Submission to the House Standing Committee on Agriculture Inquiry into Food Security in Australia: Sustain: The Australian Food Network

Submission to the House Standing Committee on Agriculture Inquiry into Food Security in Australia

Thank you for inviting submissions to this inquiry into food security in Australia; providing a critical opportunity to create a healthier and more resilient, equitable, and sustainable Australian food system. We note the Terms of Reference requires the House Standing Committee on Agriculture to inquire into and report on food security on a number of matters, including:
1. National production, consumption and export of food;
2. Access to key inputs such as fuel, fertiliser and labour, and their impact on production costs;
3. The impact of supply chain distribution on the cost and availability of food; and
4. The potential opportunities and threats of climate change on food production in Australia.

Sustain: The Australian Food Network (https://sustain.org.au) is a national body and registered health promotion charity, established in January 2016, representing 30 member organisations, including 14 local governments, 30 business and organisational members, and 130 individual members who work together towards building a healthy, sustainable and fair food system that benefits all Australians.

We urge the Committee to consider food security in a comprehensive and integrated sense, examining the real hardship and suffering that millions of Australians currently experience through inadequate and secure access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food. We cannot continue to make the intellectually lazy assumption that because we are a net food exporter that we are therefore food secure, or that somehow food insecurity is a marginal issue. It is not.