With drought and chronic water shortages in the Murray-Darling Basin highlighting how tough it has been for Australian farmers to produce enough food to eat here and sell abroad, and riots caused by food shortages breaking out overseas this year, the inquiry will focus on food production in the face of environmental pressures on farm land and the affordability of food.

The inquiry’s announcement follows a warning from the director general of the International Water Management Institute that there is little chance of feeding the world’s population in coming decades unless global water resources are better managed.

Food shortages have also been on the mind of the Prime Minister, with Kevin Rudd challenging rural delegates at the recent 2020 Summit to plan how Australia can survive the challenges and maximise opportunities from a global shortage of food.

NSW Liberal Senator, Bill Heffernan, will head the new food security inquiry and said carbon markets, climate change’s impact on agriculture, farming inputs, commodity trading, land availability and population growth forecasts would all go under the microscope.

He said for too long the Australian public had taken for granted where its food came from and the easy access to clean and green food.

A new value and priority needed to be given to food production in Australia, to feed the domestic appetite and that of the growing global community.

“There’s been an assumption we have a lot of food in Australia because Australia is a net exporter of produce but with climate change the rule book’s about to be rewritten,” Senator Heffernan said.

“Scientific predictions for the next 50 years say the population will grow to nine billion people from today’s 6.2b, but most of the focus has been on future energy requirements.

“The modelling for food production has been a secondary issue to the point where globally agriculture is in decline.”

From The Land, July 3, 2008.