THE SOUTHERN
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1986
AUGUST, 2014
DAIRY TRANSFORMATION
PAGE 8
HAY & SILAGE
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ROCKBANK WINS
PAGE 22
Gippsland producers take food map online By DAVID PALMER
PERENNIAL FAVORITE
AN interactive online map of food producers, suppliers and retailers launched in early May, now has 50 entities showing their locations, contact information and profiles. Organised by the Leongatha based South Gippsland Shire, the food map lists beef, lamb, fruit, vegetable, wine, mushroom, honey, poultry, deer and milk producers as well as where their products are sold raw or processed in restaurants. Shire sustainability officer Chris Hamilton said she expected the businesses on the site to grow by 12 or 15 in the next 12 months and site visits to expand gradually from the 350 or so recorded each month currently. As visitor numbers grow, an already established star system to record consumer satisfaction with a site’s produce will expand via Twitter and become more meaningful. Ms Hamilton said the site started when the shire brought together all the local food producers it knew of and floated the idea of the website, www. southgippslandfoodmap.com. au, to help them expand their marketing. “There were similar food maps established through local government areas up and down the east coast, but the
Graham Britt will harvest this perennial pyrethrum crop in the lee of Mount Warrenheip, near Ballarat, for the third time next January. Read more about the crop and its future on pages 4-5.
South Gippsland one was the first to start uploading video and multimedia content about individuals,” she said. Ms Hamilton said quite a number of producers and others said they just were not computer literate enough to upload material to the site. However, she said shire staff were available to help them transition their presence onto the site. Ms Hamilton said she was surprised by the variety of producers and retailers of whom she previously knew nothing turning up on the food map. A couple were free range egg producers with farms near her home and a Leongatha butcher who sells only locally produced meat but did not promote that backbone of his business. “Without the map they would have remained much less well known,” she said. Even a Toora community pear orchard with more than 100 pear varieties had remained quite low profile until the advent of the interactive map, despite having community pruning and picking days. The Wellington and East Gippsland shires were reported to be investigating food maps in their areas too. Their stated aim was to reconnect consumers with local food, restaurants with fresh food and generally encourage buying locally.
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