Chain of events: a blog of Food Chain Intelligence

What a week. It has been hard to keep up with all the news arising on food security and climate change. In this post I will highlight some short news and statements that you may wish to check in depth.

(1) “On the face of it, it’s an impossible equation - the only way we can meet what the world will demand is by following every possible path of scientific research. I don’t see how anyone can mount a moral argument against genetically modified food when we’re facing these sorts of projections on global hunger”. Tony Burke, Australia’s Agriculture Minister.

(2)”Key export industries, including coal mining, food processing, natural gas and aluminium will be better protected, saving thousands of Australian jobs under threat from Labor’s scheme.The package also protects farmers from the scheme by exempting agriculture altogether. By allowing agricultural offsets which include carbon sequestration in soils and vegetation, there is the opportunity for financial and land management benefits in the rural sector.” Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition, in unveiling the proposed Coalition amendments to the Australian Government Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

(3) “The major dilemma with the CPRS legislation industry is it will mean the cost of power will rise significantly – while industry is doing its best to reduce power use, the CPRS will ultimately impact upon prices on supermarket shelves.” Kate Carnell, CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.

(4) “Water and energy costs are rising and agriculture productivity is going to be increasingly unpredictable due to climate changes, so getting the sustainability balance right is crucial for the industry. This requires a fundamental shift in thinking.” Kate Carnell again, after releasing the report Towards Sustainability, which highlights the effort of food and grocery companies to achieve sustainable production.

(5) “For the first time in history, more than one billion people are undernourished worldwide. This is about 100 million more than last year and it means that one in every six persons suffers from hunger every day. This recent increase in hunger has not been the consequence of a poor global harvest, far from it, but was caused by the world economic crisis, which has reduced incomes and employment opportunities of the poor and significantly reduced their access to food.” Jacques Diouf,Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

(6) “Australian agricultural science has developed in an environment of natural resource constraints – the skills, approaches and technologies developed here are very relevant to the challenges of developing world agriculture – in particular in Africa which has similar soils and climates to northern Australia.” Dr Brian Keating , Director of CSIRO’s Sustainable Agriculture Flagship.

(7)”In a place of such abundance, it is not necessary for people to go without and it is not necessary for kids to go without,” David Bartlett, Tasmanian Premier, in unveiling the Food Security Council initiative.

I recently attended the conference Food, Farming & Health in Warragul, Victoria. The motto of this conference was “ Nurture the land, nourish the people”. It was very appropriate, too. The meeting was an eclectic gathering of about 150 nutritionists, farmers (not many), concerned rural and city consumers (several), non-for-profit organisations working in food distribution and Government organisations involved in education, research and policy making. And of course, consultants such as me, who are working in this emerging and converging area of food systems.

Some outstanding presentations that set the tone for the conference during the morning sessions were:

Andrew Campbell: Food, farming and Victoria’s progress to sustainability.
Veronica Graham: Victoria’s progress to a healthy population.
Prof. Linda Tapsell: The link between food and human health.
Kirsten Larsen: Sustainable and secure food systems.
Sue Brumby: Healthy farm families: helping farming families to make changes for better health.
Bruce Kefford: Victorian farms and trends in agriculture.

In the afternoon sessions we had a very dynamic format, with 3 forum sessions and 7 speakers at each session presenting several interesting topics in 5 minutes. A poster-like session followed, where the forum attendees joined the speaker of the session that they were most interested on. My presentation about food distribution systems brought a group of people working in dairy, fruit, research, direct marketing channels grower-consumer and policy, we had a fantastic exchange of ideas. Among the ideas thrown in to further work on the issues raised in regards to food distribution was the organisation of a new conference to deal with this aspect only. The outcomes of each session will be later made public by the organisers. I will let you know when the information is available.

From these talks and the feedback from the public in the Q&A sessions, a new picture of food production started to emerge. Food security is not only an issue of producing more. Instead it is a multifaceted concept that includes producing nutritionally wholesome foods, ensuring that the workforce behind this production is sustainable, encouraging distribution formats that decrease its vulnerability to extreme events while decreasing carbon footprints, increase the engagement between rural farmers and city consumers and increase the availability of quality foods to all Australians.

All these attributes are easily said that done. For example, we know of the emerging health gap between farmers and city folks. A male farmer is likely to have six years less to live than a male living in the city. Stress levels can also damage a farmer’s health (think about drought, operations costs and the consequences in the family farm). Yet, small rural towns find it hard to attract doctors and the necessary health infrastructure to provide adequate levels of health care. In the past two conferences I have attended, I heard a few cases of people migrating from the city to rural towns, only to find out that they could not access medical services when they needed them. This reason alone was sufficient for many of them to go back to the cities.

More than 50% of the human population lives now in urban areas. In Australia, 89% of the population lives in cities. Yet, the national food system depends a great deal in farm productivity (we import a very small quantity of food but the volumes are increasing). Over 20% of the total workforce in manufacturing is employed in food and drinks manufacturing and the system depends on Australian farmers. So we better ensure that they have the right environment and support to work and grow their businesses.

Further, we live in an age of consumer awakening. As consumers, we have grown tired of the deceptive promises of ‘empty’ foods claimed to be nutritionally sound. We can see through the ‘let the market sort itself out’ statement as a way to avoid the hard decisions and cracking on unfair trading practices. In fact, we have lived through a financial downturn that was created by this very phrase. We have seen the detrimental effect of unchecked use of energy, chemicals, water, packaging on the very food system that uses these inputs. We are yet to fully grasp the magnitude in which us, Australian consumers, waste food and other resources. But we will get there.

All these fundamental changes in consumer attitudes herald a new era in the way we produce and eat food. Conferences such as the Warragul Food, Farming & Health forum are no longer the territory of scientists and researchers. Consumers and farmers are now present, voicing their disappointment on current food systems and proposing novel ways to nourish (as distinct to ‘feed’ ) the population. I sure hope that those key players in the food system are listening…

I remember my high school classes fondly. I discovered Greek and Latin, mathematics, chemistry and how they related to the objects and actions in our daily life. But one subject that made an everlasting impact in my life was Physics. Who would have imagined that I would use the principle of conservation of energy in practically every project I undertake now! (no pun intended)

I would have probably found my love for Physics earlier if I had been lucky enough to attend one event such as the “Physics in Industry” day, organised by the Australian Institute of Physics.The event will be held in Lindfield’s CSIRO laboratories and the program includes a visit to some interesting research facilities there.

The program (which can be found here) includes a presentation by Richard Watson, a consultant and speaker who advises organisations on the future, focusing on the impact of trends on long-term strategy.

This event is sponsored by Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick and supported by: CSIRO, The National Measurement Institute, The Royal Australian Chemical Institute, The Australasian College of Physical Scientists & Engineers in Medicine, and AusMedtech/AusBiotech.

I am posting this in the hope that you will bring your children to some of the visits: having been one of those kids attracted to science, I can tell you that these visits are fantastic fuel in young minds to dream about a career in science and technology.

Cheers,