Act now to avoid a hungry Australia when crises hit, says expert

Australians could face hunger in a major crisis and the nation must act now to secure alternative supplies of vital food production inputs, an expert warns.

Stockpiles, domestic output and alternative overseas supply sources are all a priority, warns food security expert. Picture: Zoe Phillips

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Australia must move immediately to secure alternative, emergency supplies of vital food production inputs – via stockpiles, deals with friendly nations or new local production – or risk suffering food shortages in crises.

This is a key message from a soon-to-be-released green paper on Australia’s food security preparedness by Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior fellow Andrew Henderson.

Mr Henderson, whose work is expected to help guide development of the federal government’s recently promised national food security plan, said action was needed before the strategy was completed in 18 to 24 months.

While strongly supportive of the government’s commitment, he warned initial steps must be taken “now” to ensure the country could feed itself in a major disaster or trade or military crisis.

“Preparedness has to start with making sure we can secure those critical inputs that make food production happen – fertiliser, crop protection products, liquid fuels and digital connectivity,” he told The Australian.

“We have no short-term solutions to secure those critical inputs and that’s what we have to focus on as a high priority.

“It could be creating more sovereign capability, domestic stockpiles of certain critical inputs, or securing alternative sources of supply from other like-minded nations.”

Australia’s food system was “largely managing risk based on business as usual and at worst a Covid-type supply chain disruption”, he said. “That’s a very different scenario to what Defence is preparing for in the coming years with regard to the geopolitical situation, in particularly in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

Whoever won the next federal election should appoint an agency, such as agriculture, to co-ordinate the push, as well as a dedicated food security minister, most logically the agriculture minister.

“There’s a real desire to understand who in government in responsible for securing the nation’s food supply,” he said. “That’s been unclear.”

Failure to address the current shortcomings risked damage to social cohesion or even our democracy.

“Thirty per cent of our population already experiences food insecurity and half the world’s undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific, our region,” he said.

“I want my kids to grow up in a country and region where they don’t have to worry about how they’re going to feed themselves day to day.”

Andrew Henderson, senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute

The green paper, to be released in coming weeks, would build on the increasingly accepted view that food supply was a national security issue.

“Hunger breads discontent and discontent breads instability,” he said. “We’re living in a society at a time when social cohesion in the community is under immense strain.

“You start to take people’s ability to access food to feed their family out of that equation then that rapidly expands inequality and harms social cohesion. That can also harm democracy and become a domestic security problem.

“And if we can’t feed ourselves, how can we withstand coercive behaviour from countries that would seek to do us harm? And how can we help our neighbours withstand coercive economic or even grey zone type behaviour?”

Mr Henderson will speak at the Global Food Forum in Melbourne on Friday.