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The food system is a heavy component of the human environmental footprint on the planet. If current trends in human population and consumption patterns continue, the world will need to produce about twice as much food by 2050, in a rapidly changing climate, with declining production of oil and rising prices for energy, water, fertilisers, and soon, carbon. The era of abundant, cheap fossil fuels is over. Traditional avenues of expanding production though clearing, irrigating and cultivating more land are narrowing, and food is now competing with energy for land and water resources.
Consumers in developed countries are increasingly concerned about the quality, safety, environmental impact, human health and animal welfare aspects of their food. Governments in developed countries are increasingly concerned about levels of obesity and associated chronic diseases and escalating health costs, which are driven in part by increasing consumption of processed foods high in sugars, salts and saturated fats. The role of modern industrial food systems in human health is under question.
This report was prepared for the State Government of Victoria, Australia with one question in mind: how can we improve the performance and resilience of the Victorian food and farming system?
This propositions paper outlines policy suggestions that would substantially assist the Victorian food system in delivering healthier foods, healthier profits and healthier landscapes. We can do this while making much better use of energy, water and nutrients, substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, minimising waste and pollution, improving wildlife habitat, producing renewable energy, reducing reliance on food imports, and reconnecting both rural and urban communities with the production of healthy, safe, delicious food.
The policy propositions posited here encompass food system leadership and governance; the evidence base, research capacity and education systems required to underpin food system renovation; farming system transformations; the sustainability of the food value chain beyond the farm gate; urban food production and exploitation of waste streams; the planning, design and infrastructure reforms needed to improve the performance and resilience of the food system; and management of the trade-offs between food, water and energy in a warming, drying climate in southern Australia.
Leadership is needed at all levels across the food and farming system and along the food value chain. Not just leadership in a representative sense, but leadership that imagines new possibilities, that challenges perceptions about what is possible, and that attracts people and gives them the confidence to try new pathways. This needs to start at the highest political levels, and it needs to be reflected within industry and the community. We need broad-based leadership to drive the necessary improvements in our food system.
A clear conclusion from this project is that Victoria needs a comprehensive healthy sustainable food strategy. This paper identifies many of the elements that such a strategy could contain, without purporting to write it. It presents the issues and potential responses with constructive intent, in the hope that organisations and people within the Victorian food and farming system will find a spark here that could make a difference.
Victoria can lead the world in designing sustainable food and farming systems for a warming, drying climate, generating significant know-how, innovation, regional development and export income along the way.
Summary of propositions
Joined-up governance and leadership on sustainable food and farming
1. Government needs to develop an integrated sustainable food and farming strategy, with clear targets based on measures of environmental, social and economic progress.
2. Robust standards, measures and indicators of sustainable food and farming are needed to assess performance, identify areas for improvement and measure progress.
3. A thorough assessment of food system resilience and vulnerabilities is essential, taking into account climate change and rising input costs.
4. Government should lead the way with a ‘green, healthy and fair’ food procurement policy, such that public sector food meets progressively higher standards and drives investment and innovation for sustainability.
Victorian farming transformed, so that it is productive within ecological limits and adapts to global change.
5. A sustainable food system is underpinned by healthy working rivers. Action to deal with the over allocation of water should be strategic, prompt and sufficient to recover river systems, minimise social dislocation and realise alternative development pathways.
6. The food and farm sector needs to become much more active in the effort to avoid dangerous climate change. The full suite of policy tools will be needed to help the sector adjust to a low carbon economy, harness opportunities, and adapt to changes already underway.
7. Reversing the decline of biodiversity in production landscapes needs to be seen as a high priority in food and farm policy. It will mean real whole-of-government support, stronger engagement along the food value chain, and a smarter policy mix of ‘carrots and sticks’.
8. Drought policy, and related business subsidies and concessions, should be overhauled to better reflect the reality of rapid climate change and to build resilient communities and landscapes.
9. Victoria, and Australia as a whole, needs a new soil policy framework to redress soil loss, improve soil management and maximise the services provided by soils, especially carbon sequestration.
10. Ecological, low-input and ‘regenerative’ farming systems have the potential to improve resilience, and to deliver multiple social and environmental benefits. They should be given commensurate research, extension and policy support.
Embedding sustainability through the food value chain
11. Businesses along the entire food value chain can and must play a stronger role in shaping supply and demand to meet sustainability goals. Government should use the full mix of policy tools to mobilise the private sector to transform food and farming.
12. Government and industry need to invest substantially more in education and training for sustainable food and farming to tackle skills gaps, recruit new people, and prepare for a more demanding, interconnected world.
13. A transformation to sustainable food and farming will require major investment in innovation and knowledge, as well as new interdisciplinary research and development networks.
14. A world centre of excellence in sustainable food systems in Melbourne would provide a focus for innovation and leadership, attracting talent and sustaining the energy for reform.
Food system leadership and engaged communities
15. A long-term investment in leaders and champions of sustainable food and farming is a high priority.
16. Sustainable and healthy food systems would promote and enable a diet rich in fresh and minimally-processed foods — predominantly fruits and vegetables — as the mainstream choice.
17. Innovative community and commercial enterprises that promote resilient and sustainable food systems, and that re-connect consumers and producers, should be actively encouraged.
18. The new approach to food and farming needs to be owned by the community, implying a more innovative and extensive community engagement effort on the part of government, industry and NGOs.
Planning and design for sustainable, healthy food systems
19. The principles of Food Sensitive Urban Design need to be embedded into planning, policy and regulation.
20. The potential for significant and sustainable food production in urban areas should be thoroughly explored and tapped.
21. Planning strategy should secure peri-urban zones for sustainable agriculture and resilient food systems.
22. Major investment, research and policy attention in energy farming is needed to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, build resilience and reduce net greenhouse emissions.
23. The transition to sustainable food and farming rests on a transformation in distribution and major investment in sustainable transport infrastructure.
24. Looming resource constraints require government and industry to work together and more proactively to close the loop between food and waste.
Editor's Note: This is the executive summary of the Paddock to Plate: re-thinking food and farming proposition paper, commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation and written by Andrew Campbell.
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