Feedback Organic's Feedback Loop

Today you can listen to Podcast Episode #5: Impact Advocates: Home Grown Playground - promoting a sustainable future that explores the significance of circular urban agriculture and community inclusivity in addressing climate change and promoting sustainable urban living from the perspective of four Year 10 students at Alesco College who had participated in a 6 week program that facilitated student-led digital projects to address the issue of climate change.

Transforming Australia’s food production and waste management framework is vital for fostering a healthier environment for all forms of life. By nurturing a sustainable food system, we can efficiently address climate change, establish greener urban areas, and rejuvenate biodiversity, ultimately laying the groundwork for nature-positive outcomes.

Through the Impact Advocates program students visited Feedback Farm in Kurri Kurri, heard from guest speakers, and developed their own digital projects focused on circular food production, circular food waste, education, community, and social change. 

Through the creation of this digital content, our educators guided students to explore circular urban agriculture and the role and influence of communities in our nation’s food system.

Students were briefed with three key themes to inspire their content:

• Harvesting hope for a greener future

• Growing together, sustaining communities

• From waste to plate: closing the loop

Through these themes students explored the potential of circular urban agriculture to combat climate change, emphasised the importance of community involvement in fostering resilient urban food systems and illustrated the concept of circularity by demonstrating how waste materials can be transformed into valuable resources within urban agriculture systems. 

Students produced TikToks and infographics, with a small group of four students also producing a short podcast episode.

The podcast crew embraced the opportunity to get behind the mic and work collaboratively to develop questions for their episode which took the format of a group conversation where everyone took turns asking questions of each other. In addition to exploring the three key program themes, they also shared their personal experiences of the farm visit and homegrown gardening as well as the importance of healthy soil. They discussed how food scraps and organic waste can be turned into compost to enrich the soil and complete the sustainable food cycle.

You can listen to the podcast via Spotify and subscribe today to be notified of future episodes.

Feedback Organic’s Feedback Loop podcast channel is a space to explore how we’re growing food’s future together. We chat with changemakers about the value of circular food systems and converting local food waste into urban farm produce, the importance of connecting with the community and the gift of food.

This podcast series is supported by the City of Newcastle.  

Enjoy, friends.

– David

In Episode #4, the final episode in a series about the food waste ecosystem in NSW and Newcastle, I’m joined by Athea Lesay and Eve Britten-Frazier, students at the University of Newcastle who we mentored in 2022 to deliver an innovative food waste avoidance program for young people aged 18-34.

Christina Robberds and I chat with Athea and Eve about their experience as Pitch Propagate mentoring program recipients, their key learnings and what the future holds for them as the next generation of food waste avoidance champions.

Specifically, we cover:

• What motivated them to apply for a Pitch Propagate mentorship with Feedback Organic

• The program they delivered

• What worked well with the program. What didn’t work so well

• The biggest barriers for young people in reducing food waste

• The most important lesson they’ve learnt through the mentorship program

• We also ask them a series of fun questions like ‘What’s your favourite food waste nifty trick’?

You can listen to the podcast via Spotify and subscribe today to be notified of future episodes.

Feedback Organic’s Feedback Loop podcast channel is a space to explore how we’re growing food’s future together. We chat with changemakers about the value of circular food systems and converting local food waste into urban farm produce, the importance of connecting with the community and the gift of food.

This podcast series is supported by the EPA through the LFHW program.

Enjoy, friends.

- David

Today you can now listen to Episode #3 in a series about the food waste ecosystem in NSW and Newcastle where we’re joined by Bec Bowie, founder and operator of Estabar, a legendary beachside cafe in Newcastle and local food waste avoidance champion.

David chats with Bec about her experience operating one of Newcastle’s most sustainable, circular and welcoming cafes - Estabar. We get the chance to learn how they operate within the food waste ecosystem, how they work as a team, why they do it, their key learnings and what the future holds for businesses on the front line of the food waste ecosystem for customers and their community.

Specifically, we cover:

• How Bec got to where she is and how the wondrous Estabar came about.
• Global problem of food waste
• Operating Estabar and its ethos
• Some of the hardest lessons Bec has learnt on the food waste front with regard to customers? What are the hardest behaviours to change or influence?
• The local ecosystem - how can we connect the people in our community (customers) with the hospitality industry and keep them connected to businesses who are leading by example?
• The future of food waste - What changes need to happen now at a small business level to achieve less wasteful, more sustainable food systems?

About Bec Bowie

Bec is driven by the future of food.  At Estabar she and her team collaborate with local growers who demonstrate commitment to their environment, the nutritional value of their food and the people they feed. She hopes to reconnect our community with a knowledge and appreciation of local and seasonal food and the people who grow it for them. She trains her team to develop the personal skills to become future ambassadors for food, community and our environment. https://au.linkedin.com/in/bec-bowie-42993093 

Feedback Organic’s Feedback Loop podcast channel is a space to explore how we’re growing food’s future together. We chat with changemakers about the value of circular food systems and converting local food waste into urban farm produce, the importance of connecting with the community and the gift of food.

Enjoy, friends.

Today we’re thrilled to launch Feedback Organic’s Feedback Loop podcast channel! A space to explore how we’re growing food’s future together. We're wonderfully grateful to be able to deep dive with changemakers in our food waste ecosystem about the value of circular food systems and converting local food waste into urban farm produce, the importance of connecting with the community and the gift of food!

You can now listen to Episode #1 in a series about the food waste ecosystem in NSW and Newcastle where I’m joined by Amanda Kane, Organics Manager at the NSW Environment Protection Authority and Mike Ritchie, the Managing Director at MRA Consulting Group.

I chat with Amanda and Mike about how each of their organisations operates within the food waste ecosystem in Australia, why they do it, and what the future holds for Australia’s food waste industry.

What we talk about

• Amanda and Mike’s background and involvement with their respective organisations
• Global problem of food waste
• Operating within the EPA and MRA consulting
• What are the challenges that you face as an individual and/or an organisation?
• The industry/government ecosystem
• The future of food waste
• Just for fun - a message on a giant billboard that would reach the world

About Amanda Kane

Leads the NSW Government’s programs to get food and garden waste out of landfill. Including Love Food Hate Waste and grants to increase kerbside collection services, food donation, processing infrastructure and markets for the recycled product. Part of NSW world-leading $802 million Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-kane-32422a4a/

About Mike Ritchie

Leads MRA as Australia’s leading recycling and waste consulting firm (as voted by the industry each year).

MRA is a team of engineers, scientists, economists and planners who work primarily in the waste and recycling sectors. Their clients are business and government.