In the revolution that is taking Sydney-siders’ plates and gardens by storm, there are some awesome initiatives going on around town. We’ve identified 5 major trends that are pushing this agenda along: The Enablers, The Finders, The Keepers, The Wheelers and The Dealers. Read on!
The City of Sydney are fully committed to reducing Sydney’s impact on the environment, and one way they’re doing this is by helping people reduce food miles and eat healthy, local, seasonal (delicious) food. Below is one the great series of animations that they’ve developed, with help from Digital Eskimo, as part of their Green Villages program to help people understand and reduce their ‘food print’.
The City are doing an incredible job at enabling innovation and experimentation with local growing and city farming. They are doing what they do best and taking away as many of the administrative, funding and red tape headaches that community groups often have to wrangle with.
Did you know we have fifteen community gardens and two footpath gardens scattered throughout our villages? Time to get your hands dirty! @greenvillagesyd
Initiatives supported by the City include the upcoming ‘FOOD Print Challenge‘, a smorgasboard of free workshops and the support of community and verge gardens through their environmental grant and matching grant programs.
Grow It Local are seeking out and connecting growers in Sydney through a fantastic online network which lets people share the best bits of growing your own: the fun, made visible through the sharing of photos of gardens and gardeners, and the food.
It’s a project that celebrates backyard, balcony, community and windowsill food farming.
To participate simply register your patch, of any shape or size.
Then share photos and news about how your 
growing is going. And if you’re really good at it, and end up with some food, you can trade a bag of produce for a place at a Local Grower’s Supper prepared by the guys at Three Blue Ducks.
More images like ‘Figs and Eggs’ (right) can be viewed on their Pinterest board.
A keeper is one of those friends or heroes in your life who you would never let go of.
And a keeper if I ever knew one is Costa Georgiadis, who has the entirety of his head, heart and hands all working on shifting people’s attitude towards their food. You may know him as the energetic edible-plant grower on ABC’s Gardening Australia., but he’s also got his sleeves rolled up in and around
Sydney.
Indira Naidoo’s caramel voice was part of the Australian diet of politics and current affairs during her years as a presenter of SBS News.
Now she’s helping to transform diets by writing about her incredible small-space growing skills in her book The Edible Balcony.
Indira is active in the grassroots growing community in Sydney, the GreenUps crowd had a great chat with her at the ‘Paddock to Plate’ event in 2011.
With the help of The City of Sydney, local vans are joining the global fleet food trucks.
The Veggie Patch food van is a collaboration between two Sydney businesses: Yulli’s – a vegetarian restaurant, and TMOD – a design studio. They’re taking locally grown food on the road and direct to punters.
The herbs for the van are to be grown on the roof. You can’t get any closer to the source than that! The remainder of the produce will be sourced from local farms, and will be eaten seasonally according to the principles of the ‘Paddock to Plate’ movement. Hear Karl from Veggie Patch talk about their van.
So what do you do when you’ve grown your own – but your selection extends only to carrots, tomatoes and parsley? And you’ve got too many of those! You trade with other people who are growing their own. Local Harvest is a new tool which helps you find good food, close to you. 
It gives you a regional directory of producers close to you, and could connect you with people who might appreciate your surplus rocket.
So if you can’t grow it all on your own, this helps you grow it ultra-local.
The providores, merchants, distributors and vendors of locally farmed food are also becoming a force to be reckoned with in Sydney. Check out the legends at FoodConnect for your own seasonal, local, organic box.
The gorgeous Green Villages animations you’ve been seeing on Sustahood were created by Digital Eskimo who are a digital agency doing good.
So, instead of making ads for chemical cleaning products, they’re using their powers (ie. their incredible creative talent) for good, to inform people about greening their lifestyles. How about that?!