Submission to the House Standing Committee on Agriculture Inquiry into Food Security in Australia: Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT), ANU

The Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology (CEAT) at the Australian National University (ANU) is pleased to make a submission to the Federal Parliament Inquiry into Food Security in Australia.

In this submission, we highlight the need to consider the term food security in the context of factors influencing operation of the wider agri-food system. The role of climate change and strategies to improve the resilience of the agri-food system in the face of rising temperatures and extreme weather events is considered. The importance of linking Australia’s ability to produce and export food with global drivers in climate, geopolitics, market demands, technology and demographics are considered. Factors influencing Australia’s ability to produce food are considered, including links to our reliance on supply lines of resources needed to produce livestock and crops. We highlight threats and opportunities to food production created by climate change. The importance of developing a national agri-food resilience strategy is highlighted, as is the need for Australia to reimagine how innovation is funded and conducted in Australia. A recommendation is made for Australia to invest in transformational mission-style projects that address complex, long-term challenges facing Australia’s agri-food sector and to initiate policies and programs that defray risk from changing the current focus of farm and farming systems.