Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

4. RESULTSIn this section we present the main results of the study, drawing on the two mainsources of data: the systematic review of the literature and field research in the twocase study areas of Melbourne and the Gold Coast.4.1 Results from literature reviewThe literature review was organised around seven key questions and these are used tostructure the findings in this section.4.1.1 What do we mean by food security?Australia is a major food-producing nation, with vast areas of land on which to producebulk commodities such as, beef, grain, wool, and sheep meat for export. One of thereasons for the colonisation of Australia by the British was to exploit its naturalresources and food production began soon after the arrival of the First Fleet in the1780s to feed prisoners deported to Australia – with the aim of reducing the burden onBritain of feeding them (Lawrence, Richards and Burch, 2012). Forty years later, foodfrom Australia began to be exported abroad, which led later to the popular conceptionof Australia being a ‘land of plenty’ with an economy that was ‘riding on a sheep’s back’– highlighting the dependency of the economy on agricultural exports, particularly wool.Following the second World War, as the food crisis in Europe deepened, there was arenewed effort in Australia to produce more food for export. Known as the ‘Food forBritain’ scheme, vast areas of land were cleared and technological innovations andnew inputs were introduced to boost production and industrialise Australian farming toproduce more goods for export. Today, around 60% of Australia’s total production offood is destined for overseas markets, representing 76% of the gross value of farmproduction (Lawrence, Richards and Lyons, 2012). While Australia does not subsidisedirectly its agricultural production, opting instead for an ostensibly free marketapproach, there are a number of regulatory mechanisms and policy measures, whichmodify market conditions. Nevertheless, government support for agriculture in Australiais among the lowest of OECD member states and focuses on product promotion andfood safety and standards.These historical origins of an export-led agricultural system in Australia, based uponon-going technological innovations and the adoption of European farming practices,helps set the scene for contemporary debates related to food security, includingdebates related to growing food for export versus domestic markets, the role of scienceand technology, regulation and corporate concentration. Many of these themes arelinked also to broader debates about Australia’s food security, including foreigninvestment in and ownership of farms and cattle stations.There is broad consensus that one of the major issues confronting society now and intothe future is food security – a term now widely used in policy circles (see for exampleLawrence, Lyons & Wallington, 2010). Concepts of food security emerged in the 1970s,and at that time focussed mainly on the capacity of regions or nations to meet theaggregate requirements of their people for food. This scale of focus tends to ignoresubstantial and significant variation at more local scales and consequently anUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 12