Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

despite many of the causes of food insecurity deriving from global level issues. Whilstthis local approach might be considered a ‘band-aid’ solution to global food insecurity, itdoes have the potential to bring more immediate relief to those who do not have secureand consistent access to healthy food. Indeed, there is mounting evidence showingthat despite Australia’s status as a wealthy nation, with rising costs of living, food tendsto be the only flexible element in many household budgets. A survey by the VictorianGovernment’s health department reported:Large numbers of Australians are affected by ‘food insecurity’, which means theyexperience irregular access to safe, nutritionally adequate, culturally acceptablefood from non-emergency sources. In 2008 about 1 in 20 people surveyed in theVictorian Population Health Survey had run out of food at least once in the last 12months and had been unable to afford to purchase additional food. People on lowincomes, single parents, indigenous communities, people with chronic illnessesor disabilities, refugees and people living in remote or isolated areas areespecially vulnerable (Vic Health, 2011:9).In Australia, obesity has also become a major health issue, and one that has beenlinked to food insecurity:In the longer term, food insecurity can lead to becoming overweight or obese,particularly in women. While it seems paradoxical that food insecurity is linked tounhealthy weight, these heath issues arise because foods of poorer quality withhigh fat, salt and/or sugar content are the lowest cost options, whereas dietsbased on lean meats, whole grains and fresh vegetables and fruits are morecostly (Browne, Laurance and Thorpe, 2009).Certainly, problems of food are manifest at the local level, and as the research findingsnoted above demonstrate, there are often gendered dimensions to such problems.However, the responses to food insecurity developed at and for this local scale oftenfavour more individualised, and often gender insensitive interventions such aseducation about nutrition. Whilst having an important role in promotion of better dietsand nutrition awareness, these responses can overlook the macro-level and structuralcauses of the problem of food insecurity.Macro-level causes of food insecurityMoving from the local to the global scale, many complex issues converge in what hasbeen referred to as a ‘prefect storm’, rendering global food supply chains moreinsecure. Some have observed the irony of a global food crisis when record levels ofhunger in 2008 also coincided with record harvests and profits of major agrifoodcorporations (Holt-Gimenez, Patel and Shattuck, 2009). From a critical politicaleconomy perspective, food insecurity is a symptom of broader social inequalities,poverty, land dispossession and corporate control of the food supply chain (Holt-Giminez, Patel and Shattuck, 2009). In addition, this broader, ‘food systems’ approachacknowledges the systemic issues affecting the food supply chain. These includeurban encroachment into prime agriculture lands (Condon et al., 2010), environmentaldegradation and population growth as systemic problems that will affect more than thepoor and vulnerable groups (Lawrence, Richards and Lyons, 2012). Further, theenrolment of food producing land into the bio-fuel economy (McMichael, 2009), andexcessive financial speculation in land and other agricultural commodities has alsopushed up the cost of food (Lawrence, Richards and Lyons, 2012).Despite evidence that there is currently enough food for all to be food secure, almost abillion people globally are considered food insecure, and over one billion people areobese (Patel, 2008). These figures point to the rift in the distribution of food, somethingUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 77