What a global famine means for Australia

The United Nations has warned the world is on the brink of a global famine. Here’s what that could mean for us.

Australia needs to act to secure its own food security, a defence and national security consultant has urged.

It comes as the United Nations has warned the world is on the brink of an unprecedented global hunger crisis, with harvests worldwide likely to be hit by escalating costs of fertilisers and energy, as well as climate disruption.

Speaking to The Weekly Times this week, defence and national security consultant John Blackburn said the message from authorities to the Australian public for years had been “she’ll be right”.

“We’ve been fed a lot of bulls--t, basically,” he said.

Mr Blackburn said Australia’s dependence on other nations for shipping, fuel and inputs such as AdBlue was “crazy”.

He urged farming groups to be “proactive” and “vocal” about Australia’s dependence on imported fertiliser, fuel and other agricultural resources.

“If we don’t educate people about farming, your dependencies, and where the risks are, then (the public) are going to be very reluctant to support the action we need to take,” he said.

Viva Energy’s Geelong fuel refinery and Ampol’s Lytton refinery have committed to continue operating until 2028 and 2027 respectively. “All we can do after that is pray”, he said.

Meanwhile, production of AdBlue at Incitec Pivot’s Gibson Island plant in Brisbane would continue only until the plant closed at the end of this year, and “the scale of dependence we have on foreign shipping... is crazy. Absolutely crazy,” he said.

Farmers were talking about these issues “in pubs around the country”, but needed to “tell the story nationally”, Mr Blackburn said.

Defence and National Security consultant John Blackburn. Picture: Supplied

United Nations secretary-general António Guterres warned the world was facing a food shortage “catastrophe”, speaking at a ministerial conference in Berlin this week.

“There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022. And 2023 could be even worse,” Mr Guterres said.

“The war in Ukraine has compounded problems that have been brewing for years: climate disruption; the Covid-19 pandemic; the deeply unequal recovery,” he said.

Over the next two years, harvests globally would be affected by the rising cost of fertilisers and energy, Mr Guterres said.

“All harvests will be hit, including rice and corn — affecting billions of people across Asia, Africa and the Americas … No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe.”

According to the World Food Programme, the number of severely food‑insecure people around the world has more than doubled to 276 million in the past two years.

NATIONAL SECURITY ‘CRISIS’

Mr Blackburn said the Australian Government needed to act to prevent food shortages and promote security in our region.

“It is a national security issue not just for us and what food we get access to, but the stability of our whole area,” he said.

Australia needs to prepare for the impact of global famine, security leaders say. Picture: Ashraf Shazly/AFP

The defence expert said Australia’s defence force was not equipped to handle multiple humanitarian and military security crises simultaneously.

“Our military is small, let’s be honest. We have about 55,000 full-time people and 20-30,000 reservists.”

He urged the Australian government to prepare.

“The foods that we do produce can be utilised intelligently in order to improve the security of the region. If we know some of our neighbours are really at risk, how do we prioritise our production and sales to ensure that they remain stable in a crisis?” he said.

In a report released this week co-authored by Mr Blackburn, the Australian Security Leaders Climate Group warned Australians could expect food price and supply volatility and “security consequences” as a result of “cascading” global food crises.

The report, which focused on the impacts of both global warming and the war in Ukraine, recommended the Australian Government conduct an urgent review of Australia’s food production and supply-chain resilience.