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
government, especially at more senior levels, which strongly militates against policy<strong>change</strong> of this nature:People would just say, agriculture’s DPI, but that wasn’t what I was talking about.So I really began to see how this h<strong>and</strong>balling phenomena worked insidegovernment; <strong>and</strong> that trying to get people to talk about complex issues who didn’thave clear lines of responsibility was very difficult. You can get thoseconversations happening at officer level, <strong>and</strong> maybe at manager level, but it’svery hard to get real openness to people above that [level] thinking outside thebox [Former state government employee].In Queensl<strong>and</strong>, the Newman government has commissioned an inquiry into the State’sagricultural <strong>and</strong> resource industries, but this focuses primarily on identifying <strong>and</strong>removing unnecessary regulatory barriers, <strong>and</strong> there is little recognition of l<strong>and</strong> useconflicts except in relation to tensions between famers <strong>and</strong> miners in, for example, theDarling Downs.In addition to important issues such as the loss of prime farml<strong>and</strong> to <strong>urban</strong> expansion,foreign ownership of agricultural l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong> hoarding, interviewees also raised theissue of the corporate domination of the <strong>food</strong> system, <strong>and</strong> its impact on farmers,suppliers <strong>and</strong> consumers. The concentration of ownership within the Australian <strong>food</strong>system leads to the third barrier identified by interviewees, namely cultural factors ofwhich there are two principal aspects. One is the prevailing culture of cheap <strong>food</strong>, <strong>and</strong>the convenience of take-away, which can lead to widespread complacency about <strong>food</strong>,its provenance <strong>and</strong> availability <strong>and</strong> about issues of waste:Why do people buy so much <strong>food</strong> that they throw out? Why is there such adisregard for <strong>food</strong>? If you could turn that into dollars, people would certainly havea concern about how much they were throwing away [City of Yarra <strong>urban</strong>agriculture officer].This complacency leads to the second aspect of the cultural barrier which participantsidentified, a widespread lack of awareness of the key issues <strong>and</strong> problems concerningthe <strong>food</strong> system, <strong>and</strong> engagement with them:There is a real lack of awareness of the need to <strong>change</strong>. Most of the population isnot aware. People need to be more uncomfortable, or have barriers to actionremoved, such as cost incentives. It’s really troubling that so many people don’thave basic <strong>food</strong> growing <strong>and</strong> preparation skills. We set up a garden in aneighbourhood house, but a lot of people there will look at silverbeet <strong>and</strong> notknow what to do with it. And this applies across the wider population – we’relacking basic cooking, <strong>and</strong> <strong>food</strong> preparation, <strong>and</strong> preserving, skills. There’s apsychological shift that needs to happen, for people in general to value <strong>food</strong>growing as a worthy thing to do. People forget that there’s a farmer behind everymeal they eat [Permaculturalist <strong>and</strong> backyard gardener].Our interviews with the farmers <strong>and</strong> growers revealed, however, that <strong>urban</strong> sprawl wasnot their principal concern. Nor was <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>. Rather, it was the commercial,financial <strong>and</strong> regulatory pressures they were facing, which took the form of a so-called‘cost-price squeeze’ in which as the cost of inputs rose <strong>and</strong> the burdens of regulation<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> 52
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Synthesis and Integrative ResearchF
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Published by the National Climate C
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ABSTRACTFood security is increasing
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1. a review of the literature: on n
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- Page 27 and 28: urban food supply chains. Thus, whi
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- Page 31 and 32: Like Hodgson et al., as per definit
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- Page 40 and 41: generations this history has been f
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- Page 48 and 49: agriculture. Eight percent is in ur
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- Page 54 and 55: As discussed above, protection of t
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- Page 70 and 71: In many respects these contrasting
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- Page 82 and 83: IntroductionGlobally, and in Austra
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1 IntroductionCities have always be
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Despite some attempts to curb urban
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the Gold Coast remains a city that
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ackyard/community gardenernot affil
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level in local government. VicHealt
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Figure 2: Impacts on Municipal Food
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security I recognise that the cost
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United States, he offered the follo
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This vision highlights the multi-fu
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An environmental education centre.
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Melbourne Food ForestA Melbourne ga
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stakeholder consultations, the repo
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can. We sense the changes. The earl
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half-desert environments. We’re g
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etain its basic function and struct
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government; and that trying to get
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the north and the west, where it wo
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Why do people buy so much food that
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urban agriculture (however broadly
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enefits and risks. Before we can co
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Another important and tangible role
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coast without any problems whatsoev
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BIBLIOGRAPHYAECOM (2011) Scoping St
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Burns, C. I., A. (2007). Measuring
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Edwards, F., & Mercer, D. (2010). M
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James, S. O’Neill, P. and Dimeski
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Millar, R., 2012, ‘Government shi
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Saltmarsh, N. M., J; Longhurst, N.
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Walker B., 2008, Resilience Thinkin