Our "Big Idea"

When DJ first arrived at Avoca we were unsure what avenue we were going to go down when decorating. We were given beef and we wanted to include DJ's name and personality into the artwork.When we started researching we were surprised and a little ashamed at how much food went to waste in todays society.
We spoke about how things had changed since our parent's and grandparent's time. A lot of our elders were bought up on farms, they didn't have a supermarket to pop down to to get food. In their day they killed and butchered their own beasts, they couldn't afford to be fussy about what they ate so nothing went to waste.
They had creative ways to use all of the beast, they tanned the hide to use for clothing and other things.
We have demonstrated the nothing goes to waste concept in our art work by labelling the different cuts of beef. We also included some receipes that have unusual cuts of meat in them that used to be used in past times.



On the other side of DJ we focused on sustainable farming. We have included pictures of renewable resources like wind farms and solar power.

Australian farmers feeding australia and the world

Meet Art4A Young Farming Champion Jasmine Nixon who loves agriculture an...

Meet Art4A Young Farming Champion Jasmine Nixon who loves agriculture an...

Young Eco Champion Megan Rowlatt tells the farmscape conservation story

Aussie Farmers, the unsung heroes

Farmers are more important than most people realise. Most Australians live within 80km from the coast and in cities. This means that the cities are crowded and busy. People just have to go to the supermarket to get whatever they want, they don’t realise where the food has come from or what it takes to provide the things that they need.
We don’t think that people in the city realise the importance of farms. They don’t know that each farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people! Farmers feed and clothe Australian communities and they also give what they grow to other countries because they can’t grow their own.
It takes a lot to sustainably feed and clothe our communities for a day, from the moment we get out of bed we are using things and eating things that have been made by Australian farmers, things like cotton sheets, milk, breakfast cereal, bread, vegetables and even our shoes have come from a farm somewhere!
Regional towns and centres are important to farmers because that is where they get their supplies from. They will be affected by changes to farming practices because if farmers replace workers with machines there won’t be as many jobs and people will move away. If people do not buy from Australian farmers then they will leave the farm and we won’t have as many farmers to provide things we need. To be sustainable we need to support local farmers.

Natural Resource Management

Natural Resource Management
Natural resource management is working towards not depleting our natural resources like trees, natural gas and fossil fuels. Biodiversity is the variety of life in the world and it too needs to be looked after.
A few weeks ago we had a visit from Megan Rowlett, a young eco champion. She showed us some examples of natural resource management and spoke about the best outcomes for our environment. We learnt that natural resource management is used on farms and in rainforests. They plant trees and remove weeds. They also plant more native trees to prevent salinity and to provide homes for native wild life.
It is so important to get it right because the resources we now need to be preserved for future generations to come. If we don’t manage our natural resources properly we will run out of non-renewable resources like wood, natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels.

Waste, why so much?

Australia is a very lucky country; we are lucky that most of us have plenty to eat and somewhere safe and warm to sleep. Did you know that most Australian food banks don’t have enough to feed the people that come to them for help? Food banks provide food for 88 000 meals each day and they don’t have enough to give. We found that very sad especially when we did some research into how much food gets wasted in our homes.
Australians spend billions of dollars on food each year, fruit and vegetables have to pass a beauty test before they are put on the shelf, if they don’t look perfect they get chucked out.
When you go shopping, don’t buy too much food that you don’t need. Always check your fridge, freezer and pantry just in case the food you are going to buy is already there. Australians waste 4 million tonnes of food each year! The food that gets chucked out has to go somewhere. When it gets dumped it rots and sends methane gas out into the atmosphere adding to the gasses in the Ozone Layer.
We think that food wastage occurs because people are too picky with their food, just because there is a tiny mark or bruise on it or it smells funny they won’t buy it. Also they buy too much and it goes off.