Foodprint Melbourne: Building the Resilience of Melbourne’s Food System (Short)
Summary
TLDRIn this lecture, Rachel Carey from the University of Melbourne discusses the vulnerabilities of Australia's food system, exposed by COVID-19 and the 2020 bushfires. Despite being a food exporter, Australia's food security is not as robust as perceived, with issues like labor shortages, food waste, and supply chain disruptions. Carey emphasizes the need for a resilient food system, advocating for diverse, local food supply chains, circular food economies, and sustainable production methods to ensure future food security.
Takeaways
- 🌏 Australia, despite its food production capacity, has experienced food security challenges during events like COVID-19 and the 2020 bushfires.
- 🛒 Images of empty supermarket shelves during these events highlighted the vulnerabilities in the food supply chain.
- 🌱 The country's narrative of food security masks underlying vulnerabilities in the food system.
- 🔄 The food system's resilience is about its ability to withstand shocks, adapt to changes, and transform for long-term resilience.
- 📊 The Foodprint Melbourne project reveals the impacts of COVID-19 and bushfires on the food system, including labor shortages and disruptions in food distribution.
- 🚚 The bushfires caused significant crop and livestock losses, affected crop yields due to smoke haze, and increased transport costs.
- 🏭 COVID-19 led to reduced capacities in food processing and manufacturing, and increased food loss and waste due to power outages.
- 🌾 There's a need to rebuild regional and local food supply chains to strengthen the resilience of Melbourne's food system.
- ♻️ Building circular food economies and promoting sustainable production systems can contribute to a more resilient food system.
- 🌐 A resilient food system should draw on diverse, sustainable farming approaches and not rely heavily on external inputs.
- 🏛️ Governments need to recognize access to appropriate food as a fundamental human right and ensure citizens can realize this right, even during shocks and stresses.
Q & A
What is Rachel Carey's role at the University of Melbourne?
-Rachel Carey is a lecturer in Food Systems in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
What misconception does Rachel Carey address about food security in Australia?
-Rachel Carey addresses the misconception that Australia is always food secure, highlighting instances like the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 bushfires where this was not the case.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the food system according to the transcript?
-The COVID-19 pandemic has placed stress on the food system in various ways, revealing vulnerabilities such as labor shortages, disruptions to food manufacturing and processing, and challenges in supermarket distribution.
What is the significance of the celery crop image mentioned in the transcript?
-The image of the celery crop being dug back into the ground signifies the impact of labor shortages due to COVID-19, leading to food waste and highlighting the vulnerability of the food system.
What does Rachel Carey suggest is needed for a more nuanced conversation about the food system?
-Rachel Carey suggests that a more nuanced conversation is needed about matching food supply with a healthy, sustainable diet that people might want to consume in the future.
What does resilience in the food system mean according to the transcript?
-Resilience in the food system means the ability to withstand shocks and stresses, adapt to changing circumstances, and transform to build longer-term resilience to future shocks and stresses.
What is the Foodprint Melbourne project and how does it relate to the discussion on food system resilience?
-The Foodprint Melbourne project is a research initiative led by Rachel Carey, which involves interviewing stakeholders about the impacts of COVID-19 and the 2020 bushfires on the food system, aiming to understand and improve its resilience.
How does urban development threaten food growing areas around Melbourne?
-Urban development threatens food growing areas around Melbourne by encroaching on farmland due to the city's rapidly growing population, potentially reducing the area available for food production.
What are some of the key features of a resilient food system according to the transcript?
-Key features of a resilient food system include diversity, adaptability, innovation, and strong networks and collaboration at all levels, which enable quick responses and adaptation during disasters.
What actions and policies are suggested to build the resilience of the food system for the long term?
-Actions and policies suggested to build resilience include rebuilding regional and local food supply chains, protecting farmland and natural water resources, building circular food economies, promoting resilient and sustainable production systems, and addressing insecure employment and low wages in the food industry.
Why is it important to focus on local and regional food supply chains according to the transcript?
-Focusing on local and regional food supply chains is important because it can provide economic benefits, support local farmers, and ensure a more diverse and resilient food system that is less reliant on longer global supply chains.
Outlines
🌏 Food Security Challenges in Australia
Rachel Carey, a lecturer in Food Systems at the University of Melbourne, discusses the misconception of Australia as a food-secure nation. Despite being a significant food exporter, recent events like COVID-19 and the 2020 bushfires have exposed vulnerabilities in the food system. Carey points out that while supermarket shelves are typically full, sudden consumer demand can lead to temporary shortages. She also highlights issues like the waste of crops due to labor shortages and the reliance on imported food during crises. The lecture emphasizes the need for a more nuanced conversation about food system resilience, considering both production capacity and the ability to meet a healthy, sustainable diet.
🌱 Building Resilient Food Systems for the Future
The second paragraph delves into the characteristics of a resilient food system, as identified by Carey's research. She suggests that a resilient system should be diverse, adaptive, and innovative, as demonstrated during the pandemic. The centralization of distribution and processing facilities poses risks, and the importance of trust-based networks for rapid response and adaptation is highlighted. Carey proposes 'no regrets' actions to strengthen the food system's resilience, such as rebuilding local food supply chains, protecting farmland and water resources, and promoting circular food economies. She also advocates for sustainable production systems that are less dependent on external inputs and better adapted to climate change. The need to address employment and working conditions in the food industry, as well as redesigning food relief systems, is emphasized to ensure access to a healthy and sustainable diet for all.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Food security
💡Resilience
💡Urban encroachment
💡Climate change
💡Food loss and waste
💡Local and regional food supply chains
💡Labour shortages
💡Circular food economy
💡Food relief
💡Sustainable farming
Highlights
Australia is often perceived as food secure, but recent events like COVID-19 and bushfires have exposed vulnerabilities in the food system.
Supermarket shelves were not always full during the pandemic, indicating supply chain challenges.
There were instances of crops being wasted due to labor shortages for harvesting.
International students faced food insecurity, queuing for assistance at Melbourne's Town Hall.
The narrative of Australia's food security masks underlying vulnerabilities in the food system.
If the population were to consume recommended amounts of vegetables, current production would be insufficient.
The need for a nuanced conversation about matching food supply with a healthy, sustainable diet.
Food system resilience involves withstanding shocks, adapting to changes, and building long-term resilience.
The Foodprint Melbourne project interviews stakeholders on the impacts of COVID-19 and bushfires on the food system.
Food growing areas near Melbourne are at risk due to urban development and a growing population.
Climate change leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events affecting food production.
The food system has shown resilience during recent shocks, but vulnerabilities have been exposed.
Impacts of the 2020 bushfires included livestock and crop losses, and disruptions to food distribution.
COVID-19 has led to labor shortages, reduced capacity in food processing, and increased food waste.
The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of food relief systems in addressing widespread food insecurity.
The food system needs to be more resilient with diverse, adaptive, and innovative supply chains.
There's a need to rebuild regional and local food supply chains and protect farmland and water resources.
Promoting circular food economies and sustainable production systems can strengthen food system resilience.
It's crucial to source food from diverse types of sources, including local, national, and global suppliers.
Addressing insecure employment and poor working conditions in the food industry is key to building resilience.
Redesigning food relief systems to ensure all Victorians have access to a healthy and sustainable diet is urgent.
Governments must recognize access to appropriate food as a fundamental human right and ensure its realization.
COVID-19 presents a transformational moment for systemic change in the food system.
Protecting land and water resources on the fringe of Melbourne is essential for a resilient food system.
Locally produced food is a neglected but critical part of a more resilient food system.
Transcripts
Hello, I'm Rachel Carey. I'm a lecturer in Food Systems in the Faculty of
Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne. We tend to think of
Melbourne, and Australia, as being places that are food secure. So we often hear about how
Australia produces enough food to feed around 60 million people, many more than we need to feed,
and we often see that the supermarket shelves are generally full of food all year round. But in the
last year, during COVID-19 and during the 2020 bushfires, that hasn't always been the case, and
sometimes we've seen images of empty supermarket shelves when there was sudden consumer demand
for food and it took supermarkets a while to catch up with that demand; or images like this one,
of a hundred and fifty thousand dollar celery crop being dug back into the ground because
of a shortage of seasonal workers to pick that crop; or images like this one, of international
students who are queueing outside the Town Hall in Melbourne. COVID-19 has placed stress
on the food system in many different ways and it's revealed some of the cracks, some of the places
that the food system is currently vulnerable. It's certainly true that we produce a lot of food;
we're a big food exporter. This narrative that we have, about Australia being a food secure country,
it masks some of those areas where the food system is more vulnerable underneath. So,
in fact, if people were to actually eat as many vegetables as we recommended, we wouldn't have
enough vegetables to meet those needs. I think we need to have a more nuanced conversation
about the food system and also about how it is that we match up our food supply with the
type of healthy, sustainable diet that we might want people to be consuming in future as well.
So, by resilience we mean, broadly, that the food system is able to withstand shocks and stresses.
It's also about the capacity of the food system to adapt to the changing circumstances and to
transform to build longer-term resilience to future shocks and stresses. This talk draws
on the findings of a research project that I lead at the University of Melbourne called the
Foodprint Melbourne project. And as part of this research, what we've been doing is we've been
interviewing stakeholders about how COVID-19 and the 2020 bushfires have affected the food system.
And this is the region that we've been looking at: so it's an area around 100 kilometres
outside of Melbourne's CBD. But food growing areas in this region are at risk of urban development,
of urban encroachment into farmland on Melbourne's fringe as a result of Melbourne's rapidly growing
population. Climate change is leading to more frequent and more severe, extreme weather events,
like bushfires, floods and droughts. Really, our food system has coped relatively well during
these recent shocks and stresses; for the most part, most people have had access to enough good
supplies of food. But the impacts of these shocks highlight some of the places that the food system
is vulnerable. Some of the cracks have appeared. And these impacts include things like a decrease
in the amount of some foods produced due to crop losses and livestock losses,
labour shortages that can affect some types of foods being harvested, a reduction in capacity of
some types of food manufacturing and processing, and disruption to supermarket distribution centres
and to food freight. So the major bushfire event in early 2020 had impacts throughout
the food system. And they include significant livestock and crop losses, and also smoke haze
affected the productivity and yield of some types of crops. Road closures and major supply routes
led to higher transport costs and forced freight and trucks to find new routes. And many people in
fire affected areas experienced difficulties in accessing food, particularly vulnerable
population groups, and there were widespread food relief efforts in the aftermath. There was also
increased food loss and waste due to power outages. And more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic
has had other impacts throughout the food system. There are labour shortages on farms in Victoria;
supermarket distribution centres, abattoirs and some types of food processing and manufacturing
have had their capacity reduced to around 60 to 70 percent. International and state
border closures have also disrupted road and air and sea freight. We also saw, of course,
demand surges in supermarkets, and there's also been an increase in food loss and waste
on-farm. COVID-19 has really highlighted the fragility of our existing systems of food
relief for addressing widespread food insecurity during events like COVID-19. I think there was
beginning to be a shift, I think, that COVID-19, for instance, has had an impact in terms of
a higher level of awareness about the fact that our systems of - our food supply systems are more
vulnerable than we might first have thought. For the first time some of us have seen empty
supermarkets shelves or have, you know, been aware that we're not always able to get the food that we
want, when we want it. And I think that's been a bit of a wake-up call. So it's really about,
you know, looking to the future, thinking about the stresses that we're likely to face,
and saying "what can we do now, what actions should we take now to ensure that we have a secure
food supply for what is still a rapidly growing city?" So what are these experiences of bushfires
in COVID-19 telling us about the features of food systems likely to be resilient into the future?
There are limits to our ability now to plan for all eventualities, and so it's important that we
start to take actions that are going to build the resilience of the food system no matter what type
of shock or stress comes along next. So our research suggests that a more resilient food
system is likely to have a number of key features: one is that the system is likely to be diverse.
Resilient food supply chains are also adaptive and they're innovative, and we saw this during
COVID-19. The pandemic's also highlighted the risk of centralised supermarket distribution centres
and processing facilities. Our interviewees have also emphasised how important networks and
collaboration are at all levels to more resilient food systems. Existing networks of stakeholders
that are built on relationships of trust enable quick responses and enable rapid adaptation when
disasters happen. So what types of "no regrets" actions and policies might we want to build the
resilience of the food system for the longer term? One is that we need to rebuild regional and local
food supply chains. We're incredibly lucky in Melbourne that we are situated within a highly
productive food bowl. It's really important that we now protect the farmland and the natural water
resources that are on the city fringe as well. Another opportunity to strengthen the resilience
of Melbourne's food system is to build circular food economies that close the loop and use natural
resources efficiently by reusing city waste on local farms. Another way is to promote resilient
and sustainable production systems that don't rely heavily on external inputs like synthetic
fertilisers and fossil fuels, and that are well adapted to the impacts of climate change.
A resilient food system is likely to draw on many diverse types of sustainable farming approaches,
each adapted to different contexts so we're not putting all our eggs in one basket and betting
on just one type of sustainable farming approach for the future. It's really important for a more
resilient food system that we're able to source food from different types of sources. Obviously,
national food supplies are really important. Global food suppliers are also important and
in fact food prices would have risen much more in Australia during the millennium drought than
they did if we weren't importing food, so that's a really important part of our food system. But I
think that we relied on those longer food supply chains quite heavily and we've neglected the
importance of our short, local and regional food supply chains. So it's really important now to
start to fill that gap, to start to rebuild those local regional food supply chains. And of course,
there are multiple benefits that we can get from that as well, including, of course, economic
benefits and supporting local farmers. Another opportunity to build resilience in the food system
is to address insecure employment, low wages and poor working conditions in the food industry. Most
importantly, there's an urgent need to redesign systems of food relief so that all Victorians have
access at all times to a healthy, sustainable and culturally appropriate diet. If we accept that one
of the most basic goals of the food system should be to ensure that everyone has access to enough
healthy and sustainably produced food, then it's fair to say the current food system is failing.
An important part of resetting that system is for governments at all levels to recognise access to
appropriate food as a fundamental human right and to examine their role in ensuring that all
citizens are able to realise that right and also to realise that right through shocks and stresses
to the food system. And lastly, many interviewees in our research highlighted that COVID-19 is a
transformational moment with potential for deep systemic change for our food system, as in many
other areas of our lives, if we leverage the opportunities. So how should we seize this moment
to redesign our food system so that it's resilient in the face of increasing shocks and stresses and
so that it achieves its most basic and fundamental purpose of ensuring that everybody, at all times,
has access to enough healthy, culturally appropriate and sustainably produced food?
I think the one thing that we really like people, everybody, to understand is just
to recognise that we are living in a, perhaps, a less certain environment than we have in the
past and we - I think we all recognise that we are - there are more shocks and stresses
that are affecting many different aspects of our lives, climate-related shocks are already here,
you know, we're seeing them. And I think some of the most important things that we
really like to see is just that we ensure that we protect the land, protect the water resources,
on the fringe of Melbourne, ensure that we are no longer moving into areas of highly
productive soil to build housing estates. It just doesn't make sense from a long-term point
of view. Locally produced food is just one part of a more resilient food system, but it is a part
that we've neglected in the past. I think it makes sense to focus a lot more on that in the future.
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