system. We are yet to develop economically viable solutions for scaling projects and providing citizens, governments and business with tools to develop and promote projects to innovate food systems and promote food sovereignty (Meroni, 2011; Murray, Caulier-Grice and Mulgan, 2010). This article examines how a design-led approach to innovation can assist in the development of new business models and ventures for local food systems: this is presented through an emerging field of research ‘Design-Led Food Communities’. Design-Led Food Communities enables citizens, governments and business to innovate local food projects through the application of design. This article reports on the case study of the Docklands Food Hub Project in Melbourne, Australia. Preliminary findings demonstrate valued outcomes, but also a deficiency in the design process to generate food solutions collaboratively between government, business and citizens.

Abstract The Shepparton Food Hub project, situated in regional Victoria, Australia, is a community response to a crisis in the local economy and food system due to contracting markets for traditional canned fruits, as they became unable to compete with cheaper imports. Food production in Shepparton depends on the SPC Cannery, the Shepparton Preserving Company and a former farmers’ collective, but now a subsidiary of the multinational, industrial food processing corporation Coca-Cola Amatil, which has supply chains throughout Australia and internationally. SPC imports cheap fruit from overseas to process and thus buys less produce from local farmers. The Shepparton Food Hub project drew on the significant body of research examining ways to decentralize and localize food supply chains as well as the evidence of successful strategies used in other entrepreneurial projects. Since 2016, transformational praxis has led to convivial design experimentation. This has turned Shepparton into a living laboratory for convivial food systems design and a place where rich learnings can take place on approaches to transform industrial food systems into convivial ones. Food systems are critical to human health, ecological sustainability, and local economies while providing cultural texture to community life ( Dixon, 2011 ). Currently, corporate-controlled and globalized food systems undermine these contributions. In the case of the Shepparton region, processing plants in both fruit and dairy became privatized companies, and farmers’ collectives serving the interests and needs of locals and farmers were locked out of decision-making processes at the whims of larger global forces. The Shepparton Food Hub project looked at how the region could transition away from a reliance solely on broad-scale farming.

This is a business plan for the Huon Valley Food Hub, Tasmania, Australia which is the result of 18 months of R&D that involved "safe to fail' experimentation and project activations in a food systems design framework.

During  COVID-19  research  undertaken  by  the  University  of  Tasmania
(UTAS) found that in Tasmania there are: increasing rates of household
food insecurity (25% in May/June 2021) particularly in rural Tasmanians;
a very strong preference from local consumers to eat Tasmanian grown
fruit  and  vegetables;  Tasmanians  seeking  to  support  locally  owned
businesses; and an increased focus on sustainability and reducing waste at
home and elsewhere within the food system (made more prominent as a
result of bare supermarket shelves in the height of the pandemic).
The importance of creating a more resilient system to support the health,
social and economic value in the local food system is therefore critical for
responding to and supporting the health and wellbeing of our community.
Internationally,  regional  food  hubs  have  been  used  to  build  resilient
regional economies that support locals to eat well, create more local jobs
and  increase  economic  activity  when  compared  with  a  wholesale
agriculture focus. In our case, the Hub has the opportunity to help address
systemic challenges facing the community such as high rates of household
food insecurity, workforce and skills shortages in the horticulture sector,
and poor diet related health outcomes. It also provides the opportunity to
improve  collaboration  and  coordination,  influence  policy  change  and
leverage increased demand for regionally grown produce.

Photography is an artefact of place-based food systems system design work. The Huon Valley Food Hub Project based in Tasmania Australia is a dynamic community food resilience project that is taking action in a collaborative and dynamic way.

A picture speaks a thousand words - and this presentation will give you a wonderful understanding and into the project and the importance of this work in communities.

The Huon Valley Farmgate Blitz project aimed to address the need for improving and enhancing the diversity of produce grown in a regenerative way to create a vibrant and abundant local economy. It directly linked to the first priority theme Local, regenerative food economy and abundance.

The project consisted of conducting ten farmgate 'blitzes' or community
workshops to enable small-scale farmers to be regenerative producers. The Blitzes were run from October-December 2022.

Local experts in specific regenerative farming practices such as bio-dynamics, market gardening and regenerative agriculture were engaged to provide mentorship/training at each workshop. These events were open to all community to encourage knowledge sharing and to build a community of local growing across the Huon Valley.

An open 'Expressions of Interest' was conducted in late August/September 2022, where interested farms could nominate to participate. These submissions were screened and selected to ensure diversity of topics and benefits to fit with the project's objectives.

The local Food Prescriptions project sought to ensure fair and equal access to fresh food for all Huon Valley residents. It aimed to improve primary health
outcomes by providing education and awareness to the importance of healthy food choices. It directly linked to the third priority theme - Food security, access and equity.

Working in collaboration with local farms, Diabetes Tasmania and Health
Consumers Tasmania, a weekly food box was initiated over a ten-week period, enabling access to fresh local produce for referred clients who have a chronic health condition (such as diabetes) or other personal and inflicted circumstances that make accessing fresh food difficult.

Support services were provided by our project partners, ensuring that their clients were able to maximise the opportunity by accessing additional support as/where needed. We also engaged with Eat Well Tasmania who produced a series of recipe cards reflecting the local produce available, raising education and awareness of what food is available, and its nutritional value and benefits.

The Growing Together Harvest Festival events were also shared with program participants as a way of extending their education opportunities.

The 'Growing Together Harvest Festival' sought to address gaps in the local
distribution system and improve the delivery of local produce for community
members to better access fresh fruit and vegetables. It also sought to develop a procurement network to enhance procurement opportunities throughout the wholesale sector locally. It directly linked to the second priority theme Food logistics, transport and agility.

The program involved a curated series of Food Hub Popup events being held in each major township of the Huon Valley, to distribute local produce, celebrate local food, and provide insightful educational experiences around the importance of sourcing and supporting local produce.

The Popup events were held during harvest from March-May 2023.
It was intended that a local procurement network aimed at increasing the
availability of Huon Valley produce through local wholesale channels with local supermarkets and businesses would also be delivered. However due to a lack of available surplus, inconsistent supply, and the required resourcing to support and make the initiative happen, this was not able to be progressed in the timeframe available.

Through a series of co-design workshops, Aboriginal elders, teachers and
students from Sacred Heart school developed the Sacred Country program of activity based around sharing knowledge and education. They aimed to implement these techniques to regenerate their traditional Aboriginal bush garden, including adding interpretation of the types of edible plants and bush foods available on the school grounds, to share with others within the school and broader community

Over the past 12 months we have been cultivating a local food system in the regional community of the Huon Valley, Tasmania. For many years, large-scale growing of apples and cherries has dominated our food economy. One major finding in our research and development is that small-scale growing and farming is minimal, to the point where it is difficult to buy local food in local shops; that said, crop swaps are alive and well! Like in most places, the industrial food economy, dominates and we are exploring ways to regenerate, diversify and localise the economy. As Helena Norberg-Hodge states “regenerative food systems are locally-adapted biodiverse agro-ecosystems deeply connected to place and community”, so by regenerating our food economy we are also regenerating culture and healing land.

Our community-led and care-centered methodology is informing the projects we implement. In early-2023, we are exploring ways that funding for our co-designed
business model will be seriously backed by investors; just like the transition to renewables was supported by the right policy settings and financial investment, we too see this as critical for the transformation of local food systems and key to regenerating the health of our community. We are collaborating with Robert Pekin, Uncle Kel O’Neil and Emma-Kate Rose from the Food Connect Foundation in the co-creation of a business model with our community. Many learnings can be made from case studies between regions and is an important part of this journey.

The Harvest Festival "Growing Together", in the Huon Valley, Tasmania is a community-led festival to spark deeper connection to our local food and each other. Using funds from the Healthy Tasmania grant - and prioritising praxis, over 'commodified ideas' of what resilient communities might look like in documentation. The end product is a lively festival, people connecting with each other and their local food system in a joyous and convivial way.

Are you interested to be part of creating a local food economy? This Handbook has been co-created by Huon Valley folk to help local food growers, distributors, processors and general foodies navigate and cultivate resilient local food communities and economies.

The Huon Valley Food Hub Project acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the South East Nation, the Melukerdee people of the Huon River and the Lyluequonny people of the Far South. We recognise their continuing connection to land, water and culture, and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. Thank you to the Huon Valley Council, Healthy Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government for their support of this project.

What is the Huon Valley farmgate blitz program?

This project emerged from the deep engagement and co-design with the Huon Valley, Tasmania community. Citizens recognised a great need for diversified and regenerative production of fruit and vegetables - and a need to not just rely on homogenous industrial crops for food security and a healthy local community and economy.

There will be 10 Farmgate Blitzes held between late October to December 2022, to enable more local growers to emerge, learn, support each other and in turn supply our local economy with healthy local produce.

Blitz hosts will open their homes for 5 hours and community members will come along and be given hands-on specific tasks such as no-dig gardens, building chicken tractors, making asparagus beds, terracing, compost piles and much more. It will be a great opportunity for people to share knowledge, and then go home and do it themselves and in turn have more local food growing!
Blitz hosts will also attend 2 other farm blitzes (reciprocal model) and take part in the food distribution workshops with mentors. All of our events can be booked via Eventbrite via our website www.huonvalleyfoodhub.org.au or our social media (Facebook & Instagram).

We will be reflecting on these projects and learnings, to understand how to best design resilient and equitable local food systems.

The following presentation shares a concise story of the origins of the food hub, the motivators for the project, the co-design and engagement process and the activation projects that have subsequently been designed, and will be implemented between September 2022 - May 2023. Watch this space, we are basically at the half way mark in this iteration of the project!

In a local context of designing food systems and responding to crisis we need agile and responsive action by local leadership to ensure safe, abundant local economies and healthy communities. Although resilience is used as a noun, the most popular definitions describe it as a capacity to act – which makes resilience an action that systems perform, like a verb, rather than a property that a system has, like a noun.

The Huon Valley Food Hub model will be developed using a co-design process. Practically, this means a series of workshops and other engagements, such as surveys and group meetings with people who live and work in the Huon Valley AND have an interest in supporting and strengthening our local food system (see a more detailed co-design methodology on page 5). The co-design takes place in Autumn 2022.

During the co-design phase we will indentify and develop ideas for what the functions of a future Food Hub might be. We will design and test some of those possible functions through activations or prototyping projects. This will occur in Spring 2022 – Autumn 2023.

This report was prepared for the Huon valley community and food stakeholders by Emily Samuels-Ballantyne, Food Hub Project Officer, Huon Valley Council. The R&D work for  this report was undertaken from September 2021 to March 2022 as part of the Healthy Tasmania Fund. The Huon Valley Food Hub would like to thank all those participants who have been involved in the food scan and analysis. he results of the food system scan will inform food system design interventions as a part of the Huon Valley Food Hub Project over the coming years. We look forward to staying in touch with you in this co-design process! Please stay tuned to our social media channels on facebook, instagram and website www.huonvalleyfoodhub.org

Citizen Engagement Workshops, Huon Valley Food Hub Project, Tasmania were ran in the different towns of the Huon Valley to understand ideas, perceptions and visions for the Food Hub project and development of local food economy and community in general.

The Engagement Journey is a 'relational design' piece of work weaving together the conversations, stories, opinions of citizens and knowledgeable folk& places  in the food community.

My approach is simple - always share the work. I don't want these voices to be lost and 'shelved'. These are the important voices of people in the community who care about the future of a local food system, so these voices need to be empowered and amplified!

The Food box program was a system set up for local economic trade of food, create community connection, design a reliable place for food to be sold in the Huon Valley , Tasmania. Then to provide fresh surplus food to Huonville Primary School and the Salvos in Huonville. Over 80 people purchased a box over the course of the trialranging from across the Huon Valley. Access to the box was made possible through centralised collection points in Huonville Town Hall and Geeveston, and a delivery service provided by volunteers from Geeveston Community Centre. This made it easy for people to access and expanded the reach to beyond one localised town/area in the region. Each fortnight resulted in repeat customers indicating their satisfaction with the quality and price for the service available.

"Where are all the vegetables" - Huon Valley Food Hub Project, Tasmania, Australia - #1 Insight Piece gives insight into the a food box design prototype. Many citizen insights and policy issues were uncovered in the project. By designing a living experiment I was able to gather information I would otherwise not been privy too, if doing conventional qualitative and quantitive R&D studies.

To follow our design project visit. www.huonvalleyfoodhub.org

This paper explores living systems theory and how it can apply to designing convivial food systems in everyday life as an alternative to the dominant, industrial food system. There are three major threads in the paper; firstly, the literature review explores the industrial food system problem and the emerging food systems design field. The second thread of the paper is the ontological foundation of living systems theory that will be outlined describing a view of life that embraces ecological design and an eco-literate worldview. The paper will outline seven levels of living systems theory and how these different levels of living systems apply to the proposed praxis of designing convivial food systems. Thirdly convivial food systems praxis will be demonstrated through various experiments and prototyping exercises conducted in Victoria, Australia. The results of the study suggest how designers adopt convivial design techniques and living systems theory into their practice through the ...

As food is an intrinsic part of everyday life, I argue the food system is one fundamental starting point from which to design balanced social, ecological and economic systems and change human behaviours towards a much-needed holistic worldview. I critique Western countries’ disconnected ways of relating to food, farming and community. Much of the imbalance has stemmed from the globalised, homogenous and capitalist food system (Escobar, 2018). The exploitative industrial economy has taken a toll on human and non-human health. The industrial food system is a micro example of the dehumanising effects of the economy, with its current mechanistic approaches to the production, distribution, consumption, representation and waste of food. The thesis addresses the design question: how can we transition from the industrial food system towards a convivial food system within a post-industrial context? This thesis draws on living systems and conviviality theory. I focus on Miller’s (1976) theory of living systems that describes the interrelationship between biological and social systems. I extend Illich’s (1973) theory of conviviality, which critiques the industrial productivity model and the dominance of professional elites. Illich emphasises the need to design a convivial system to encourage people to reconnect with hands-on skills, agriculture, connection to the body and control over their education. However there was little discussion from Illich on the practical ways to achieve this vision. This thesis explores Illich’s conviviality theory through the lens of living systems theory and uses this knowledge to implement seven food system design experiments based in Australian and European everyday life contexts. The combination of Illich’s and Millers theory and my own practical food systems design experiments led me to develop con viv theory. Con viv theory provides a practical framing for people to radically, equitably and interdependently redesign everyday life, with a particular focus on the food system. I propose three conviviality theorisations that are informed by con viv principles.

Firstly, the ‘convivial self’ proposes designers to adopt and embrace diverse and holistic worldviews to ensure that design is not part of the problem but rather part improving life for all. The convivial self proposes we are not living in a world of separation, but rather we are relational beings interconnected to each other and the natural world. Secondly, the ‘convivial food system’ presents a joyous, gastronomical, relational and ecological way to reimagine and connect to our food system and everyday life. Thirdly, the ‘convivial design’ conceptualisation shows relational and tactical design actions for both professional and lay designers. In particular I set out how the convivial design approach in everyday life can be adopted to empower and emancipate diverse groups of people ranging from those who feel disempowered by the industrial economic system, minority groups and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Convivial design is diverse in its scope, enabling designers to implement local small-scale projects and larger educational and policy making programs. In a post-Covid-19 world, the convivial self, convivial food system and convivial design theories provide approaches for people to reimagine and redesign their lives. These theories present an alternative to the centralised industrial system which dominates everyday life elements such as food, agriculture, home making, learning, education and health. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted human’s dependency on a flawed system that lacks resilience. This thesis proposes we can all design a
convivial lifestyle that embraces a holistic way of living, creating a connection to nature, our bodies, our communities, our land and our food system.

This paper explores living systems theory and how it can apply to designing convivial food systems in everyday life as an alternative to the dominant, industrial food system. There are three major threads in the paper; firstly, the literature review explores the industrial food system problem and the emerging food systems design field. The second thread of the paper is the ontological foundation of living systems theory that will be outlined describing a view of life that embraces ecological design and an eco-literate worldview. The paper will outline seven levels of living systems theory and how these different levels of living systems apply to the proposed praxis of designing convivial food systems. Thirdly convivial food systems praxis will be demonstrated through various experiments and prototyping exercises conducted in Victoria, Australia. The results of the study suggest how designers adopt convivial design techniques and living systems theory into their practice through the 'convivial design culture' approach.

The role of planning and design in advancing a bio-nutrition sensitive food system - Jane Dixon and Emily Ballantyne-Brodie

Book Chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Planning for Health and Well-Being: Shaping a Sustainable and Healthy Future

http://www.bookdepository.com/Routledge-Handbook-Planning-for-Health-Well-Being/9781138023307

Abstract
Access to nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food is a basic human right (Mechlem, 2004). Food sovereignty defines this right through the empowerment of the people to redefine food and agricultural systems, and through ecologically sustainable production methods. At the heart of the food sovereignty movement are the interests of producers, distributors and consumers, rather than the interests of markets and corporations, which dominate the current globalized food system (Hinrichs, 2003). Food sovereignty challenges designers to enable people to innovate the food system. We are yet to develop economically viable solutions for scaling projects and providing citizens, governments and business with tools to develop and promote projects to innovate food systems and promote food sovereignty (Meroni, 2011; Murray, Caulier-Grice and Mulgan, 2010). This article examines how a design-led approach to innovation can assist in the development of new business models and ventures for local food systems: this is presented through an emerging field of research ‘Design-Led Food Communities’. Design-Led Food Communities enables citizens, governments and business to innovate local food projects through the application of design. This article reports on the case study of the Docklands Food Hub Project in Melbourne, Australia. Preliminary findings demonstrate valued outcomes, but also a deficiency in the design process to generate food solutions collaboratively between government, business and citizens.

The Shepparton Food Hub evolved out of the City of Greater Shepparton’s desire to create a community garden at KidsTown adventure playground in Mooroopna. Pollen Studio sought out Emily Ballantyne-Brodie of Sustainable Everyday as a key partner to develop the design and services of the garden and together we realised that this could be much more than just a garden and could help address a whole range of food-related issues for the Greater Shepparton region.

The Shepparton Food Hub project, situated in regional Victoria, Australia, is a community response to a crisis in the local economy and food system due to contracting markets for traditional canned fruits, as they became unable to compete with cheaper imports. Food production in Shepparton depends on the SPC Cannery, the Shepparton Preserving Company and a former farmers’ collective, but now a subsidiary of the multinational, industrial food processing corporation Coca-Cola Amatil, which has supply chains throughout Australia and internationally. SPC imports cheap fruit from overseas to process and thus buys less produce from local farmers. The Shepparton Food Hub project drew on the significant body of research examining ways to decentralize and localize food supply chains as well as the evidence of successful strategies used in other entrepreneurial projects. Since 2016, transformational praxis has led to convivial design experimentation. This has turned Shepparton into a living laboratory for convivial food systems design and a place where rich learnings can take place on approaches to transform industrial food systems into convivial ones. Food systems are critical to human health, ecological sustainability, and local economies while providing cultural texture to community life (Dixon, 2011). Currently, corporate-controlled and globalized food systems undermine these contributions. In the case of the Shepparton region, processing plants in both fruit and dairy became privatized companies, and farmers’ collectives serving the interests and needs of locals and farmers were locked out of decision-making processes at the whims of larger global forces. The Shepparton Food Hub project looked at how the region could transition away from a reliance solely on broad-scale farming.

The Shepparton Food Hub evolved out of the City of Greater Shepparton’s desire to create a community garden at KidsTown adventure playground in Mooroopna. Pollen Studio sought out Emily Ballantyne-Brodie of Sustainable Everyday as a key partner to develop the design and services of the garden and together we realised that this could be much more than just a garden and could help address a whole range of food-related issues for the Greater Shepparton region.

As food is an intrinsic part of everyday life, I argue the food system is one fundamental starting point from which to design balanced social, ecological and economic systems and change human behaviours towards a much-needed holistic worldview. I critique Western countries’ disconnected ways of relating to food, farming and community. Much of the imbalance has stemmed from the globalised, homogenous and capitalist food system (Escobar, 2018). The exploitative industrial economy has taken a toll on human and non-human health. The industrial food system is a micro example of the dehumanising effects of the economy, with its current mechanistic approaches to the production, distribution, consumption, representation and waste of food. The thesis addresses the design question: how can we transition from the industrial food system towards a convivial food system within a post-industrial context? This thesis draws on living systems and conviviality theory. I focus on Miller’s (1976) theory of living systems that describes the interrelationship between biological and social systems. I extend Illich’s (1973) theory of conviviality, which critiques the industrial productivity model and the dominance of professional elites. Illich emphasises the need to design a convivial system to encourage people to reconnect with hands-on skills, agriculture, connection to the body and control over their education. However there was little discussion from Illich on the practical ways to achieve this vision. This thesis explores Illich’s conviviality theory through the lens of living systems theory and uses this knowledge to implement seven food system design experiments based in Australian and European everyday life contexts. The combination of Illich’s and Millers theory and my own practical food systems design experiments led me to develop con viv theory. Con viv theory provides a practical framing for people to radically, equitably and interdependently redesign everyday life, with a particular focus on the food system. I propose three conviviality theorisations that are informed by con viv principles.

Firstly, the ‘convivial self’ proposes designers to adopt and embrace diverse and holistic worldviews to ensure that design is not part of the problem but rather part improving life for all. The convivial self proposes we are not living in a world of separation, but rather we are relational beings interconnected to each other and the natural world. Secondly, the ‘convivial food system’ presents a joyous, gastronomical, relational and ecological way to reimagine and connect to our food system and everyday life. Thirdly, the ‘convivial design’ conceptualisation shows relational and tactical design actions for both professional and lay designers. In particular I set out how the convivial design approach in everyday life can be adopted to empower and emancipate diverse groups of people ranging from those who feel disempowered by the industrial economic system, minority groups and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Convivial design is diverse in its scope, enabling designers to implement local small-scale projects and larger educational and policy making programs. In a post-Covid-19 world, the convivial self, convivial food system and convivial design theories provide approaches for people to reimagine and redesign their lives. These theories present an alternative to the centralised industrial system which dominates everyday life elements such as food, agriculture, home making, learning, education and health. The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted human’s dependency on a flawed system that lacks resilience. This thesis proposes we can all design a
convivial lifestyle that embraces a holistic way of living, creating a connection to nature, our bodies, our communities, our land and our food system.

The Huon Valley Food hub project is experimenting with design prototype experiments in the community to understand the local food system and what the needs are in the community. The following insight piece gives local citizen intel into their food system, and gave us insights that we would not have been privy too through conventional qualitative and quantitative research.

The co-design workbook has been produced to guide the creation of activation projects for the Huon Valley Food Hub project, Tasmania.  The activation projects will be developed over the Winter time of 2022, and implemented in Spring 22 - Autumn 23. The website for the project is www.huonvalleyfoodhub.org.au  All updates are shared about this project via the R&D & Citizen Insights tab.