There’s a growing debate about the humble egg… and it’s not about whether it came before the chicken.
Claims that clip-board bureaucrats are inhibiting the production of organic and free-range eggs are becoming angry shouts from frustrated farmers. The Hinterland Times spoke with Julie Shelton convenor of Slow Food Sunshine Coast Hinterland , who has investigated regulatory impediments to small-scale food production around the world.
Food producers relate stories about government agencies having conflicting requirements, or even two sections of the same organisation interpreting laws differently – such anecdotes would be funny if they weren’t so true.
Food regulations are important of course, but are not always consistent and they don’t always work in the interests of both producer and consumer. For example, Julie makes the point that Queensland eggs must be stamped with a unique producer identifying number. However, this is not required in NSW (a review is currently underway). So if there is a glut of eggs in northern NSW they can be sent across the border and stamped with a Queensland stamp.
“They are then distributed as if they are fresh, and as if they are Queensland eggs, which they are not. They may have been in a cool store in NSW for months.”
Meanwhile, in NSW producers of fewer than 20 dozen eggs per week are exempt from complying with the Food Safety Scheme, and are only required to ensure that basic hygiene is maintained.
“If you aren’t accredited you’re not allowed to sell your eggs”
“Council needs to actively support small scale, high quality primary food production in this region. Perhaps because they don’t have the resources to regulate and to police too many different categories, it’s easier for the regulators to develop systems that apply across the board … one size fits all.”
Small to medium scale farmers have a perfect fit with the free ranging of chickens, however there are only two, small accredited egg producers on the Sunshine Coast (one is a school!). Meanwhile, the market share for free-range and barn-laid eggs has doubled in the last eight years. According to Maleny IGA, it has become very difficult to source consistent supplies of organic free-range eggs, with eggs travelling great distances from where they are produced to the Sunshine Coast.
As the convenor of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland Slow Food group, Julie Shelton wants to see government at all levels catch up with current practice overseas. In her 2009 Churchill Fellow report into regulatory impediments to small-scale food production she concluded that:
“What we need is a Department of Food to streamline bureaucracy and provide support to existing producers”
“Food safety regulations must be made more appropriate to the scale of production and distribution, so that a small grower selling at a farmers’ market is not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer.”
There are too many anecdotal instances of Council regulations that seem unnecessary, counter-productive or simply suppress potential growth of small-scale farming ventures.
Julie Shelton cites the egg producer with 2500 chickens who set up ‘across the border’ at Traveston in the Gympie Region because compliance rules and regulations of the Sunshine Coast would have been prohibitive. The nonsense is that by setting up in Traveston the farmer could still sell her eggs on the Sunshine Coast. Then there is the former dairy farmer in the Mary Valley who wanted to switch to a small-scale egg producing enterprise of only a few thousand birds but was told he would be operating within the 1.5km buffer to the nearest residential development, which was on his own property!
One concern about free-range chickens is waste run-off from paddocks into watercourses. However, Julie insists that regulatory bodies have problems understanding small-scale operations.
“Unfortunately, the regulations in Council have been set up to deal with the conventional, intense and large food production systems,” says Julie. “Small-scale farms employing innovative practices, such as integrated farming systems, pastured poultry and rotational grazing, can provide positive environmental, nutritional and social impacts,” she adds.
“Council has a new Rural Futures Plan, which is yet to be implemented”, says Julie warming to her argument. “But they don’t seem to be focussed on whether or not the people of the Sunshine Coast are eating food that’s grown in the local area. It’s no wonder that people living in this potentially rich, food-bowl environment have the idea that food comes from somewhere else.
“Council is primarily interested in jobs creation, which they equate to large-scale enterprises that employ 50 people or more, or ramping up the facilities at the airport so that we can have more exports. But business has to start somewhere and it’s usually small.”
“What we need is a Department of Food to streamline bureaucracy, provide support to existing producers and make start-up easier for producers of good quality food in this region,” she declared.
Julie Shelton is passionate about the need to help small-scale farming practice on the Sunshine Coast where our combined temperate and semitropical environment gives us an enormous advantage for a wide range of food production opportunities. It is this big picture that concerns Julie, where she says we are also in danger of losing our small-scale milk processing and abattoir facilities. But that’s another story…
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