A leading Melbourne researcher into food security has called for an incoming state government to appoint a Minister for Food.
University of Melbourne School of Agriculture and Food senior lecturer Dr Rachel Carey carries out research into resilient and sustainable food systems.
She leads the Foodprint Melbourne project, which looks at the resilience of Melbourne's food system to shocks and stresses.
"We are experiencing many different shocks and stresses to the food system - that's obviously from local shocks, related to bushfires and flooding, but also global shocks, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Dr Carey said.
"Now we are really seeing the compounding effect of multiple shocks and stresses on food prices and, of course, some of these trends are longer term.
"We know that we are likely to experience more frequent and more extreme weather events, due to climate change, so we do need to plan to increase the resilience of our food supply to these sorts of shocks and stresses.
"Public concern about food prices is growing and it is something that should be on the minds of all politicians going into the state election."
Dr Carey said Foodprint Melbourne believed the key issue facing Melbourne and Victoria was equitable access to food.
"At a state level, we should have somebody in government who is responsible and accountable for ensuring everyone has access to enough healthy, and culturally appropriate, food," she said.
"We'd like to see a Minister for Food in the new state government - we have ministers for other issues that are fundamental to our lives, transport, education, housing, but there is no minister responsible for our food supply and whether everyone has access to enough food."
In a world of increasing shocks and stresses to food supply and rising prices, that needed to change, she said.
"We need to develop a whole of government food resilience plan, for the state, and that will require actions right the way through our food supply chains.
Dr Carey said targets should be set, to monitor progress to reducing food insecurity.
"That minister should also be implementing a plan to ensure everyone has access to sufficient food," she said.
"We need to be legislating the human right to food, which is a fundamental human right, but its not one that is legislated within Australia, which means we don't currently have mechanisms for accountability for that ."
A food plan would look all aspects of the supply chain, from farms to distribution.
"A key action we still need to take is strengthen protection for farmland around the fringe of the city," she said.
"Ensuring we have protection for all remaining farmland, particularly around our urban areas, is a critical building building block in a more resilient food supply into the future."
Long-term certainty for those farming areas was critical.
"It's more critical than it's ever been before, because of these increasing shocks and stresses to our local food supply," she said.
"Strengthening our local and regional food supply chains is a really important part of having resilient food supply chains into the future."
'We know that around half of the vegetables produced in Victoria grow in Melbourne's food bowl, around the city fringe, so it's really critical that land is protected and there are very strong signals from government that it will remain as agricultural land for the long term."
She said the policy was also needed to support farming in the region and ensure sufficient water was available, including infrastructure to deliver recycled and treated storm water.
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'Without enough money to buy enough food people are doing things like skipping meals, or eating less healthy, often more processed food, which is cheaper."
Dr Carey said new solutions were needed to address the issue.
"Often we have a narrative in Australia we are a food secure country because we produce and export a lot of food, but that does mask vulnerabilities and the fact that there are many people who can't afford to buy the food that is available.
"Having said that, we do also need to be concerned about our ability, in future to produce sufficient healthy food, given the declining supplies of natural resources that underpin food production, including things like land and water, and given the impact of climate change."
Opposition Agriculture spokesman Peter Walsh said the last time the coalition was in government, he was the minister for both Agriculture and Food Security.
"Given the importance of our food supply it will be the same again if elected to government in November," Mr Walsh said.
"Victoria's agriculture department regulates biosecurity to protect our crops and livestock, and, in turn, the food supply of the nation."
The state government has been approached for comment.
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
