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Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

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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 <strong>urban</strong>agriculture in Australian cities?The research has revealed that, with few exceptions, participants firmly believe that<strong>urban</strong> <strong>and</strong> peri-<strong>urban</strong> agriculture has a significant, <strong>and</strong> in many cases, highlysignificant, role to play in <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> adaptation <strong>and</strong> mitigation; in meeting current<strong>and</strong> future <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> needs of the growing city; <strong>and</strong> in building a sustainable, fair<strong>and</strong> resilient <strong>food</strong> system for the future.Participants identified three main sets of barriers that we can classify as political,economic, <strong>and</strong> cultural.The principal political barrier is the perceived lack of any strategic vision for asustainable <strong>and</strong> resilient <strong>food</strong> system, in the two case study cities or their respectiveestates. As discussed below in relation to peri-<strong>urban</strong> agriculture, this expresses itselfmost acutely in relation to the expansion of the <strong>urban</strong> growth boundary over primefarml<strong>and</strong>; but it is seen more broadly in the failure to fully integrate considerations ofhealth <strong>and</strong> well-being into state <strong>and</strong> federal planning <strong>and</strong> policy frameworks.The previous government of Victoria (Brumby administration) attempted to establish astate-wide, whole-of-government, integrated <strong>food</strong> policy. Some interviewees suggestedthat this policy initiative ‘ran into the s<strong>and</strong>s 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, <strong>and</strong> got committedto in regional policy <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> <strong>food</strong> strategy, that we will do this wholeof-government<strong>food</strong> strategy, <strong>and</strong> we do underst<strong>and</strong> why we’re doing it, <strong>and</strong> it hasstrong links to <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>, <strong>and</strong> everything else – now we know that DPI wasjust basically stalling it, at every possible opportunity. You’d have everythingagreed, everyone on side, <strong>and</strong> 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, <strong>and</strong> heels – so much time <strong>and</strong> 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 <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> is just about choice, <strong>and</strong> ifpeople are fat, it’s because they’re eating the wrong <strong>food</strong>, 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 <strong>and</strong> holistic statewide<strong>food</strong> policy for Victoria, which would, amongst other things, have accorded aprominent role to <strong>urban</strong> <strong>and</strong> peri-<strong>urban</strong> agriculture, <strong>and</strong> in particular to the protection ofprime farml<strong>and</strong> close to the city, this interviewee identified a culture inside the State<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> 51

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