#14 🥚The Cornucopia- Local Food Plans, Chocolate Scorecards, Food Campaigns, Beautiful Murals & Hot Food
Melbourne to Victoria and Beyond: Your Regular Scoop of the Food Systems Scene
Regen Melbourne acknowledges and respects the Bunurong, Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation, which is now known as Melbourne. We extend these acknowledgements to all Traditional Owners across the State of Victoria. The food system knowledge, practices and deep wisdom of the First Nations people of this land guides, informs and drives our work.
Hello Cornucopians!🪺
Welcome back after those glorious back-to-back long weekends! We hope you've had time to unwind with loved ones, savour those final Easter eggs, eat those delicious meals, and reconnect with nature.
It's been a whirlwind of activity in the food world while you've been away, and we're excited to bring you up to speed with all the highlights in this edition. We always love hearing from our readers - whether it's bumping into you at food events, receiving your thoughtful emails, or connecting on LinkedIn. Your articles, insights, and comments continue to enrich our collective conversation, so please keep them coming!
Hot Off the Grill🫓
Across the Globe 🌎
✊🏾Change Lab Solutions has released an important paper outlining legal and policy strategies to address structural discrimination in the U.S. food system.
🍲A new study confirms what many across Africa have long known - traditional African diets are as healthy as the celebrated Mediterranean diet.
👩🏽🌾An inspiring article highlights the crucial role of female leadership in transforming agricultural and food systems worldwide.
🥕A newly published “local food plan” from a collective of UK food system actors sets a strategy for reviving local food for communities, economies and nature.
😨An eye-opening Guardian video investigation examines how certain philanthropic efforts are undermining rather than supporting African food systems
🍫The yearly Chocolate Scorecard was released by Be Slavery Free with Tony’s Chocoloney coming out on top and a confectionery giant and Australian supermarket refusing to participate.
🩹A thought-provoking piece questions whether food banks are merely sticking band aids on poverty, challenging businesses to rethink how they handle food waste rather than relying on food banks.
🥩The largest meatpacker, JBS, was the biggest donor to President Trump’s inauguration, has been cleared to be listed on the stock exchange despite allegations of bribery, corruption and environmental destruction.
Closer to Home 🏠
💰New research explores how the financialisation of our food system affects food environments across Australia.
🧑🏼🎓University of Tasmania launches an innovative food hub to support student food security, offering affordable nutrition and skill-building opportunities.
🕸️RMIT introduces a food culture and practices network, creating a platform for collaboration on everyday food practices, cultural influences, and societal impacts.
🍴The Greens' election campaign includes a pledge for nationwide free school meals.
📝The Australian Strategic Policy Institute releases a new green paper on National Food Security Preparedness.
📣Sustain and partners launch an advocacy campaign urging leaders to take urgent action on food systems, addressing governance, sustainable transitions, First Nations foodways, localisation, and dignified food relief.
🎨A new nourishing mural has been unveiled at Queen Vic Market, in collaboration with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and created together with students from Debney Meadows Primary School.
Photo Credit: Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation
Foodie Calendar🗓️
May 2, 8.30AM-5PM | University of Canberra : Canberra Local Regen Forum focused on developing direct-to-market models for farmers in the Canberra region: Register Here
May 4-6, Various Times | Food Connect Shed, Brisbane: Money, Markets & Meaning Workshops Series exploring regenerative investment in place-based communities and regions: Register Here
June 21, 6-9PM | Food Connect Shed, Brisbane 20 Years of Food Connect: Fundraising Dinner Celebrating two decades of exceptional food systems work with stories of possibility: Register Here
Event Recap: Hot Food🌡️
How do we keep a city nourished in the face of extreme heat and rising temperatures?
On April 10th, Regen Melbourne, Sweltering Cities, and the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation hosted Hot Food—a half-day workshop exploring a critical yet often overlooked question in both climate and food conversations. (Read more about why we hosted this event in our Q&A with Emma Bacon from Sweltering Cities.)
With a room full of farmers, researchers, community leaders, planners, and passionate food advocates, we came together to tackle what it really means to build a heat-resilient urban food system.
Our expert speakers—Rachel Carey, Catherine Trundle, Courtney Young, and Edgar Caballero Aspe—unpacked the major challenges: supermarket monopolies, fragile supply chains, disempowered communities, the urgent need to support climate adaptation for farmers, and stark inequalities in food access across Melbourne’s outer suburbs. Despite the confronting realities, the panel reminded us that many in the room were already leading the way with practical, community-based solutions.
We stepped into a near-future scenario: a week-long 45°C heatwave. What happens to farming, storage, transport, cooking, and eating when the mercury stays high?
The answers were sobering—spoiled food, worker exhaustion, rising costs, and growing hunger. But alongside the challenges, we also saw sparks of possibility.
Together, we mapped out what’s already in our system: the wisdom of First Nations food knowledge, strong community networks, resilient local farmers, and urban growing spaces. From there, ideas emerged:
The development of spaces that offer both relief from extreme weather events and nourishing food
Increased investment in Neighbourhood Houses and Community Centres as food resilience centres
Embedding food systems into climate policy and urban planning and vice versa
Creating diverse, resilient supply pathways into the city that disrupt the duopoly
We explored what we could achieve together, and it’s clear there are many promising pathways for this collective of actors to pursue. We also identified key areas for deeper exploration: worker protections, financial mechanisms like taxation and Universal Basic Income, and broader structural reforms to our food economy.
A full report will be shared soon in an upcoming edition of The Cornucopia. Until then, we’d love to hear from you—where do you see the greatest potential for impact as we work toward a more resilient and just food system for Melbourne?
🥝 Do you have something delicious brewing that you want us to share in The Cornucopia?
Send us an ✉️ at dheepa@regen.melbourne