Food security presents real and growing challenges to Australia, an Australian Parliament’s Agriculture Committee inquiry has found.
The inquiry into food security in Australia examined ways to strengthen and safeguard Australia’s food security, focusing on production, supply chains and key inputs, as well as climate change, biosecurity and food insecurity.
Handing down the report today, committee chair, Meryl Swanson MP, said food security is not something Australia can continue to take for granted.
“COVID-19, floods, the effects of the war in Ukraine, and outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease and Lumpy Skin Disease in Indonesia have highlighted risks to our food system,” she said.
“Systemic change is required so that all Australians, and those that depend on Australian food production, will be food secure. Consultation, cooperation, coordination and innovation are the keys to food security.”
The Committee has made 35 recommendations to address food security in Australia, including:
- creating a comprehensive National Food Plan;
- appointing a Minister for Food;
- establishing a National Food Council;
- developing a National Food Supply Chain Map;
- measures to facilitate innovation in the production of food; and
- measures to eliminate food waste.
The report also proposes measures to improve sustainability and resilience in the food supply chain, improve access to labour, and reduce food insecurity.
Over the course of the inquiry, the Committee held 24 public hearings, visited numerous sites around Australia, and received 188 written submissions from individuals, industry and community groups and government bodies.
The Committee would like to thank all those who took part in the inquiry by providing written submissions and giving evidence at public hearings or hosted the Committee on site visits. The Committee is particularly grateful to those who took time out of their days to host the Committee at various sites around the country and the insights this provided into the work of providing for the food security of Australians.
The full report can be found on the Committee’s inquiry webpage.
There are a few things I have learnt since moving to Australia.
1) Too many politicians for the population, and still get it wrong.
2) Everything is a royal commission, because they’re not paying for it, and always seems to be run by the fat cats, who don’t need a million Dollars
3) ACCC is non-existent, or we would not be in this position.
Whose idea was to let supermarkets run their own cattle, buy their own and cut their own meat?
Why do we need politicians when we have supermarkets?
This is just people trying to bureaucratise food production. Every process that is bureaucratised is ruined. Look at Australia’s production of health care drugs They can not be made in Australia because they need a committee meeting to order test tubes Buy the time they run the experiment and moved to production other countries have patented it and turned a dollar.
If they forget trying to wipe out food production by trying to stop methane emissions and carbon they will not have food shortages.
Only regimes like those seen in the Ukrainian in the 1930s have food shortages because of the people in power wish to make the middle classes weaker, so they are then more compliant.
The banning of gill net fishing on the Queensland coast along with land taken for national parks and solar farms doesn’t help.
If the small crop farmers don’t receive a fair price for their product from supermarkets they won’t be able to fund the planting of next years crop.
We have seen this happen in the Dairy industry.
As usual the outcomes form the inquiry recommend more bureaucracy and no firm actions that will actually ensure food security.
Why is “Supporting Australian Food Producers” and “Ensure arable land and other food producing resources such as water are maintained for food production” not top of the action plan list?