The 2nd National Sustainable Food Summit, will take place in Sydney on 3-4 April, 2012, and a pre-conference on the 2 April. The summit is being promoted by Three Pillars Network, will gather over 340 delegates including primary producers and members of the business, government, education, public health, community and not-for-profit sectors came together in Melbourne to share ideas that could inform a vision for Australia’s food system in 2030. The summit will also focus on the limits and challenges... ...Read more »

While Australian environment ministers reported on December 15, 2011 the substantial costs of a national Container Depositing Scheme (CDS), Australia’s leading recycling company Visy is advocating against a similar scheme for Victoria. As previously reported by Australian Food News, the Northern Territory (NT) has now implemented its own “Cash for Containers” recycling scheme, modelled on South Australia (SA)’s Container Deposit scheme, which has been operating since 1977. Although there... ...Read more »

With the Cash for Containers scheme now in place in the Northern Territory as reported last week by Australian Food News. NT’s Consumer Affairs government department has warned companies that unfair price rises could result in fines. NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson has urged Territorians to report any extreme price rises claimed to be as a result of the Cash for Containers scheme to a dedicated consumer affairs hotline. Mr Henderson said, “Consumer Affairs have the powers to slap suppliers with... ...Read more »

The mandatory recycling and labelling scheme for beverage containers (“Cash for Containers”) in the Northern Territory came into operation on 3 January 2012. The Northern Territory scheme has been modelled on South Australia’s but with some changes claiming to make the NT Cash for Containers scheme more transparent and efficient than the SA counterpart legislation. This scheme aims to reduce litter from streets, increase recycling and help reduce the amount of rubbish going to the rubbish... ...Read more »

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched a guide for Australian businesses on attributing price increases or impacts to the carbon price cost. Discussing the ACCC’s role in policing claims attributing price rises to the carbon pricing mechanism, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said today that the new guide aims to assist businesses in understanding their rights and obligations. He said, “Business costs increase all the time, and businesses are free to set their own prices. ... ...Read more »

A report commissioned by the UK government on how to improve environmental labelling on food products has outlined the difficulties of producing a single “green” label. The report by the University of Hertfordshire, the Food Ethics Council and the Policy Studies Institute today (7 February) revealed that the number of different environmental labels on food – covering issues such as carbon emissions and water use – has been growing. The number of labels, the report noted, has... ...Read more »

The first global guidelines for bycatch management and reduction of fishing discards were released recently by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. They now go to the Committee on Fisheries for endorsement when it meets in Rome at the end of the month. The guidelines were agreed by fisheries experts from 35 countries who met at FAO last month. The guidelines cover all types of bycatch including discards, that is, fish that are caught accidently and then thrown back into the sea either... ...Read more »

VicRelief Foodbank, Victoria’s largest food relief organisation, recently enlisted the help of Swinburne University and the National Centre for Sustainability, to draft and publish their Eco Report 2010, demonstrating the food relief charity’s deep commitment to the environment. Swinburne’s Carbon Accounting Course Teacher, Tony Hodgson and his students generously donated their time and resources to help the charity measure their eco footprint, ultimately enabling them to become... ...Read more »

Floods and droughts in major grain producing countries this year have triggered a sharp increase in food prices, highlighting the vulnerability of the world’s food production systems and agricultural markets. Such developments are likely to reoccur more frequently and with greater intensity in the decades to come due to climate change. Yet while there are many examples of how the agricultural sector can both become more resilient to climate change and reduce its own sizeable carbon emissions,... ...Read more »

Salmon company Tassal has been recognised in a national survey published in BRW as the Most Respected Industry Leader in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector in the country.The study to rank Australia’s most respected companies was conducted by global management consulting company Hay Group for BRW. Hay Group received responses to an online survey from businesses across 20 industries. Participants were asked to nominate organisations they respected across all industries and to rate... ...Read more »