The professor again has highlighted an issue that has been on the table for a decade - and we are no closer to addressing it. The National Farmer's Federation has for some time lobbied the Government to tackle the problems, seemingly without tangible success.

Some people deny there is a problem, but it would be prudent to acknowledge the climate is changing and is starting to bite and impact our daily lives more and more. It would have helped if our government was more proactive or progressive in tackling national/international issues as this. They haven't.

The next government will have acknowledge the problem, then start to address them.

Julian, I fear that you are concentrating entirely on only one side of the equation; that of matching food production to demand. We surely also need to concentrate, in fact more so than anything else, on stabilising the demand.

If we don’t do that, even the most brilliant and efficient food production efforts will simply facilitate an ever-increasing population….and a continued move away from sustainability.

The key surely is not to maximise agricultural potential, but to learn to live within the means of a well-below-optimum production regime.

Just imagine the sort of expense and effort that would be required to greatly boost Australia’s food production, not to mention the environmental degradation.

Weigh that up against the simple stabilisation of our population, and even a gradual reduction. If we could just get our collective headspace off of the absurdity of automatic unquestioned continuous population growth and onto a genuine sustainability ethic, then we could easily achieve this.

Of course, both increases in food supply and stabilisation of demand should be happening. But the latter is surely far more important.

There are a number of points here that need addressing.

I read somewhere that Indonesia's population will hit 500 million
in 50 years or so, as many still can't afford family planning.
Well yup, there will be those kinds of problems, with those kinds
of populations. Its the same in Africa. Send them more food,
you get more babies, so just producing more food is not the answer,
it leads to even greater problems. Why can't every woman on the
planet at least be offered family planning?

Secondly, food at the farmgate is still so cheap, that its nearly
more valuable as "carfood". As energy for MVs becomes more expensive,
energy for people is bound to be dragged into the equasion.

Julian is correct, r&d in agriculture is being ignored, but so
are invasive species taking over large parts of Australia etc.

Fact is these things are not easy vote catchers, like new football
stadiums or baby bonuses, of another 5$ for pensioners, so they
are ignored. The votes are in the cities and city people most of
the time don't have the foggiest about what is happening in country
areas.

Sadly it seems that people need pain to learn and people will only
value agriculture a little more, when their food prices eventually
skyrocket, but by then the damage will have already been done.

ludwig, i believe this guy is onto something: "we're producing less food than we're eating." this can only mean cannibalism. what a simple solution to all our problems, just feed the pollies to the hungry masses!

While funding may be faltering, it's not really the case that no ground-breaking work is being done on sustainable agriculture.

One very promising "new" idea is adapted from ancient native South American soil-management practice. It promises to boost soil productivity with reduced water and nutrient requirements by harnessing the carbon cycle with activated charcoal. It is *precisely* the "cold burn" forest fuel management technique beloved of our own perseus, but writ large on agricultural soils.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2012892.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terra_preta
http://www.biochar-international.org/aboutbiochar.html

Believe it or not, it also seems to have the effect of reducing nitrous oxide emissions from the growing plants.

Demos impugns, "we're producing less food than we're eating" and suggests “this can only mean cannibalism.” LOL

Cribb actually said, “It means (see chart), year on year, humanity now eats more than it produces.”

The world’s stockpile of grain stocks has been diminishing for the reasons the prof gives.

This is costly, in more ways than one, and the trend is clearly unsustainable.