About me

Hi and thanks for checking out my blog :-)

As for a bit about me, well my name is Joanna and I am from Sydney, Australia.   I am completely passionate about all things food.  I love eating it, preparing it, sharing it, growing it and most of all, learning about it. You could say, I have always had an intersting relationship with food. It started out somewhat 'strained', as I was a ridiculously fussy eater as a kid - about all I liked was vegemite toast and weetbix!  Taste, smells and different textures intimidated me as a child but I think it's actually what has sparked the interest and intrigue that I have for food today.

I would have to say the glorious world of food really only began to open up to me in my late teens and early 20s.  Like many, this enriching relationship began through my taste buds and stomach, as I discovered the incredible and unique flavours, textures and tastes of foods from different cultures.  This desire to satisfy my cravings lead me to a trip to Thailand with my best friend, Sarah in 2008 where we ate our way from north to south and enjoyed the refreshingly different way of life in this beautiful country.  A switch had been flicked in me, and I decided to carry onto Vietnam by myself; which unbeknownst to me, was the trip which would change the entire direction of my life.

I found myself in rural villages staying with Vietnamese families; which was an incredibly profound experience in so many ways. The food we ate was either produced by the family or their neighbours and, for the first time ever, I realised that I had no idea where the food that I ate in Australia came from. I helped harvest and prepare the vegetables and greens, ground the herbs and spices and saw where the pig, which provided us with the pork mince for the vine-wrapped dumplings we made from scratch, was raised.  In the middle of a village I watched the hair of a buffalo be singed off before it was cut up and distributed to families who lived in the villiage.  Whilst I found it distressing to watch, I discovered this was essentially what happens to all animals, to provide me with the meat that I so effortlessly and thoughtlessly purchased in clean, cling wrapped packages from a supermarket every week.

No matter what meal we ate - it was fresh and made from whole ingredients that nature had provided us.  There was no question as to where it had come from.  Food in these villages was grown in 'harmony' with nature and differed from region to region depending on the growing conditions and local knowledge.  It was here that I realised I had no idea how food was grown in Australia and how utterly disconnected I (and everyone around me) was to our food source.

Needless to say, I came back a different person; both mentally and phsyically, having eaten fresh, whole foods for weeks.  I decided to take the plunge and go back to uni to study Nutrition.  Whilst I learnt more about the phsycial effects of food, it got me thinking more about the 'determinants of our food choices' and the significant negative influence the current food system has on these choices.

With an urge to discover if other young people thought about these issues, I started the Youth Food Movement in Sydney with Alexandra Iljadica in 2011.  We have realised, now more than ever, that there is a huge number of young people in Australia interested and worried about the state of our food system and they are in fact, an untapped resource for both innovation and change in how we grow, distribute and consume our food in the future.

There is still so much I need to learn and understand about our global food system.  So here I am, on the next leg of my exciting food safari to see first hand and learn from incredible organisations and individuals who are working towards and creating real change in their local food systems.

With all that I'm hoping to see and do, I thought I might share it with anyone who's interested and wants to come along for the ride.  I'm away for approximately 4 months and for a bit of a taste of where I'm off to, check out my itinerary.

If I am honest, I have never blogged before and I must say I am feeling a little bit nervous and vulnerable putting my thoughts out into the world for all to see; openly learning as I go and being open to critisism and conflicting opinions.  But I have realised vulnerability and discomfort are unavoidable and necessary consequences of growth and I'm ready for the exciting challenges ahead.

Whilst capturing what I find on this journey, I hope what I share provokes new 'food for thought' around different aspects of food as we know it and what kind of food future we want to see for us and generations to come.  I hope you too will feel comfortable and compelled to share your thoughts and insight and that we can get some really 'meaty' conversations happening... who knows what we will discover!

So here's to discovering new ideas, opinions and experiences that may just have the power to cultivate the kind of food future we want to see in our world.

Happy reading :-)
Jo
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