STORY BY ANTHONY CARRUBBA

The world of food is fast and getting faster. Your stomach rumbles, you check the time. Can you be bothered cooking? Your thumb hovers over the UberEATS app icon. Delivery is only a few dollars, and Maccas is already so cheap. A few taps are all it takes to live out this once exclusive experience of personal catering. The convenience of the modern food industry is intoxicating, though behind this alluring façade there lurk many ugly truths.

Supermarket shelves are stocked full of expediently endless amounts of goods that are produced on an industrial scale and competitively priced. Waxy, sugary fruits that seem to grow larger year after year are matched by an impossible abundance of processed foods which are comprised largely of sugar, wheat and corn. To meet the demand for cheap animal products, cruel factory farming is widely employed. All this is set against a backdrop of massive food wastage. The hard, unhealthy reality of our consumption habits and food economy are no secret, but for those of us who cannot afford expensive organic diets, there is little alternative. 

Rising in defiant opposition to the world of fast food is a new movement, sometimes called “Zero KM”, or ‘zero kilometers’. The name is a reference to the idea of allowing locally produced goods to make up the majority of your diet. It is an offshoot of the Italian-turned-global “Slow Food” initiative which encourages home cooking, local farming and cuisine and aims to revive old pre-industrial supply chains. 

Zero KM also has its origins in Italy, where it has been elevating and modernising the traditional farm-to-table approach to regional cooking. What goes on the table is what is in season at the time in the region. Globe-spanning logistical supply chains are severed by local producers who are part of the communities that consume their goods. Aided by modern technology, these farmers, shopkeepers, butchers, fishermen and cooks can interface with their customers and thereby compete with the convenience offered by supermarkets and fast-food chains.

Sustainable and environmentally friendly, slow food movements the world over aim to make healthy, organic food cheaper and more accessible. Daylesford and the surrounding regions already boast a dazzling array of high-quality food and wine, renowned throughout the country. Could Daylesford and the Macedon Ranges become slow food trendsetters in Australia, as places like rural Tuscany have for Italy?