"At the same time around half of Australians are dying as a result of their diets, at enormous cost to those that live."

That's because they're fatty boomba's Julian. WE don't have a shortage of food, we have a surfeit of people with big mouths. We export $40B of food per year and export $6 B due to reciprocal trade agreements.

Right on about educating farmers although in my experience, when it comes to looking after the land, farmers might teach us a thing or two.

This article might have been stronger if it talked about why some eastern European nations have erected trade barriers when it comes to exporting food. There have been food shortages and some crops have failed in Russia and China but the knock on effects have been compounded by some nations not selling food. Why?

Greed.

Good article Julian, but may I add one very important point:

Re-think continuous growth!

The madness of rapid population growth in this country and hence the rapidly increasing demand for food and for income from food exports is integral to our focus on food security and quality.

An ever-increasing demand will undermine, dilute, cancel out or completely overwhelm gains that we could make in rehydrating, revegetating, recarbonising, recycling, renourishing, retraining and re-educating!

Good article, Julian, and on a crucial issue.

But how come you don't mention the most cost-effective anti-famine device of all: the humble condom? Or better still the modern mini pill?

You need to widen your vision and include this in your analysis of the options.

It's not the whole solution of course --there are already enough people to have the world on the edge of famine. But there are 80 million unplanned pregnancies a year in countries where poverty and lack of female education denies many people access to contraception.

Co-incidentally, that 80 million a year is about the rate by which world population is growing. And the latest news is that there is no longer any guarantee the world's population will level off at around 9 billion as we used to hope.

As Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Prize for the Green Revolution, pointed out, what he called "the population monster" is the ultimate problem, and if it is not tamed no technological solutions or social reorganisations will prove adequate.

Rip roarin'remarkable article Julian! But I agree with Livio and Ludwig - we have to deal with the demand as well as the supply side and that means stabilising population as soon as possible. As with climate change, where any increase in population will make it harder to achieve targets, so too any increase in population makes it harder for everyone to be fed with enough calories and nourishment. Stephanie Alexander has made a great start in Australia by introducing kitchen gardens to schools. We have to go beyond that so every school leaver has significant knowledge of gardening/horticulture/agriculture/animal husbandry to enhance food production locally. Come higher oil prices, transporting food medium and long distances may become prohibitive in price.

A good Article but you omitted a very important R

REWARD. Reward our rapidly shrinking pool of Farmers for their efforts. Food within Australia does not necessarily have to become more expensive.. Coles and Woollies margins have to shrink

We keep hearing stories, rarely denied , that the Farm Gate price can be 10% or lower , of the Big Two's selling Price.

Presently our Farmers are being screwed by the BIG TWO as well as by the processors.. Heinz shifting processing of Tomatoes and Beetroots offshore are 2 examples..

Maybe I am missing another R word..

REGULATIONS to ensure REWARD!

Dare I mention SUBSIDITIES as widely practiced amongst the rest of the World ?

Julian
"around half of Australians are dying as a result of their diets".
That's straight out nonsense, however a large portion of deaths may be attributed to the secondary effects of obesity. Diabetes, say. Perhaps you could attribute a portion of cancer deaths to too much red meat in people's diets?

Whatever. but that does not add up to creeping food insecurity for Australia.

As for the high food prices to which you refer, these are in fact due to poor people in India and China finding thsat they have more money, that is becoming less impoverished, and spending it on food. But the high prices won't last. They never do. Food prices have been falling, in real terms, for decades. Show farmers a few dollars and food will come. Don't believe this? Just hang around for a few years and you'll see..

Food security has always been a social issue. Its never had anything to do with imagined limits on production.