Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—Food security is one of the most important challenges we face today. It is increasingly clear that the world is experiencing an unprecedented challenge to the security of its food supplies with food shortages triggering dramatic rises in food prices in Australia and internationally. This setting comes against a projected world population of 9.2 billion by 2050, increased demand for higher protein foods, continued subsistence farming in many nations and smaller average harvests around the world as the climate changes,

At one level, agriculture is the most local of all activities. It is reliant on the very land of the nation. However, at the moment, the three biggest factors in the world also happen to be fundamental to agriculture: the global financial crisis, the global food crisis and climate change.

On Remembrance Day yesterday, we acknowledged those Australians who contributed to our war efforts. At the end of the Second World War, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers was formed. This week the federation has been meeting in Canberra. At the same time that the new federation was being formed, new organisations were being established throughout the world—the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. There was an immediate understanding that, for these organisations to serve the people of the world best, the people who produce the food on which the people of the world rely had to be well represented.

That central belief and central tenet of making sure that food producers were a critical part of the new international framework represents the birth of the IFAP organisation whose members met here in Canberra this week. IFAP’s role has been critical through two generations now, from the period post war when in so many ways so many countries in the world, particularly in Europe, were becoming very hungry places to be. At a time now when we are dealing with food shortages in a new way, following globalisation, we find ourselves dealing with these concepts as a global phenomenon, not simply a local one.

The continued expansion of populations in China and India will continue to drive long-term demand for our primary produce, both for our food and for our fibre. Since the global financial crisis hit, there has been less talk about the global food crisis. In this environment, some of the immediate pressures with the global food crisis have eased slightly. However, it would be a mistake to think that the issues we were talking about a few months ago have in any way disappeared.

The global food crisis was described, particularly in the North American media, as being something that occurred largely because of biofuels decisions in North America. This was an incorrect analysis. The biofuels decisions in North America, particularly ethanol from corn production, may have caused us to get to a crisis more quickly, but we were always heading to this point, and the major structural pressures that were causing pressure on global food supply remain.

Those pressures are affected by lower average harvests. Harvests go up and down each year obviously. But lower average harvests are affected around the world by climate change. They also go to more major weather events—the most recent highly publicised one was in Burma, where major weather events are having a major effect on staple food crops.

Beyond that, though, one of the most fundamental changes which does not get looked at nearly enough is a good thing, and that is that the developing world is getting wealthier. As people get wealthier, there is a standard change that they want to make every time, and that is they want more protein in their diet. They want more meat. And when people increase the demand for meat and meat production starts to increase throughout the world a few things logically follow.

Land that was previously used for cropping is handed over to livestock. The remaining land still used for cropping is used increasingly for stock feed rather than the direct production of staples for consumption. All of that means that on the same parcel of land you are feeding fewer people unless you are making productivity gains. As somebody who is a dear lover of red meat, I acknowledge that people are better fed in this circumstance. But notwithstanding that, without productivity gains you are feeding fewer people and that puts a necessary increase in the value of food and starts to create a scarcity of supply.

The other thing that occurs in nations as they become wealthier and increase their demand for protein in their diet is that they have tended to restructure every part of their economy except for their agriculture. At some point you would imagine this would change. But there are very few signs of it yet. In many nations that are starting to become wealthier, their farming sector continues to look very much like subsistence farming.

That creates both responsibility and opportunity for a nation like Australia. It does create responsibility for agencies like the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) to make sure that they are in the poorest nations in the world helping them with the technology to be able to better feed their populations.

The poorest nations in the world sometimes are the victims of aid programs in the sense that a badly targeted aid program can wipe out the livelihoods of all the local farmers by causing them to lose their own market. An agency such as ACIAR in Australia does very important work in making sure that, for the poorest nations in the world, they are not just getting their food supplied through direct aid and through direct provision of food. Rather, ACIAR helps to ensure they are generating their own food supply and learning how to feed their populations.

For the large middle-ranking part of the market out there, food scarcity is an extraordinary opportunity for an exporting nation like Australia. It does mean there are nations where they can afford to buy our produce. But they would buy it at a premium. The government has tried at every opportunity to make clear within Australia we should not simply look at the global food crisis as being an aid issue but also as a productivity issue.

For the poorest nations in the world aid is relevant. And for the poorest nations of the world technology transfer is relevant as well. But there is no end of wealthy nations which will simply demand more of our produce. Part of our response has to be a productivity improvement. Part of our response has to be to produce more food and produce more fibre and take advantage of a deeply significant market opportunity that is there right now for a nation like ours.

The bottom line is that the world is facing a new global food production environment. It is an environment that is constrained by the availability of natural resources and by the uncertainty of a changing climate.

Climate change brings major challenges that we have to deal with—challenges that affect our primary industries directly:

• warmer temperatures
• longer and deeper droughts, and
• more frequent extreme weather events including biosecurity challenges.

And this is a challenge that will impact all nations. All countries must respond to climate change. But, in Australia, we will be hit harder and faster by the impacts of climate change than most nations.

Amid the worst drought on record, it is obvious how vulnerable our primary industries are to those impacts. The seriousness of the challenge was illustrated to me through a report by the CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology that I commissioned as part of the national review of drought policy. This study—the first of three stages in the review—looked at the impact of climate change on the nature and frequency of exceptional climatic events.

It dealt with a range of projections and it covered three areas:

how often we will get exceptionally hot years,

what is likely to happen with rainfall patterns, and

what is likely to happen with soil moisture.

In the report’s high-end predictions, events of extreme temperature that used to happen every 20 or so years nationwide will occur every other year by 2040. Droughts would occur twice as often and over double the area they currently cover. Worst case scenarios are always open to debate, but the base projections are consistent from this and other studies: longer and deeper droughts, and more of them. That has obvious implications for our current drought policy settings which we are addressing through the national review.

The key thing to recognise with these projections is that they all carry the same theme: the changing climate will bring us challenges that are much tougher than any we have faced in the past. The World Bank has estimated that increased food prices have pushed an additional 100 million people globally into poverty. And for the 1.4 billion people already living in poverty—on less than US$1.25 a day in 2005—their poverty is deepening. It is these people who are being hardest hit.

Recent falls in world food prices provide some relief. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index dropped six per cent in September, falling to a nine-month low. But there is not yet cause to relax. The stark reality is world food prices across all major food and feed commodities are still 51 per cent above their level in September 2006 and are predicted to remain above their pre-2006 levels for some time to come. The FAO points out that the recent reduction in food prices comes largely from contracting demand rather than rising supply.

The financial crisis is slowing global growth. It is reducing confidence and domestic spending in countries throughout the world. This has reduced the demand for food and put further downward pressure on already-falling prices. The lower prices are a welcome relief but developing countries are still highly vulnerable.

The IMF and World Bank have both reported that the effects of the food and fuel price increases are still being felt, despite falling prices. Many developing countries incurred significant costs in responding to the price increases, as well as increased current account deficits and inflation. The current financial crisis is exacerbating their situation by slowing economies and increasing unemployment at a time when the food and fuel price increases have already increased poverty.

So how can we help address the challenges of global food security? Concluding the Doha Round offers us a major opportunity and means to address global food security more effectively by removing distortions to global food markets. It will provide greater opportunities and incentives for farmers to increase productivity and will encourage countries to diversify their supply of food. We must continue to invest in research and development to maintain productivity improvement, increase crop yields and minimise the impact on our environment.

In addition, we need to consider and embrace where relevant new avenues such as biotechnology and new and emerging technologies. We must not be turning our backs on any areas of new technologies able to help with this problem—and I include genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Global action is needed to address the world food crisis. This is why the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has established a team dedicated to working on food security issues. Since May this year the Rudd government has allocated more than A$100 million to improve global food security. This includes a A$50 million contribution to a World Bank trust fund aimed at immediately stimulating agricultural supply in vulnerable countries and A$30 million to the World Food Program’s emergency appeal. It also includes additional assistance to improve food security in Indonesia (A$6.5 million), Ethiopia (A$10 million), Afghanistan (A$12 million) and North Korea (A$3 million).

In addition, the government has taken steps to prepare our agricultural industries to adapt and adjust to the impact of climate change. As we promised at the last election, we have delivered the Australia’s Farming Future initiative. This initiative supports research, development and demonstration projects, communication and awareness-raising activities, training, community networks and capacity building, and adjustment advice and assistance, including for those who make the hardest decision of all and choose to leave farming.

And we are establishing the Regional Food Producers Innovation and Productivity Program which will encourage innovation and improve food productivity for regional food producers and processors in Australia. This program will run over four years and will provide discretionary grants for projects that facilitate innovation, and increase productivity and efficiency of Australian food producers.

These initiatives build on the underlying strengths of the Australian agricultural sector. Most importantly, it is a very dynamic sector with a strong culture of innovation, and commitment to research and development. As a result, our farmers are resilient and adaptable. Similarly, our agricultural scientists are amongst the best in the world. They are well placed to assist not only Australia’s agriculture sector but also countries dominated by tropical and dryland agriculture. Overall, while the global forecast is for difficult times ahead, I believe Australia is well placed to make the most of the changing environment and continue to increase our productivity despite the challenges we face.

Shortly, we will deliver Australia’s message to the world. I will be advocating for Australian agricultural industries and our products. I will raise issues that matter to our farming sector and build productive relationships with our major exporting partners. I will address the 35th Special Session of the Food and Agricultural Organisation, where I will clearly put Australia’s position on FAO reform and the role of that organisation in the food security challenge.

Further, I will hold a number of meetings with industry partners where I will continue to put the case of Australian agriculture and the need to respond to food security and climate change with polices that are practical, responsible and effective. The bottom line is that, wherever you are in the world, it is becoming harder for families to feed themselves. The world needs to act and we need to act now. Our actions need to be targeted, they need to be coordinated and they need to focus on the short, medium and long term.

Australian agriculture is resilient and adaptable. We need to publicly acknowledge the critical role our farmers play as food producers. If we get in front of the game and act decisively, I am certain that Australia’s primary industries will adapt to these challenges and thrive. And the world will continue to look to Australian agriculture as world leaders.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion that would enable the Leader of the Nationals to speak for not a moment more than 14 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Truss (Leader of the Nationals) speaking for a period not exceeding fourteen minutes.

Question agreed to.

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