It is a little-known fact the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has identified Australia as a country maintaining a level of food insecurity since 2018.
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As a nation striving to make agriculture a $100 billion industry, I'm the first to acknowledge that using the term 'food insecurity' in the context of Australia sparks more reaction than just a cock of the eyebrow.
Indeed, until about five years ago a reference to 'food insecurity' would have me recalling the images we so often see in World Vision footage of third-world countries in extreme poverty.
Food in Australia was - and still is - a recognisable foundation of our culture, our economy, and our relationship with the natural world so often it's depicted in promotional materials by way of abundant harvest, or tables laden with nostalgia-inducing feasts.
But the romanticism of abundance has lost a bit of it's shine for me of late - with my mind now grappling with the imagery conjured by the fact that:
- one in six Australian adults suffer a level of food insecurity weekly in Australia, and
- the demand for food relief in Australia has led to the emergency food relief system being referred to as an "industry in itself".
Significantly, in a recent exchange with the executive director of FareShare - an extraordinary organisation based in Melbourne and Brisbane which cooks surplus food into free, nutritious meals for people in need - I learnt the most vulnerable individuals in Australia are no longer just the homeless.
Indeed, FareShare are now distributing meals to an increasing number of individuals identified as:
- the 'employed-poor' in both rural and metropolitan areas (those with full-time jobs, but no income left for food after paying bills), and
- rural communities, suffering from increased instances of natural disasters.
Until now, Australian food policies have traditionally been geared towards increasing productivity and profits within the agricultural sector, rather than on human development or food security.
And notwithstanding the limited terms of reference identified by the federal government in its inquiry into food security in Australia - premised largely on considering agricultural production, output, and climate - the hundreds of cross-sector submissions that have been received demonstrate that 'food security' transcends agriculture and the monotonous rhetoric that primary producers should just grow more food.
In keeping with my own submission to the inquiry, which adopts precedent from recommendations made by the UN secretary-general and some Australian researchers, I believe we need to break down the disconnected, siloed, and fragmented policies and responses often seen - and already imposed - to confront the reality of food insecurity in Australia.
To do this, I've recommended the development of a national food security strategy that informs the development of long-term economic strategies, plans, and polices across all Commonwealth ministerial portfolios, to be regulated by an independent statutory body.
Why?
Because solving the issue of food insecurity in Australia should not be put solely on the shoulders of primary producers.
- Caitlin McConnel is a senior associate at Clayton Utz, a sixth-generation farmer, and chair of the Future Farmers Network.
