Who is responsible for ensuring food security in NSW?

An aerial close-up of a hand choosing a red tomato from a box of many

The double crises of COVID-19 and catastrophic bushfires in 2020 exposed underlying fragilities in Australia’s food security, particularly with the sustainability of local supply chains and access to affordable, healthy food in vulnerable populations. Addressing food insecurity offers a visible path towards achieving health equity for Australians, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically diverse, and low-income populations, who are particularly vulnerable.

This report asks, who is responsible for ensuring food security and resilient food systems in NSW? To address this, we reviewed NSW food policy, particularly as it pertains to the sustainability and resilience of Sydney’s peri urban food system. Moreover, food security is a key determinant of health and an indicator of economic stability of households. We define a resilient peri-urban food system as one that firstly ensures food security (food is accessible, affordable and healthy and desirable) and secondly, that it is produced and distributed sustainably (including sufficient local production, safe, environmentally sustainable, supporting farmer livelihoods, contributing to the economy).

Sydney peri-urban food production is under threat from competing economic interests. Our high-level review suggests that economic contribution is the dominant lens through which food systems are viewed. The core purpose of Sydney’s –or any region’s – food system is arguably, 'healthy diets for everyone, produced sustainably' but the current overriding focus on economic value contributes to an undervaluing of other key attributes and functions of the system. It also risks the further loss of important agricultural land to activities with a higher short-term economic value. In Sydney’s peri-urban areas for example, planning laws favour highest economic value land use – typically residential development – over agriculture and rising peri-urban land prices are causing some farmers to sell.

In addition to the need to better value the core attributes of Sydney’s food system, we contend that the food systems that underpin the resilience of our cities, State, and nation necessitate a reframing under a holistic governance architecture. There is no comprehensive, unifying and coherent food policy in NSW that adequately recognises and governs all aspects of a functioning, sustainable food system. Many different policies relate to different parts of the food system, but there are crucial gaps, particularly in relation to affordability of fresh food and environmental sustainability of local food production. The absence of a coherent policy may undermine the security of the system as a whole and its ability to deliver nutritious diets for Sydney residents, particularly vulnerable populations.

The governance of food systems is also fragmented, with different departments and jurisdictions having responsibility for different aspects of the system. No single department or jurisdiction has clear responsibility for oversight of the system as a whole. Monitoring and feedback on the system as a whole, which is essential for any well-functioning system, is therefore absent. This fragmentation of governance reflects the absence of a comprehensive food policy.

In the absence of a coherent policy, important aspects of management of the food system tend to be left to the market. This was evident during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis when responsibility for maintaining food supplies fell to private sector players, including the availability of special provisions for vulnerable groups such as the elderly (such as dedicated shopping periods). Charitable organisations were also required to plug gaps in food affordability for newly and already vulnerable groups.

Even before the double crises, inequitable access to nutritious foods – a risk factor for non-communicable chronic diseases – has been contributing to Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the largest disease burden in Australia of preventable, lifestyle related diseases. This may be viewed as an illustration of the types of issue associated with the absence of coherent and holistic food systems governance, that adequately balances and links all food system functions to healthy communities.

While crises can exacerbate and highlight systemic issues, disruption can also drive innovation and create the impetus to re-evaluate and re-set systems for greater sustainability and resilience. There is support for the idea of ‘building back better’ – using the necessary post-pandemic period of economic recovery as an opportunity to do things differently and better. This paper briefly discusses the disruptions in Australia’s food systems exposed and exacerbated by COVID-19. It suggests that NSW’s COVID-19 recovery effort provides the opportunity to critically assess food security and policy with a view to addressing known fragilities and systemic issues for the long-term. This would ensure that our food systems are sustainable and our communities are more resilient to future crises and have access to healthy foods in order to prevent non-communicable diseases caused by poor diets and physical inactivity, such as Type 2 diabetes mellitus and heart disease.

The report identifies and briefly articulates three clear next steps on a way forward to ensure food security and the resilience of food systems in Sydney and NSW, summarised as: