Australians lack “food literacy” and are unaware of growing threats to national food production, according to new research.
A national survey conducted by the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance found 60 per had not heard of the term “food security” and did not know what it meant. It also found 65 per cent were not worried about the future of Australia’s food supplies over the next 50 years, despite multiple threats posed by climate change, coal-seam gas exploration, increasing soil salinity and loss of farmland to urban sprawl.
Canberra farmer and alliance spokesman Michael Croft said the findings showed a worrying “lack of awareness and complacency” about the national food system was widespread amongst Australians.
Mr Croft, who operates Mountain Creek biodynamic farm on the outskirts of Canberra, wants state and federal governments to roll out food literacy programs to create greater awareness of how food is grown and produced.
“‘There are many outstanding examples of food literacy programs in the United States, which we could adapt for Australia, for children and adults. Food literacy means understanding your connection to the story of the food you eat, from farm to table, and back to the soil,” he said.
But the survey also found more Australians are growing their own food, with a “renaissance of home and community food growing taking place.”
Around 53 per cent of Australians are growing fruit and vegetables or raising livestock, with 59 per cent of these starting vegetable gardens in the last five years.
Mr Croft said national food security was taken for granted by federal and state politicians, “simply because we, as a country, export three-fifths of what we produce.”
But Australia does not currently produce sufficient fruit and vegetables to allow “all its inhabitants to consume a healthy diet.”
“The diseases associated with poor diets are now described by those working in the field as a ‘pandemic’; and constitute a major public health challenge for Australia in the 21st century,” Mr Croft said.
He warned Australia’s major food producing regions will face substantial declines in productivity in coming decades, due to the combined effects of water stress, rising salinity levels and degraded soils.
The survey also raises concerns about “food desertification” – the spread of localities where fast food outlets outnumber places where fresh food can be bought.
“Food, and the work of those who produce it, has become de-valued in our culture. The close linkages between food, individual health and well-being, wider societal health, and the well-being of ecosystems, go unrecognised by most people, most of the time. They certainly go unacknowledged by Federal and State policy-makers, for whom the main, if not the sole, function of food is as a commodity for export in order to boost Australia’s trade surpluses,” the survey report said.
Mr Croft said it was ” hardly surprising” that a majority of Australians expressed little concern about food security.
“Australians live in an apparent cornucopia of food, much of it astonishingly cheap. The idea of there being any potential significant threat to our food supply and distribution system seems remote to most people. Even the impact of extreme weather events such as cyclones seems temporary and only results in increased prices for a period of weeks.”
