Session One: Celebrating our local food heroes—ranging from urban and community gardeners to regenerative dairy farmers. This session is focused on those building the soil.
Food resilience at the grassroots level: hear from two local initiatives, the Hawea Food Forest and Grow Wānaka.
Regenerative Agriculture - A Form Of Constructive Activism: Mark Anderson shares his journey realigning his Waiwera dairy farm to work alongside nature.
Grassroots Growing:
The Hāwea Food Forest (HFF) is a charitable trust that coordinates the establishment of the 3-hectare community garden and orchard-like tree park at Domain Road, Hāwea. When mature, the food forest will provide a large amount of food for the community, be an educational hub for horticutlure and provide a social place of gathering as a park-like public space.
Currently, the food forest is in the establishment stage, with more than 60 young food-producing trees planted, a nursery, irrigation system and the beginnings of a heritage treebank. Frequent educational workshops and working bees are run by volunteers. A representative from the HFF will discuss their recent activities and share their perspective on food resilience.
Grow Wānaka was established in 2020 by passionate locals who sought to create a communal space for people to connect, learn, share, and grow. This community initiative serves as a garden, composting centre, and education hub. Grow Wānaka's mission is to enhance community resilience and food security, minimise waste through organic recycling, and expand knowledge and skills through various educational opportunities.
Operating on a circular model, Grow Wānaka accepts food waste from the urban centre and transforms it into biologically active compost. This compost is used to grow organic produce in the garden, which is shared among volunteers. The weekly surplus is distributed to the local Food Bank and Upper Clutha Produce Pantries. Education plays a significant role in their activities, with weekly working bees, monthly workshops, and events. Emberly Weatherall from Grow Wānaka will share insights into the charity's recent projects and what drives the team.
Meet your Speakers:
Emberly Weatherall - Grow Wānaka
Speaker TBC - Hawea Food Forest
Regenerative Agriculture - A Form Of Constructive Activism:
Mark Anderson shares his journey realigning his Waiwera dairy farm to work alongside nature. A discussion around farm systems and adoption of regenerative principles, how we got here, what’s working, what’s not, and where to from here.
Mark Anderson - Westridge Farm