POPULARITY
On Episode 400 of Impact Boom, eighteen leaders in social impact explain how they are preventing or dealing with burnout and provide inspiration on how to live a more balanced life, and in turn create more impact. If you are a changemaker wanting to learn actionable steps to grow your organisations or level up your impact, don't miss out on this episode! If you enjoyed this episode, then check out Episode 358 where 30 experts in social change share the biggest lessons learned on their impact journey -> https://bit.ly/3ChVB46 The team who made this episode happen were: Host: Tom Allen Guest(s): Ben Pecotich, Sally Giblin, Yannick van Hierden, Steve Williams, Luke Terry, Emma-Kate Rose, Torien De Jager, Milly Bannister, Eric Wedepohl, Danielle Fryday, Nicholas Marchesi, Sonia Brown Diaz, Sarah Ripper, Penny Harth, Zunilka Whitnall, Kristen Zupancic, Nathaniel Diong Producer: Indio We invite you to join our community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram to stay up to date on the latest social innovation news and resources to help you turn ideas into impact. You'll also find us on all the major podcast streaming platforms, where you can also leave a review and provide feedback.
Robert Pekin is the CEO & co-founder of Food Connect, the self-described ‘systems enterprise' in Brisbane. You might remember Rob from episode 28 with his brilliant partner Emma-Kate Rose, when we talked at length about their back-story and their soon to be successful $2m equity crowd fund. And from episode 88 last year, with Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman Gaala Watson, on an imminent native grains - and milling - breakthrough, and a transformation in governance led by First Nations. Well, when I was in Brisbane for Convergence recently, I dropped in. Rob walked me around this old industrial property as it further transforms into Australia's first multi-function Food Hub, now hosting over 40 enterprises - each outstanding stories in their own right. This was just a quick visit. I'd just recorded with mutual friend Amanda Cahill for what became episode 134, and cycled up to the Shed for a look and some lunch together. I wasn't going to record this either, but as I was being blown away all over again by Rob, alongside Chair of the Food Connect Foundation, Wiradjuri man from Dubbo NSW, Uncle Kel O'Neil, I had to pull out the recorder and share it with you. I've recorded this spatially too, so you'll hear Rob & Kel as they were standing around me. Hope you enjoy that effect. So join us at the Shed, for the conclusion to our Queensland series, and more beginnings for Food Connect. This conversation was recorded at the Food Connect Shed on 14 July 2022. Title slide image: Rob Pekin (bottom) and Uncle Kel O'Neill (top) against the backdrop of the Food Connect Shed (pics sourced from their websites). You can see more photos on the episode web page. Music: Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack of the new film Regenerating Australia, available for community screenings now - https://theregenerators.co/regenerating-australia/ Find more: Food Connect Shed - https://www.foodconnectshed.com.au/ Food Connect Foundation - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/ Hear my previous conversations with Rob, with Emma-Kate Rose in episode 28, and Gaala Watson here in episode 88 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/088-a-native-grains-native-mills-resurgence-part1 Read a transcript of our conversation including time stamps on the episode web page – ttps://www.regennarration.com/episodes/137-a-transforming-military-industrial-complex And you can now gain access to all of the presentation recordings at Convergence, including Rob with Gaala Watson, via RCS Australia for $150 - https://www.rcsaustralia.com.au/the-rcs-story/rcs-convergence-conference/ Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making this episode possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them to help keep the podcast going. Just head to the website at https://www.regennarration.com/support If you'd like to become a subscriber to the podcast, connect with other listeners and receive other benefits, head to the Patreon page at - https://www.patreon.com/RegenNarration Maybe even wave the flag by picking up something from The RegenNarration shop - https://www.regennarration.com/shop You can also support the podcast by sharing an episode with a friend or colleague, or rating or reviewing the podcast. Thanks for your support!
Seventeen years ago, Rob Pekin decided to radicalise the way we shop for and distribute fresh food. His concept for a new food system was based on community, connection and localisation – and the result is an Australian-wide food systems revolution called Food ConnectBorn and bred on a dairy farm in western Victoria, Rob began to imagine a different kind of food system after he lost the family farm and fell into a depression.“The food connect model started out as a multi-farmer community-supported agriculture project. It was really my attempt as a pretty busted-up dairy farmer, disgruntled with the world and how it worked, saying – well, if I'm going to do something on a solutions side of things, I have to address probably the biggest source of misuse of power, which is in the distribution side of things.”In the latest episode of the Sense-making in a Changing World podcast, I chat with Rob about his journey and the Food Connect vision. Hear more in this earlier interview with Rob's partner and Food Connect co-creator, Emma Kate Rose. (interviewed on Episode 14)What they've created is an is an inspiring highly networked localised ethical and regenerative food system - one that nourishes growers, consumers, producers, the earth and foregrounds indigenous voices.Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the unceded lands from which I'm speaking with you, the Gubbi Gubbi, and pay my deep respect to their elders past present and emerging. I'd like to recognise care for country, the waters and biodiversity for millenia.Don't forget to give the podcast five stars! Rating the podcast helps promote the podcast to others so we can share the stories of permaculture and the amazing people we interview.This podcast is supported by the Permaculture Education Institute.Thanks to Rhiannon Gamble for editing, and Kim Kirkman for the introductory music.
You might remember Robert Pekin (with his partner Emma-Kate Rose) from episode 28. Rob's the founder of Food Connect, the trailblazing social enterprise and legendary community food hub in Brisbane. Since then, plenty has happened at Food Connect. The $2m equity crowd-fund – an Australian first - was successful. And Gaala Watson, a Kungalu and Birri-Gubba Woman born and raised in Brisbane, came on board as Chair of the Food Connect Foundation. That convergence of people, skills and cultures is bringing about a revolutionary addition to their set up, thanks to a serendipitous chain of events deep and wide across Country. That included connections with local elders, the native grains off Bruce Pascoe's farm, a young farming couple in NSW who wondered if they could build the first Australian mill in who knows how long, and this podcast. Back in episode 28, Rob and Emma-Kate talked about being a ‘systems enterprise' more than a social enterprise – aiming to change the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now Food Connect is starting to flip capital from an ownership to a custodial model. This lands squarely in Gaala's wheelhouse – where social enterprise aligns with Aboriginal systems of governance. And where this particular enterprise aligns with an enduring vision stemming from her father. Title slide image: Gaala Watson (off the Food Connect Foundation website) (Rob Pekin is the title slide image in the Extra to this episode). This episode was recorded on Friday 25 June 2021. Music: The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra. Get more: Tune into the 10 minute Extra to this episode, where Rob and I continue on a little after Gaala left. Food Connect Foundation - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/ Food Connect enterprise - https://foodconnect.com.au/ Bio's of Gaala and Rob (and Emma-Kate) - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/board/ Woodstock Flour on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/woodstockflour/ Hear Rob and partner Emma-Kate together on episode 28 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/028-transforming-food-finance-society And my conversation with Mark Taylor at Miller and Baker on episode 69 - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/069-communities-were-built-around-this Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going! Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story And thanks for listening.
Does activism always have to be so serious? Nup, says Emma-Kate Rose. Lighten up and let your hair down, let’s face our collective challenges in lycra! It was fitting that Emma-Kate was on her way to No Lights No Lycra as we recorded this convo, because her radical approach to balancing work and play is probably the most refreshing thing you’ll hear all day.After quitting her career in criminology inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, Emma-Kate went on to crowdfund $2 million for Brissy Food Connect’s community hub with partner Rob Pekin. Impressive stuff. She’s also a mother, social entrepreneur, community builder, risk taker, intuition-follower, and big fan of ‘sticking to your knitting’.Emma-Kate shares her transition from avid consumer to climate activist, unexpected ways to mobilise community, how indigenous epistemology infuses Food Connect, creating careholders not shareholders, bleeding days, part time work and food sovereignty. Look, it's a pretty frivolous conversation ;)Get snacks and press play on the wonderful Emma-Kate Rose!SHOW NOTESAn urban start in Sydney The cycle of boom and bust in her own childhood home led to questioning “why people do bad things”.Her career in criminology before taking on the food systemBeing hit with the “tonne of bricks that is climate change”.Starting a local climate action groupStarting a car sharing businessSelling the cars and putting the family on public transport and bicycles.Encouraging various economies to embrace de-carbonisation.Accidentally crowd funding $2 million to keep the wheels of Brisbane Food Connect turning and in the hands of community ownership.Manifesting intentions and creating visions despite having no money and no idea how.Questioning enough to move the needle rather than settling for business as usual solutions.Food Connect as a social enterprise that provides a platform for multiple values aligned businesses a chance to incubate into a supported environment.Offering office space to social entrepreneurs who need affordable access to office space.Incorporating indigenous epistemology into their business Creating careholders not share holdersFun over ideologyWhy we're ready to have a national conversation about embracing Indigenous cultureReassessing our sense of time and urgency -- “Act now is required but do we do that at the expense of our relationships with our fellow human beings?"Walking the talk and building a life that really honours a balanced life: work, community contribution, joy.Whats a bleeding day? Escaping the trap of being earnest in your activismMaking the most of bringing people together while we canLINKS YOU'LL LOVEFood Connect BrisbaneIndigenous Epistemology: Descent Into the Womb of Decolonised Research Methodologies - Marcus Waters and Marva McCleanDark Emu - Bruce PascoeThe Next EconomySupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/futuresteading)
Impact Boom and Mumma Got Skills hosted the sixth panel for Impact Gathering: Supporting Women in Impact-Led Business with panelists Jo Cavanagh OAM, Cinnamon Evans, Emma-Kate Rose and Donna de Zwart. They joined Carlie Dole to speak about the current issues surrounding being a female with strong impact, finding support and developing strong networks of allies.
My guest this week on Sense-Making in a Changing World is my amazing friend and fellow community food advocate and [pr]activist, Emma-Kate Rose. Emma-Kate has always been such an inspiration to me, and when you hear the projects she's involved with, I think you'll understand why.She leads the ground-breaking community food enterprise, Food Connect, and is co-founder, with her partner Robert Pekin, of the Food Connection Foundation and the Food Connect Shed. The Food Connect Shed is a local space for the creative local food economy to shift towards healthier, fair and regenerative food system. This was an amazing achievement - bringing 500 community farmers and supporters to raise $2 million dollars in an equity crowdfunding campaign to purchase the warehouse they'd rented for 12 years. I am super proud to be one of the Food Connect Shed Careholders (not shareholders).Emma-Kate is also the Chair of the Queensland Social Enterprise Council, a fellow at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Program Director at The Next Economy. Emma-Kate turns business on its head, well actually, puts heart, ethics and care right at the centre. Actually way back in 2006 she started Brisbane's first Car Share enterprise. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Emma-Kate, and also hear how she has woven permaculture into thinking about their business and the future of food in the Brisbane region.I invite you to share this episode and can subscribe to my podcast here.Find out more about permacultureThere's lots of free permaculture resources on my Our Permaculture Life Youtube and blog. Learn how you can weave permaculture into your everyday and become a permaculture teacher through my free 4 part permaculture series . The world needs more permaculture teachers everywhere - a great way to create a local, locally-based ethical living.To support free permaculture education for young people, women & local farmers in the majority world & refugee camps please donate to Ethos Foundation - the registered charity associated with the Permaculture Education Institute. And, if you are between 11-16, I welcome you to join the Global Permayouth who meet online each week, have local hubs and organise monthly online festivals.For an online introduction to kitchen gardening course based on permaculture thinking, I recommend our course: The Incredible Edible Garden .Morag GambleI humbly acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I live and work, the Gubbi Gubbi people, and pay my respects to their elders, past present and emerging.Thank you Rhiannon Gamble for audio editing. Thanks Kim Kirkman for the music.
In this episode Pip editor, Robyn Rosenfeldt speaks with local food pioneers Emma-Kate Rose and Robert Pekin from Food Connect in Brisbane. Food Connect is a local food CSA, supporting local farmers and providing customers with access to good quality, organic local food at a fair price to farmers and to customers. They are revolutionising our food systems.
The third episode of Relatable is with an absolutely delightful couple, Emma-Kate Rose and Robert Pekin. E-K and Rob are from Brisbane Australia and run an incredible social enterprise business called, Food Connect. Food Connect's focus is on creating a fairer food system for farmers, the environment and the public. I helped E-K and Rob a few years ago with their marriage and we have become firm friends since then. In todays episode, they were generous enough to share with us what it was like to get help and the impact it has made on their relationship, marriage and business. You can find out more about the wonderful work they are doing with Food Connect here: https://foodconnect.com.au/ To download my free relationship masterclass click here and scroll to the bottom of the page: https://www.fionalukeis.com.au/ To join the waitlist for my next round of my online program Relatable, click here: https://www.fionalukeis.com.au/relatable-waitlist/
Emma-Kate Rose has over three decades of experience in working in business, social justice, environmental sustainability, food system advocacy, and political activism. In 2006, she co-created a start-up developing a car sharing service in Brisbane and after selling it in 2008, she joined Food Connect, a social enterprise aiming to create a world where everyone has access to healthy, fresh, ecologically-grown food that is fair to growers, eaters, and the planet. With Emma-Kate, we talked about the need to re-localise food production and distribution closer to cities, the challenges of managing a fair and sustainable food system in today’s political environment, the importance of trust, and how to turn climate despair intro creative energy. For all the references mentioned in this episode: http://gosimone.org/food-sovereignty/episode-7-emma-kate-rose-on-creating-a-sustainable-food-system-and-turning-climate-despair-into-a-creative-energy/
Today I am joined by business and life partners, Emma-Kate Rose and Rob Pekin. While receiving relationship counseling, they were introduced to an understanding of the mind that had a major impact, not only in their relationship, but in their lives as a whole. Emma-Kate and Rob explain why they no longer fight against nature, and instead, embrace the unknown. As they share their experiences, they highlight how living openly, curiously, and authentically can lead to surprising and delightful results. Emma-Kate Rose and Robert Pekin are co-owners of the well known Brisbane social enterprise, Food Connect. Emma-Kate and Rob are on a mission to democratise the food system to address many of the social and environmental problems with food access, distribution, and treating growers and workers fairly. They recently raised over $2 million with their community of 513 “Careholders” through an equity crowdfunding campaign to buy their warehouse, becoming Australia’s first community-owned local food hub.
We're signing off for the year with an episode of highlights from our wonderful array of guests throughout 2018. With sincere thanks for tuning in, continuing to share and rate the podcast, and of course for donating and supporting its production. It couldn't happen without you. Thanks also for getting in touch throughout the year to tell us how much you've valued the podcast, and what you'd like to hear in future. It's been great to see our listener numbers spike this year, and even more fulfilling to hear how the stories are landing and what the podcast means to you. Thank you very much! Have a wonderful festive season and we hope to join you again for a regenerative new year. - 2018 Theme, featuring Let Them Know, by Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (& a range of guests from 2017) - Paul Hawken (from podcast #013, accompanied by Gone Clear, from the album Modern Country by William Tyler) - Frances Jones & David Pollock from Wooleen Station (from podcast #016, recorded live in Melbourne) - Tim Winton (from podcast #017, with backing ocean sounds at Ningaloo Reef) - Denise Fitch (from podcast #018) - Evan Pensini (from podcast #019) - Mary Crooks (from podcast #020) - Dr Anne Poelina (from podcast #021) - Song for the Mardoowarra, by Gwen Knox in collaboration with Anne Poelina, played by Mick Stevens, and sung by the Broome Primary School Choir - Martin Pritchard (from podcast #022) - Richard Heinberg (from podcast #023) - Frank Fisher (from podcast #024) - Chris Henggeler (from podcast #025) - Jacqueline Henggeler (from podcast #025 Extra) - Dr Mary Graham (from podcast #026) - Moira Lanzarin (from podcast #027) - Emma-Kate Rose (from podcast #028) - Katherine Trebeck (from podcast #029) - Damon Gameau (from podcast #030) - Hugh Mackay (from podcast #031) - Charles Massy (from podcast #032) - Sounds of Severn Park (Charles' farm) - Back home by the Indian Ocean Due to licencing restrictions, most of our guests' nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon. Title slide: Anthony producing episode 16 at Wooleen Station, by the Murchison River in Western Australia. Pic: Olivia Cheng. Thanks for listening!
Today we feature an Australian first, in an area that is developing fast globally, and potentially helping to redefine how money, business and the economy work. It's called equity crowdfunding. It's based on the crowdfunding model most of us are probably familiar with, though here it's used to raise investment capital. The federal legislation for this is new in Australia, and Food Connect seeks to become the first social enterprise in this country – or as they would say, ‘systems enterprise' - to successfully use the tool. Food Connect is no ordinary enterprise. It's really a phenomenon in Brisbane, that has germinated other developments in its mould all over the country. It began with the dramatic transformation of farmer Robert Pekin, and a model connecting farmer to eater more directly, fairly, and healthily, called Community Supported Agriculture (or CSA). The business has since developed, with the help of his now wife Emma-Kate Rose, into so much more. And most pointedly, in their sights now, are the inter-related food, farming and economic systems, along with the cultural stories underpinning how we organise those systems. Now they aim to raise $2-4 million, to enable a transformative vision, beginning with the purchase of the premises they've been operating out of for a little over a decade. This is the remarkable story of a dairy farmer gone broke and ‘mad', as he puts it in all sincerity. And a chance meeting with a woman who ended up selling her house to invest in the enterprise, such was her belief in it, while dedicating her life to making it work. So how does Food Connect and equity crowdfunding work? What would investing in Food Connect look like with this crowdfund model? And how does it change the systems and stories we live by, from ‘back-end' food ‘rescue' operations, to impact investing, to our broader economy and culture? Join Rob and Emma-Kate as they chat with Anthony upstairs at the Food Connect warehouse. Note: The crowdfunder was successful, raising over $2m. Get more: Food Connect Shed equity crowdfunder, open till 10 November 2018 – https://www.pledgeme.com.au/investments/2-food-connect-shed-ltd#updates Food Connect Foundation, including a series of events happening throughout the crowdfund - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au The bio's of Emma-Kate and Robert - http://foodconnectfoundation.org.au/board/ Food Connect enterprise - https://www.foodconnect.com.au Music: Sounds of the forest Due to licencing restrictions, our guest's nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode. We hope podcast licencing falls into line with this soon. Thanks to all our supporters for enabling the production of this podcast. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going. And thanks for listening!
Emma-Kate Rose of Food Connect on using business as a force for good. Emma-Kate explains how sustainable food practices, fair pay and social justice can build a movement of food citizens, and why this is more motivating to her than money.02:30 – Why Emma-Kate and her partner see business as a force for good06:01 – Why fairness across the whole supply chain is at the heart of the Food Connect manifesto11:04 – How transparency in business teaches consumers to ask the right questions13:13 – The radical steps Food Connect took to prove their trustworthiness to farmers19:28 – The simple pay rule that means the Food Connect CEO will never be overpaid22:26 – Why you will never change the world by replicating the status quo32:54 – The reason Emma-Kate and her partner chose to open-source ideas rather than franchise38:38 – Why Food Connect didn’t miss a single delivery in the Brisbane floodsKGC Facebook Group
Rob Pekin and Emma-Kate Rose of Food Connect share valuable insights, experience and lessons on starting, growing and sustaining community driven social enterprises which look to create systemic change and tackle issues at their root cause.
We talk shop, without the supermarket, with Robert Pekin, a former 4th generation dairy farmer, who like tens of thousands of his small- and medium-scale colleagues, lost the family farm in the 1990s, as a casualty of the de-regulation of the Australian dairy industry. And just like it is for so many dairy farmers in the current dairy crisis, this was a personally very traumatic time for Robert. His path to redemption and healing led him to the discovery and practice of community-supported agriculture (CSA), and he established, and now runs along with his partner Emma-Kate Rose, the social enterprise Food Connect in Brisbane, which since 2005 has been on a mission to create a fairer food system for both farmers and eaters.