Recent statistics indicate on current trends Australia will be a net importer of food by 2037, with an alarming amount of what we eat coming from overseas.
A reduction in food and fibre production due to the Basin Plan is considered a key driver, with irrigation industry leaders raising their concerns in Canberra this week.
They said Australia’s food security strategy cannot ignore water as a critical input.
This response came after Agriculture Minister Julie Collins promoted her food security strategy at the National Farmers’ Federation Summit on Tuesday.
National Irrigators’ Council, NSW Irrigators’ Council, Ricegrowers’ Association of Australia, Citrus Australia and Cotton Australia were united in their call that water policy belongs in Australia’s food security conversation.
NSWIC CEO Dr Madeleine Hartley said we need to stop treating healthy rivers and a productive agricultural sector as competing policy objects and start designing policy around both.
“If food security is a national priority, then protecting Australia’s capacity to produce food must be part of every major water policy decision,” she said.
“Water policy is food policy. Australia needs to start treating it that way.”
Newly appointed RGA executive director Perin Davey, of Deniliquin, said food security is not just about access.
“Too often we just think about whether we can access fresh food, but we know that we must also think about whether we can produce our own fresh food,” Ms Davey said.
“When it comes to rice, in a good year we can produce enough domestically to feed 50 million people world-wide.
“But if we get the policy settings wrong, that Australian rice disappears from the supermarket shelves very quickly.
“You can’t ask Australian farmers to maintain high productivity while simultaneously making long-term decisions that reduce their access to the water they need to produce it.
NIC CEO Zara Lowien said “the government is currently consulting on Australia’s first National Food Security Strategy”.
“It should be asking a simple question: is our water policy leaving Australia capable of producing food in the future?,” she continued.
“With current global insecurity, the Australian Government can make the decision to reduce uncertainty for farmers and set stable water policy settings that do not reduce water for farming and optimise the use of environmental water governments now hold.
“Enough is enough, the evidence suggest we need to do more than just add water to achieve sustainability.”
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