Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

healthy, being sustainable, and that’s the sort of language we use’, reinforce thisgeneral trend.In Queensland, there has been less concerted action around local or municipal foodsecurity, however, once again, agriculture is seen primarily as a rural activity, albeit oneof the ‘four pillars’ of the state’s economy identified by the recently elected Newmangovernment. There is little evidence that food security is seen as a pressing issuefacing cities within the state, although there has been (until recently) some policyattention given to the potential for greater food production in urban and peri-urbansettings.At the local government level, food security has attracted some political attention inrecent years. Gold Coast City Council for example, identified local food production asan important element in its climate change adaptation strategy and commissioned ascoping study of local food production and purchase (GCCC, 2011). This includedurban food security in a more holistic manner and recognised the environmental,economic and social benefits of developing a more integrated and extensive local foodsystem.In Melbourne, nine local governments were funded to recruit food security officers aspart of a five-year project called Food for All. Food for all aimed to integrate planningwithin and between the nine participating Councils, and its first step was to integratefood security into local government policy. A positive outcome of the project was theincorporation of food security in the Municipal Public Health Plans (or Municipal PublicHealth and Well-being Plans) of many councils. The Project evaluation reported thatthese new plans improved upon previous versions by shifting from a focus on healthyeating and nutrition, into a broader debate about food access, food affordability andfood security. Furthermore, the new plans have ‘a stronger focus on addressing thefactors that underlie food security, such as healthy urban planning, and access toemployment, affordable housing and planning’.Four of the participating councils in Melbourne have now adopted separate foodsecurity policies. One of these, Maribyrnong City Council, defined food security in theFAO and VicHealth terms of guaranteed physical and economic access but,significantly, also acknowledged the likely impacts of climate change and resourceconstraints on food security:The understanding of food security is also moving towards inclusion ofsustainable production methods as a response to the emerging longer-termsustainability issues [Maribyrnong City Council, Food Security Policy, 2011-2013].This suggests the emergence at the local government level of a more holistic andintegrated understanding of the multiple determinants of food security, as reflected inthe diagram below, which appears in the Maribyrnong Food Security Policy. Thesedeterminants were also tested by the Council in extensive public and stakeholderconsultation, which informed the development of the policy.Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 110