Align in the Sound - New Economy Network / Radio BTL / CoCanberra 2XX Behind the Lines and Align in the Sound teams

This week, to help us process the election results and how they may impact the ACT, we welcome Glenn Cummings, co-founder of Proact, an independent ‘Voices For’ community group.

proACT is committed to having the voices of people in the ACT heard by holding community discussions and identifying and supporting community-backed Independent candidates.
proACT endorsed David Pocock for the 2022 Senate. Glenn became Secretary of the David Pocock party when it was formed and volunteered for the campaign.

Glenn works as an International Development Consultant. He has previously held senior executive roles with social enterprises and not for profit organisations in Australia, Africa and Asia, and worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (AusAID).

When Robert Pekin lost his family’s fourth generation farm twenty years ago, he went into exile. The grief and shame led him on a journey to explore positive ways forward for farming in Australia. That feeling triggered a passion for creating a fairer food system for all farmers and for exploring ways to help people connect to those who grew and processed their food. He believed that this disconnection and the increasing impact of climate change meant a solution was urgently needed.

Enter Food Connect, a social enterprise that Robert, with his partner Emma-Kate, a few local farmers and a small group of motivated mums kick-started in 2005, using the principles of Community Supported Agriculture.

Food Connect's vision is to create a world where everyone has access to healthy, fresh, ecologically-grown food that is fair to growers, eaters, and the planet. We want to transform the food system, and we believe the next step towards this vision is to create a working local food hub for the regional food economy, that is owned by the community.

Andre Le Riviere visited Australia for the Footprints for Peace walk in Western Australia in 2011. BTL caught up with Andre at a friends kitchen table and we had a good chat about the nuclear industry in France.

Rising Tide held a speaking tour at the Polish Club on Sunday 3rd September to promote their planned November action to shut down the Newcastle coal export terminal - the world's largest - for 2 days!

Speakers at the Polo included:
Amy Blain (Peoples Climate Assembly);
Anjali Sharma (19 yo, Duty of Care campaigner);
David Pocock (Independent Senator)
Alexa Stuart (19 yo, Rising Tide Newcastle);
Shaun Murray from Rising Tide Newcastle;
John Wurcker from Rising Tide Canberra

this week, we have Michael Pilbrow, a co-founder of Canberra's late National Health Co-operative - amongst many other things.
Throughout his business career, Michael has used his strategy and community engagement skills to work on complex challenges like affordable housing, sustainable health and education services, and employment in regional areas.
Internationally, Michael has contributed to Australia’s responses to the Asian Financial Crisis, HIV/AIDS and disaster recovery in Asia and the Pacific. Michael has been awarded Outstanding Business Leader for the Yass Valley and was a Local Hero state finalist in the Australian of the Year Awards.
Michael will be chatting with us about all things cooperative, the cooperative model and why it could be the answer to so many of the social challenges we face today.

Canberra Environment Centre Director Fiona Veikannen and sustainability professional Julie Boulton have bought some microphones and are on a mission to interview their local environmental heroes.

This is the official launch of season 2 of the podcast at the canberra food cooperative.