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The Sustainability of the Global Food System: A Case Study on Australian Wheat and Indonesian Instant Noodles

This project focuses on the commodity chain of Australian wheat and Indonesian instant noodles in analysing the sustainability of the global food system at a critical time when the world faces multiple crises.

Abstract

The research looks at how rising geopolitical tensions, the sudden contraction world economy since the Covid-19 pandemic, looming environmental disaster and profound social inequality are manifested concretely. More specifically, the project examines how political economy and environmental issues affect public health through the production and consumption of food commodities.  The competing priorities of climate change and food security are centred in the investigation on global interdependencies.  It is demonstrated through Australia’s export with its biggest customers, Indonesia for the production of instant noodles.

The research challenges a siloed and narrow approach to sustainability as it can be characterised in the wheat industry. Instead, this project uses holistic and political economy framework to explore interlinkages and complex relationships between: food and the environment; society and government; and, the local and international. The findings will contribute to debates and policy making in the wheat industry, but also more broadly on the question of sustainability, climate justice, and food sovereignty.

Meet the researcher

elna tulus

Elna has lived in several countries and sees herself as a citizen of the planet.  She is passionate about food justice and her interests are in international politics, history and geography. She enjoys many forms of art and broad range of music genres.  In her spare time, she engages in creative writing inspired from observations of life. She meditates, practices martial art and yoga.

Contact: elna.tulus@student.uts.edu.au

 

Supervisors

Publications

  • Tulus, E. (2021, 17 - 18 November). Discovering positionality through time and space – A story of food sustainability from Australian wheat fields in the time of Indonesian instant noodles. In Swan, E (Chair), Work In Progress Online Symposium. Storying food: gendered, racialised and classed politics and possibilities, The University of Sussex Business School, The Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies (School of Media, Arts and Humanities) & Brighton and Sussex Universities Food Network, UK. 

  • Tulus, E. (2022, 18 - 21 May). Manufactured Vulnerabilities – Unsustainable wheat production in Australia and instant noodles consumption in Indonesia. In Fine, J (Chair), Emerging Issues in Sustainable Agriculture. The Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS) and the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) Conference on Cultivating Connections: Exploring Entry Points into Sustainable Food Systems, University of Georgia’s Sustainable Food System, USA.

  • Tulus, E. (2022, 21 – 25 June). The Taste of World Crises from Indonesian Instant Noodles. In Tulus, E (Moderator), Indonesia in the Global Context.  The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) conference on Indonesian Studies: Emerging Discourses and Collaborations in a New Age Conference, Michigan State University, USA.

  • Tulus, E. (2022, 5 - 8 July). The Dark Side of Global Staple Trade in the case of Australian Wheat & Indonesian Instant Noodles. In Setiawan, K (Chair), International Relations and Australia. The 24th biennial Asian Studies Association Conference: Social Justice in Pandemic Times, Monash University and the Herb Feith Engagement Centre, Australia.