Food security

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“Food security” is the current buzz phrase for what should be the world’s number one priority. The trouble is that “food security” means different things to different people – and, as a result, more time seems to be spent arguing about what the term means than on actually addressing the issue.

To the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, food security exists when “all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”.

The Tasmanian government has a slightly different view of this. Last week it released, amidst some fanfare, the Tasmanian Food Security Strategy. The strategy is the work of the Tasmanian Food Security Council, a government body appointed (as best I can tell) by the Premier.

According to the Premier’s press release, its key objective is “giving Tasmanian communities the skills and resources to produce healthy and nutritious food …The strategy focuses on local solutions to increase access to affordable and nutritious food for all Tasmanians, but in particular to those most at risk … Organisations such as FoodBank, Second Bite and Produce to the People also play a vital role in collecting food that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to those most in need.”

You might find it surprising that the little I know about the Tasmanian Food Security Council has been gleaned from Google. You might also find it surprising that I learnt about this strategy only when the press release was distributed. You might even find it surprising that pretty much the only mention of farmers in the document is in reference to farmers’ markets; and that the only substantive reference to agriculture is a statement that says agriculture and food policy ‘intersect’ in some areas.

Unfortunately, I’ve given up being surprised by the widespread naivety amongst people about where their food comes from.

I am a simple girl at heart, and this all a bit aspirational and academic for me. I would have thought that in order to have “food security”, you would first need to establish a secure supply of food – and, unless you are one of the people who think food comes from the supermarket, this by definition involves farmers.

Clearly, this is not a generally held view. A recent survey showed that Australian student and teacher knowledge of food and fibre production has declined to worrying levels. Seventy five percent of students thought cotton socks were an animal product; and forty five percent could not identify that everyday lunchbox items such as a bananas, bread and cheese originated from farms.

The TFGA accepts that the state government recognises the pivotal role that agriculture is playing and will continue to play in terms of economic development in this state. However, it needs to focus more clearly on ensuring there is a clear recognition in the policy sense of the inextricable link between agriculture (and farmers) and food.

Without this, not only will we not be able to capitalise on the many opportunities to grow our industry, but we’ll struggle to even maintain what we have. In fact, we have advocated the establishment of an Office of Food Policy within a restructured Department of Food and Agriculture as a means of trying to address these issues.

The World Health Organisation has a “three pillars” approach to food security:

• food availability (ensuring there is a reliable and adequate food supply;
• food access (being able to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritious diet;
• food use (using it properly on terms of storage, preparation and optimum nutrition.

These are big questions that we must all address. We do have to think globally and act locally. Asutralian farmers are efficient producers of food and fibre; and in many areas we export more than we use domestically. However, there’s no guarantee that will always be the case.

Australians have never been hungry – and we take our food for granted. We expect to have the world’s best quality food available 24/7 at prices often below the realistic cost of production. That’s not a given in today’s tough business climate, where our farmers are burdened with more and more costs and lower and lower returns.

Food security is much broader than encouraging people to grown their own vegetables, keep chooks, go to farmers’ markets, or get involved in urban foraging’.

The bottom line is that, if you don’t have food, it is not much good formulating policies centred on how people can afford it. If it’s not there, you can’t eat it. Who produces food? Farmers.

There used to be a bumper sticker around some time back that said If you’ve had a meal today, thank a farmer’. And we should.

You can see the strategy here:
http://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/159476/Food_for_all_Tasmanians_-_A_food_Security_Strategy.PDF