Local Food Revolution - Robert Pekin with Morag Gamble

Seventeen years ago, Rob Pekin decided to radicalise the way we shop for and distribute fresh food. His concept for a new food system was based on community, connection and localisation – and the result is an Australian-wide food systems revolution called Food ConnectBorn and bred on a dairy farm in western Victoria, Rob began to imagine a different kind of food system after he lost the family farm and fell into a depression.“The food connect model started out as a multi-farmer community-supported agriculture project. It was really my attempt as a pretty busted-up dairy farmer, disgruntled with the world and how it worked, saying – well, if I’m going to do something on a solutions side of things, I have to address probably the biggest source of misuse of power, which is in the distribution side of things.”In the latest episode of the Sense-making in a Changing World podcast, I chat with Rob about his journey and the Food Connect vision.  Hear more in this earlier interview with Rob's partner and Food Connect co-creator, Emma Kate Rose. (interviewed on Episode 14)What they’ve created is an is an inspiring  highly networked localised ethical and regenerative  food system -  one that nourishes growers, consumers, producers, the earth and foregrounds indigenous voices.Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the unceded lands from which I’m speaking with you, the Gubbi Gubbi, and pay my deep respect to their elders past present and emerging. I’d like to recognise care for country, the waters and biodiversity for millenia.Don’t forget to give the podcast five stars! Rating the podcast helps promote the podcast to others so we can share the stories of permaculture and the amazing people we interview.This podcast is supported by the Permaculture Education Institute.Thanks to Rhiannon Gamble for editing, and Kim Kirkman for the introductory music.I'd love to hear from you. Text me here.Support the show_____MORAG GAMBLEFounder, Permaculture Education InstituteMorag's CoursesPodcast BlogPodcast YouTube: Podcast InstagramLinkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/moraggamble/I am a possibilitarian and I believe in HumanKINDness.In this podcast my guests and I explore How are we to live? Really live, as nature ourselves, tending the conditions where life can thrive. We ask How do we become the kind of humans this moment is asking us to be?This podcast is one of my acts of myceliation. Each conversation is a thread in a vast network of people speaking up for life with love and care. This podcast beams out from my hand-built solar-powered studio in the midst of a permaculture food forest in a permaculture ecovillage on Jinibara and Gubbi Gubbi country.If this episode lights something in you, pass it to one person who needs it. That is how myceliation works.