The future of Australia's food

"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.