Food security, supply chain disruption and $11 lettuce

It typified how the world has leapt from one drama to another without people stopping to consider to what they are actually reacting.

Lettuce, after all, while nice on a steak sandwich, or to cup your san choy bow mince, is not exactly a staple.

For those looking at the bigger picture, the humble lettuce became a mascot for supply issues, labour shortages, high fuel and fertiliser prices, damage to logistics and infrastructure, the fall-out from repeated floods and general increases in cost of inputs.

For others it was a drama they could get caught up in, contributing to calls the government should be doing more to bring down the cost of living.

How many shoppers considered what all this has shown us, along with the COVID disruptions the previous two years, about the fragility of our food supply chains?

Food security is a poorly understood, under-discussed issue in a country where we just expect it's a right to have cheap, quality, reliable food.

Natural disasters, conflict, pesitlence, high input costs, lack of labour and global politics are just some challenges we saw this past year that played a role in disrupting our food supply chains, none of which bear any regard for whether it's your right to a full belly.

Of course, the price of lettuce was not the real issue at hand.

As the world heads further down the route of increased exotic disease risk, a shifting global political stage and a more variable climatic phase, food and supply chain security need to be considered more seriously.

Other issues which stood out this year have included the intensity and regularity of major floods. Many producers had stock moved to areas ahead of time that traditionally had been considered safe.

But the duration of flooding and/or the depth of the floods this year meant many of those areas remained inaccessible for prolonged periods or also became inundated, catching stock owners out and having to either cart in fodder or stock out - often with the assistance of the NSW Department of Primary Industries.

In May, when The Land's editorial team got together in Orange for the first time in about four years (due mainly to COVID in 2020/21, but also the transition to new owners in 2019 from Nine to Australian Community Media), we toured the DPI's Orange Agriculture Institute.

This included the disaster response centre, which was officially opened in November 2021 and has been pretty much in continual use ever since.

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We visited the day after the DPI had wrapped up its inital Japanese encephalitis response. The facility this year alone has been ground zero for multiple floods and the Varroa mite oubreak, in addition to JEV.

While on site, we also met with staff who worked on the identification and eradication of the khapra beetle, who talked us through the process of discovery, identification and eradication of this extremely small but potentially devastating exotic pest.

While organisations such as the DPI often cop flack for sucking tax dollars, when you see the work that goes in behind the scenes by people tucked away in a lab somewhere out of site, and what that work means for maintaining our food production, you develop a better appreciation of the need for understanding the many levels of expertise required to keep our supply chains in good shape.

Similarly, in a conversation at a work event throughout the year, it was explained how Australia's much more advanced response plans and resourcing mean we do have a chance at eradicating incursions like Varroa mite, even if progress is a bit stop-start right now.

The comparison given was New Zealand, which lacked both the early detection systems and the resourcing and planning to do anything but declare the pest endemic.

With events back on in full swing this year, I had the honour of chairing a panel at the NSW Biosecurity Conference in Dubbo during August, the event being run by the NSW government.

It was interesting to hear a range of views around some tough issues, including how to more reliably fund biosecurity and how to manage exotic disease threats.

Concern for foot and mouth and lumpy skin disease was at its peak about that time and possibly for the first time ever, we saw the broader public, to some degree, demonstrate concern for how their behaviour might seriously impact on our food supply and economy.

I couldn't buy a sandwich without the shop owner asking whether an outbreak would impact on their dairy drinks delivery business. People were actually starting to join the dots.

That issue has been and will be ongoing into the new year.

Otherwise, happenings you may have noticed with The Land this year included the roll-out of our digital subscription model.

The Land also launched its latest The Land app, the favourite feature of which among readers so far has been the ability to access all of ACM Ags' (publisher of The Land) mastheads at the swipe of a button.

With events back on, the whole team was also back out at a range of field days, forums and sales this past year and we look forward to seeing you out and about again in the new year.

And as we head into 2023, let's remind oursleves to not get caught in the drama and instead search for the real issue, of which there will be plenty keeping us busy into 2023.