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The future of Australia's food

By Claire Parfitt and Nick Rose - posted Thursday, 22 September 2011


Leaders of the G20 met last week to talk about why we need more support for agricultural research.

This follows the June "action plan" that advocated more food production "on a sustainable basis" and "improving the quality and diversity of agricultural production".

We cautiously welcome the G20's acknowledgement of the importance of agroecology for the future of farming. The United Nations' (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food made similar findings in his report, released in March this year.

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Environmental sustainability is one important consideration. The intensification and industrialisation of agriculture over the last few decades has brought a factory-style approach to farming. Monocultures have replaced biodiversity; chemical inputs have replaced natural fertilisers and pest control; crops and livestock are segregated. These developments have accelerated the depletion of our natural resources and have undermined the profitability of farming for large numbers of farmers.

The UN acknowledges that the world's food needs will best be served by agroecological systems, which are both low-carbon and resource-enhancing.

Agroecology - 'the application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agroecosystems', in the words of world expert Miguel Altieri - enables agriculture to mimick natural systems and to use the beneficial relationships between components of the agroecosystem. Some of the key methods and practices in agroecology include "recycling nutrients and energy on the farm, rather than introducing external inputs; integrating crops and livestock; diversifying species and genetic resources in agroecosystems over time and space; and focusing on interactions and productivity across the agricultural system, rather than focusing on individual species".

Agroecology should be a key focus of the G20 discussions on support for agricultural research if we are to move to sustainable farming systems worldwide. Agroecology is knowledge-intensive, so farmers need support, training and research to develop these systems. This is particularly true in countries like Australia, where the average age of farmers is continually increasing, and valuable knowledge, skills and expertise are rapidly disappearing with passing generations. An estimated 60% of Australian farmers are expected to retire in the next decade, and disturbingly little thought has been given as to who will replace them.

Australian farmers face some of the greatest challenges in agriculture. Dryland salinity covers one–third of farming land in Western Australia. Reliance on chemical fertilisers and pesticides is costing farmers more and more, and killing the life in our soils. Water scarcity and poor water quality is a growing problem in places like the Murray-Darling basin. Climate change promises to bring more extreme and variable weather events.

While there is no quick fix, the good news is that Australians are among the world's leaders in agroecology. Permaculture, with its emphasis on polycultures, micro-climates, companion planting and nitrogen-fixing, is one of our home-grown versions. Bio-dynamic agriculture, and mixed cropping and livestock systems are another. Innovative farmers and researchers around the country are finding many new ways to farm and to develop more resilient agricultural and natural systems. (Check out this video of livestock rotation in Victoria to restore soil fertility.)

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Unfortunately, the research agenda for agriculture in Australia, as in many other countries is driven by the interests of multinational agrifood / agrichemical companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and others. For example, research on plant breeding trends in Australia shows that programs for most of the major crops, such as wheat and canola, are increasingly dominated by private interests. A lack of government support for science drives university and other public researchers into partnerships with industry, meaning that research priorities are driven for the profit of these companies rather than for the benefit of farmers and communities.

Agroecology reduces chemical use and the costs of inputs for farmers. As Altieri says, the whole philosophy of agroecology is to build 'agricultural systems in which ecological interactions and synergisms between biological components provide the mechanisms for the system to sponsor its own soil fertility, productivity and crop protection'. It is explicitly intended to foster greater levels of autonomy and self-determination amongst all farmers, but most especially small-scale and peasant farmers, based on increasing levels of shared knowledge, contextualised to specific localities and ecosystems.

Genuine agroecology, as conceived above by Altieri, therefore reduces the dependency of farmers on expensive purchased external inputs: seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fossil fuels. As such, it comes into direct conflict with the profit and accumulation interests of the agri-chemical giants that dominate the input end of the global capitalist food system. For this reason, agroecology as a genuinely liberating practice should not be simplistically confused with certified organic production, or fair trade labels. Altieri makes the point well:

"Organic farming systems that do not challenge the monocultural nature of plantations and that rely on external inputs and expensive foreign certification seals and fair-trade systems destined only for agro-export offer very little to peasants and small farmers, who become dependent on external inputs and foreign and volatile markets."

Aurélie Carimentrand and Jérôme Ballet have made instructive comments regarding certified organic and 'fair trade' produce in Bolivia, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. High costs associated with certification, invasive compliance monitoring, decontextualised standards and the involvement of large agrifood firms have exacerbated inequalities between producers, negatively impacting on smaller producers, and contributed to environmental degradation.

It is worrying to see, in the comments made by the G20 leaders last week and in the summary of the meeting, a focus on "open markets" and public-private partnerships. Mark Holderness, Executive Director, Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) asks "Does a country want to see a vibrant rural economy based on smallholders, or does it prefer to focus on cash crops for export?"

As Altieri indicates, export-oriented cash crops are a central feature of the broken food system that has left us with higher agricultural production than ever and one billion people still hungry.

The G20's June action plan and the output from their meeting last week rightly point out that smallholder producers make up the majority of global agricultural production and that local production is central to "building resilience of societies, enhancing food supply capacities". Privileging profit, private interests and "free trade" is in direct contradiction to what hundreds of millions of farmers and members of rural and urban communities around the world have been calling for over the past two decades through the growing Food Sovereignty movement.

Sustainable agriculture has to be economically and socially sustainable as well as ecologically sustainable. By empowering farmers and communities to assert control over their food systems, Food Sovereignty reveals the path to genuinely sustainable food and agricultural systems.

The fact that one billion people remain hungry despite the world producing enough food for 12 billion people demonstrates that hunger is caused by deep and entrenched inequalities in food distribution and access. Given that two million Australians, including a million children, are affected by food insecurity each year, Food Sovereignty – democratically re-ordering the food system so that it serves human and environmental need, not corporate profit - is something for us all to be concerned about.

Already in Western Sydney, we are seeing battles over access to and control of agricultural land. The Sydney Basin currently provides 80% of NSW's perishable fresh foods. If property developers are successful in acquiring this land, many of us may no longer have such ready access to fresh food.

In the Liverpool Plains, rural communities are battling mining companies over coal seam gas drilling which could contaminate a huge chunk of the state's water supply, rendering agricultural impossible in many key food-producing areas.

Food Sovereignty means building local production capacity, strong and supportive relationships between the city and the country, and production methods that preserve our resources for the future.

There are many ways in which those of us who are concerned about the future of our food and food systems can take action today to start making meaningful changes. Community-shared agriculture enterprises, like Food Connect and Ceres Fair Food, support farmers by providing a fair and steady income, and deliver fresh, organic food to consumers in the urban areas. Shopping at farmers' markets ensures that more money goes directly to producers, and begins to redress the unaccountable power of Australia's retailers. Joining one of the many hundreds of community gardens across Australia, or growing some of your own food, are empowering actions that connect you with your land and the broader community. These are all important steps in the direction towards fair, sustainable and diverse food futures.

In the bigger picture, we need to build a national food and social movement that unites the millions of Australians currently disenfranchised, not only from how our food is produced and distributed, but from the general direction and priorities of the economy as a whole. Amongst other priorities, this movement needs to call for governments to put our interests before those of mining companies, agri-chemical companies and property developers.

Let's see governments around the world investing public money to promote the public good of sustainable agriculture, and fair and democratic food systems. Let's see support for small farmers rather than for agri-business and mining companies. Let's see a world in which we all have access to safe, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food whose production doesn't harm our environment or destabilise the climate, and which promotes social and economic justice.

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About the Authors

Claire Parfitt is a Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, but the views expressed are her own.

Nick Rose is the Coordinator of the Bellingen Community Gardens Association and is the National Coordinator of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance’.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Claire Parfitt
All articles by Nick Rose

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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