We are stronger together.
By signing the below declaration you stand with a growing number of signatories from local councils, organisations and individuals and in doing so strengthen our united voice of our shared vision. This Declaration proposes a common vision and set of principles for a healthy, sustainable, resilient and fair food system for all Australians.
To join us today, email [email protected] with a signed letter of support (click here for an example). And be sure to include a logo to your profile if you are signing on behalf of an organisation!
National Food Declaration
Food is fundamental to life and health. Increasing urbanization, the industrialization of agriculture and a changing climate are adversely impacting many parts of the global food system. This interconnected food system includes production, processing, distribution, consumption, waste management, and meaning creation. The food system faces compounding global challenges and variable local issues. The scale of these challenges and issues is reflected in local concerns about food security, producer livelihoods, local economies, damage to ecosystems, persistently high levels of hunger and malnutrition, a pandemic of dietary-related illness and disease, and biodiversity reduction.
Many organisation and government policy areas – including health, planning, transport, infrastructure, economic development, education, trade, biosecurity and environment – are relevant to the food system. A coherent long term food policy, at whatever level and scale of governance, enables the integration of these different areas. Cities and regions need a sustainable, fair and resilient food system that provides dignified access to healthy food for all citizens, offers viable livelihoods for local producers, and engenders careful stewardship of regional ecosystems.
Purpose
To achieve a vision of a sustainable, healthy and fair food system, integrated action is needed from individuals, communities, businesses, organisations and governments. The purpose of this Declaration is to encourage such action through offering the following:
- A set of agreed principles;
- A lexicon of agreed definitions and common language;
- A generalized framework for policy and legislative changes;
- A tool for mobilization and advocacy; and
- An associated set of tools for assessment and analysis.
Vision
Signatories to this Urban and Regional Food Declaration share a vision of a sustainable, healthy and fair food system. We commit to the following characteristics as shaping our approach to such a system:
- A thriving diversity of food production throughout our towns and cities and countryside, from networks of backyard, community and school gardens, to market gardens, ethical animal rearing, orchards, vineyards and food forests in our peri-urban and regional areas.
- A valuing of food producers as caretakers of the land and ecosystems, and as guarantors of our present and future food security.
- An expansion of farmers’ markets, a wide variety of farm-gate shops and trails, and high streets revitalised with shops that burst with local and seasonal produce, all supporting a growing local food economy that generates jobs and livelihoods for communities.
- A food system that supports the health and well-being of all, recognising that access to good food is a fundamental and universal human right.
The food system is a complex set of practices that face unique and unprecedented challenges. This Declaration and its principles are based upon four domains as expressed in figure 1: Circles of Social Life.

Principles
Ecology: Our food system should actively maintain the health and integrity of the natural environment on which it depends, seeking to maintain the health of existing ecosystems and enhance biodiversity.
Economics: Our food system should support, create and sustain local and regional livelihoods while building a resilient food industry.
Politics: Governments and organisations should collaborate and work holistically, both internally and externally, while proactively engaging with communities to inform policy, planning and legislative actions relating to environmental stewardship, food security, health and wellbeing, and urban and regional livelihoods.
Culture: Our food system should embrace the diverse and cultural significance of food, recognizing its central role in promoting social cohesion, life-long and intergenerational learning, and community health and well-being.
Signatories
Organisations
Individuals
- Sonia Martinez
Founder, Fareloom - Pauline Mary Crosbie
Founder, Bumblebee Factory - Sue Noy
Research fellow and academic, Deakin University - Daniel Slavko Vlahek
Operations/Administration Manager - Fiona Buining
Founder, Ainslie Urban Farm - Nicholas Howlett
Mushroom Grower - Russel Montgomery
Teacher, Carey Baptist College Forrestdale - Matt Cole
- Alison Dalziel
Director, Localise - Mark Duncan
Director of DMM Agronomy - Sharon Gerardino
Associate, HHC - Gavin Hardy
Community food systems specialist, Community Gardens Australia - Amelia Harray
Director & Founder, Eat Sustainably - Jaime Hogan
- Madeline Hogan
Food Specifications and Regulatory Officer, MSAC Solutions - Michael Hughes
Edible Ecology Facilitator, Let’s Grow Shopping - Zachary Jones
Landscape Architect - Jane Knight
- Ninna Mar
Founder of Symbiotic , Symbiotic - Karen Newman
- Meg Platte
Coordinator, Garfield Community Garden - Amanda Riordan
Managing Director, The Murrurundi Collective - Trish Talob
Community Fed - Allan ‘Big Al’ Connolly
Founder/Managing Director, Kommuniti HQ - Faye Adams
- Fiona Anchal
Owner, Wholesome Bellies - Stella Anyaogu
Design Strategist - Frank Banks
- Casey Barkla-Jones
- Lisa Brassington
Collective Impact and Urban Agriculture Facilitator, Food Circles | Cardinia Shire Council - Andrew Bregmen
Director, Design Solutions Group - Margaret Bridgeford
- Sarah Desmond
Social Worker - Anthony Dickson
- William Douglas Mansell
Founder, Habitat Solutions - Joel Fitzgerald
Farm Manager, Heart Tree Care Farm - Amanda Fleming
- Delia Forrest
- Nicola Foxworthy
- Berbel Franse
Health Promotion Officer (Food Security & Sustainability) , Healthy Cities Illawarra / Food Fairness Illawarra - Angus Graham
- Danah Harbour
- Tracy Hardy
Founder, Accredited Nutritionist/Dietitian, Wattleseed Nutrition, Health and Wellbeing - Nick Harris
- Joanne Helen Cody
- Natasha Henningsen
Academic, Le Cordon Bleu Australia - Carolyn Hicks
- Jason Hilder
Researcher - Michelle Hollingsworth
Finance - Daniel James Racovolis
Enactor, Urabba Parks - Wendy Johnson
- William Leon Naufahu
- Sydney MacLennan
Food Systems Professional - Garry McQuillan
CEO, Randwick City Council - Jane Melvin
Environmental Consultant - Emmy Nicol
- Liz Ninnes
- Robert O’Griffith
CEO, Green Look Living Space - Catherine Olsson
- Naomi Orsillo
Owner, Copper & Stone Cafe - Josephine Paone
Pasta Maker, Radical Pasta - Andrew Pengelly
Vice-president, Co-founder, Indigenous Plants for Health - Carol Perdigão
Project Assistant and Oakhill Comms Coordinator, Sustain - Roslyn Pilbeam
- Stephanie Prado
- Rob Rees
- Lorena Rey
- Dan Ricciuti
Proprietor, Dan’s Gardens - Nick Rose
Executive Director, Sustain - Sam Ryan
Educator, Folk of All Trades - Natalie Sarau
Chief Waste Warrior , Forkful - Lisa Savchuk
Artist, Creative Space - Ian Sinclair
Principal Consultant, Edge Land Planning - Jessica Skye Johnston-Doyle
Student, Victoria University - Savannah Supski
Co-founder/Treasurer, Just Food Collective - Nathan Toleman
Common Ground Project - Kirra Watt
- Sabian Wilde
Perth NRM - Timothy William Read
Freelance consultant, Biome - John Winkels
Director, Pure Peninsula Honey