Sometimes we forget to recognize just what wonderful businesses we have on our doorstep. Since the fast lane of life has been adopted into most families lifestyles we filter what we want to see, what we want to eat and what we want to hear.

Well 2020 brings new opportunities to COMMUNITY KITCHEN with MY WANDERINGS around the region ( and sometimes beyond) to bring stories of family businesses, innovative food ideas, small farms, highly productive farms but most importantly FOOD .

Today I invited the Savige Family to the table and talked retail and commercial fishing. This is a family of fishermen, fisherwomen and seafood cooks. They know their business.

Three generations of living off ocean farming brings worrying discussions to the family table. John Savige has fished for 45 years, has always adopted sustainable farming practices but with 80% of his ocean farmland in the yellow zone is this a sustainable industry?

Would educated discussion help support this industry?

Will adopting different farming styles for commercial fishing help to keep local regional seafood on our food list?

Is it time to listen to the farmers of the land and the sea?

How do we adapt closures, rules, restrictions into such a delicate integral system to maintain a balance and sustainable food supply for our future generations?

I think this snip from Natalie Savige’s email capped it all:

 

I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity this morning on your show.

I’m so pleased we were able to highlight the produce we have right in our own very back yard, as well as the importance of maintaining access to it for the community.

Its an issue that not many people are aware of- that if Commercial Fishermen are no longer able to harvest the wild caught product, we will have no choice but to rely on either farmed product or imported product- both of which pose a serious danger to not only our waterways, but our health.  We always struggle to get this message across to the general public as our public image is not good due to either environmentalists who claim that the practice is not sustainable, or the Recreational Fishing Sector; who believe we are over fishing.

At the end of the day we are just another Aussie family trying to make a living, also carrying on a family legacy and doing what we love doing.

It’s the first time in a long time that our public image has been a positive one, thanks to you Annette.