{"id":87702,"date":"2024-07-05T06:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=87702"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:43:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T03:43:52","slug":"australia-needs-a-food-security-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-needs-a-food-security-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia needs a food-security strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

A nation that can\u2019t feed itself can\u2019t defend itself. Yet policymakers fail to grasp that food security doesn\u2019t just happen. Food should be recognised for what it is: a fundamental input to Australia\u2019s defence capability and national resilience.<\/p>\n

The 2024 National Defence Strategy, released in April, is not what it claims to be: a strategic framework that \u2018harnesses all arms of Australia\u2019s national power to establish a holistic, integrated and focused approach\u2019 to protect Australia and our interests.<\/p>\n

Its authors, along with those of the 2023 Defence Strategic Review, reframed the narrative of what is needed to defend Australia. The defence of this nation now transcends the Australian Defence organisation and becomes everybody\u2019s responsibility. By introducing the concept of \u2018national power\u2019, it tells us that we all have a role to play in defending our homeland from potential adversaries and increasing climate volatility.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, defence and prosperity of our nation has always been a whole-of-nation and whole-of-government responsibility. It\u2019s just that, now, the fracturing of the post\u2013World War\u00a0II rules-based order has completely distorted our strategic circumstances\u2014so much so that it\u2019s become necessary to drastically rethink our understanding of security and resilience.<\/p>\n

The government is grappling with how to alert an otherwise oblivious population to the potential trouble we might find ourselves in over the coming years and to explain that it\u2019s now necessary to prepare for that trouble like no generation has had to before. To that end, the National Defence Strategy claims to be a holistic and whole-of-nation approach to Australia\u2019s national defence. That\u2019s fine, aside from a fundamental problem: it\u2019s not. The strategy has not transcended with the narrative, and the longer we kid ourselves into thinking that it has, the less time there is to prepare the \u2018rest of us\u2019 to play our role.<\/p>\n

The public version of the strategy applies only to guns, ships, submarines, planes and the technology and people required to operate and support them. It begs the question: where is the plan for the rest-of-nation component of the strategy\u2019s whole-of-nation approach?<\/p>\n

Food security is a prime example. It\u2019s critical for us and our neighbours because we\u2019re living in an age when great-power competition and climate change have overpowered the markets\u2019 ability to assure food security without action. The fact is we aren\u2019t as food secure as we would like to believe; nor does our status as a net exporter of food equate to future food security.<\/p>\n

Our trade exposure and our geography put the food system squarely at the mercy of increasing geostrategic challenges and a rapidly changing geo-economic landscape. This is because our ability to produce enough food and fibre to feed and clothe more than 70 million people worldwide relies on key inputs like fuel, fertiliser, labour, spare parts and technology\u2014all of which we import. More than $31 billion worth of agricultural output can be attributed to the use of crop-protection products, most of which are imported. About 80 percent of Australia\u2019s fertiliser requirements are imported, mostly from North Africa and China. Our liquid fuel<\/a> and maritime shipping<\/a> vulnerabilities are well understood and, in the horticulture sector alone, up to 34 percent of growers are considering leaving the industry due to workforce shortages, growing input costs and reduced margins.<\/p>\n

Our connections to the world are also evolving, as we have prospered under a rules-based system that\u2019s no longer the dominant influence of international trade<\/a>. The decline of that system has also driven the Future Made in Australia Act<\/em>, which the prime minister tells us is a function of needing \u2018to be more assertive in capitalising on our comparative advantages and building sovereign capability in areas of national interest\u2019.<\/p>\n

But it also overlooks the fundamental role that Australia\u2019s agriculture and food system plays in maintaining our social cohesion, our stability and our national security. There are no strategic interventions in that initiative to shore up our basic ability to produce food and fibre. There needs to be, because Australia\u2019s food system is exposed to all the strategic challenges outlined in the National Defence Strategy.<\/p>\n

And, despite our strategic vulnerabilities having been laid bare by a recent government inquiry into food security, there is no visible plan to safeguard it. The inquiry\u2019s recommendations<\/a> included the development of a national food plan to secure our food security and government intervention to target food waste and to support the manufacturing of critical inputs such as fertiliser and chemicals. It also recommends mapping our domestic food supply chain to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities and improve transport resilience. Those recommendations represent an unmissable opportunity to act.<\/p>\n

Renowned psychologist and author Steve Biddulph has written that \u2018our kids will live in far worse times than we have, and our grandchildren even more so.\u2019 That\u2019s a view echoed in the same future that the National Defence Strategy seeks to prepare us for. We should all be driven to improve that future, and food has a fundamental role to play.<\/p>\n

Australia needs a food-security strategy that can dovetail into our nation\u2019s broader national defence and preparedness planning. That strategy can play a key role in Australia\u2019s statecraft, cementing our role as the partner of choice for our neighbours, helping to maintain a stable region and countering the influence of potential adversaries. If we are to accept the narrative that Australia\u2019s national defence now transcends guns, tanks, planes, ships and submarines, then the strategy must go beyond our war-fighting capability and rise to meet this whole-of-nation challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A nation that can\u2019t feed itself can\u2019t defend itself. Yet policymakers fail to grasp that food security doesn\u2019t just happen. Food should be recognised for what it is: a fundamental input to Australia\u2019s defence capability …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1561,"featured_media":87704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,281,3808],"class_list":["post-87702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-australia","tag-food-security","tag-whole-of-nation","dinkus-north-of-26-south"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia needs a food-security strategy | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/australia-needs-a-food-security-strategy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Australia needs a food-security strategy | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A nation that can\u2019t feed itself can\u2019t defend itself. 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