Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

no place under the panoply of practices, they more often expressed interests inactivities that they had not previously heard of or considered in this way.4.2.6 What are the barriers to more widespread adoption of urbanagriculture in Australian cities?The research has revealed that, with few exceptions, participants firmly believe thaturban and peri-urban agriculture has a significant, and in many cases, highlysignificant, role to play in climate change adaptation and mitigation; in meeting currentand future food security needs of the growing city; and in building a sustainable, fairand resilient food system for the future.Participants identified three main sets of barriers that we can classify as political,economic, and cultural.The principal political barrier is the perceived lack of any strategic vision for asustainable and resilient food system, in the two case study cities or their respectiveestates. As discussed below in relation to peri-urban agriculture, this expresses itselfmost acutely in relation to the expansion of the urban growth boundary over primefarmland; but it is seen more broadly in the failure to fully integrate considerations ofhealth and well-being into state and federal planning and policy frameworks.The previous government of Victoria (Brumby administration) attempted to establish astate-wide, whole-of-government, integrated food policy. Some interviewees suggestedthat this policy initiative ‘ran into the sands of obstructionism’ from within theDepartment of Primary Industries which was not convinced of the need for it.So we had a reasonable commitment to doing this. But it really just dragged. Andwhen I look back now to some of the stuff we’d come up with, and got committedto in regional policy and climate change food strategy, that we will do this wholeof-governmentfood strategy, and we do understand why we’re doing it, and it hasstrong links to climate change, and everything else – now we know that DPI wasjust basically stalling it, at every possible opportunity. You’d have everythingagreed, everyone on side, and then you’d get this memo, saying, you can’t havethis, why don’t you re-write it like that. And we’d be completely back to scratch.And there was just dragging of feet, and heels – so much time and energy goinginto something, that was almost like a plaything at one level. They had to beforced. If the political will’s not there to really make it happen, it doesn’t matterhow much pushing you do up from the policy officer level. Yes, there was anincredible educational process for the people involved. We took that many peoplefrom traditional DPI, who thought that food security is just about choice, and ifpeople are fat, it’s because they’re eating the wrong food, through so manydiscussions of explaining, opening people’s heads … I’m sure it had a lot ofeducational benefits for a lot of people, but [ultimately] it didn’t deliver anything onthe ground [Former state government employee].In reflecting on the failure of this attempt to establish an integrated and holistic statewidefood policy for Victoria, which would, amongst other things, have accorded aprominent role to urban and peri-urban agriculture, and in particular to the protection ofprime farmland close to the city, this interviewee identified a culture inside the StateUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 51