Many shades of green - food production

Natural farming systems, that rely on green manures, nutrient cycling, fallows, plant mixtures and other strategies that were common in almost all traditional farming systems, will receive the research and development support they require to be adapted for modern application. A greater variety of food production systems spread across the globe will reduce the risk of the inevitable regional political, market or climate signals causing international shockwaves in world food markets.

However, my field of experience is with forestry, not food so I’m probably not qualified to speak out. Yet, I believe the parallels with changes in timber production systems are there. As we become wealthier we have begun to ask more of our forests. Timber production from public native forests is declining as we demand they be “saved” for conservation or, more recently, as carbon stores. Timber is now seen as a commodity that should be produced from factory plantations on farmland rather than one of a range of products and services provided by a multiple use forest.

Industrialisation of timber production, supported by government subsidies and tax effective investment options is beginning to deliver the scale and volume of production thought to be required to meet the increasing demand. Yet, the ownership of the plantation resources is becoming less diverse as are the range of species and wood qualities.

Timber is just another crop competing with biofuels, food production, urbanisation, carbon sinks and hobby farming for the limited areas of arable farmland close to the population centres around the Australian coast.

Our demand for resources, be it food, fibre or energy, has increased the pressure on. and the cost of, the limited amount of high quality land that is deemed economically viable under the rules of industrialisation.

There is other land, although it may be less productive, it may be isolated, it may not have access to cheap irrigation, it may have been degraded by past farming methods or it could in small parcels that cannot be amalgamated into profitable packages. But, it is still land and it could be reclaimed for the production without threatening conservation values - in fact, the development of this land, by the people who choose to live on it may well enhance its net social and environmental value.

The high prices we are seeing for food today point to a weakness of industrial agricultural. However, coupled with increased costs of water, fertiliser and fuel, the increased prices may shift the balance back in favour of those farming systems that rely on labour, natural fertility and time to grow food. These are the resources that are more freely available in the developing world suggesting that the advantages of globalisation could favour the poor: Africa could be the food bowl of Europe.

As Australians, we should be prepared to pay farmers more for food. It is exactly the stimulus that is required to fund the development of diverse and multifunctional farming landscapes that are valued not only on the basis of the food and fibre produced but also the people they support.