Croydon Conservation Society

Submission from Croydon Conservation Society

Overarching questions……..responses

Q1.  The most important objective for a National Food Plan is to ensure suitable quantities of good, clean, healthy, nutritious, uncontaminated food that is kept simple for people to understand and is available in a way that is sustainable from an agricultural and environmental perspective into the future.

Q2. The visions and perspectives should reflect the objectives above, whilst being mindful of the need to potentially increase production without compromising the values described in question one.

Q3.  Australia has a few major potential risks to Australian food in coming years.

• One is the propensity to move towards genetically modified materials. We would prefer to see the precautionary principle to be enacted in this situation. If we are not exactly certain of the outcome, on the environment, or other species, or effect on microorganisms or soil bacteria, further down the track, then we shouldn’t be accepting the push from those with financial gain, to accept the need for GM produce.
• Food seed and the opportunity to grow food, must never become patented for profit, and taken out of the hands of farmers and individuals around the world.
• Lack of opportunity for effective competition so that we are forced into purchasing foods which may or may not be available from other countries, depending on natural weather or climatic disasters and placing dependence on this food and no longer growing our own food, is not the preferred option. This also applies to the increased likelihood of retail food monopoly and this is a major threat for consumers in particular and for farmers who have decreased opportunity to find fair market price for their produce. Competition and variety of choice from paddock to plate should be a high priority.
• The threat of food terrorism through contamination or destruction is also something that cannot be ignored into the future. From this perspective owning the productive agricultural land in our own country and not allowing it to be purchased by off-shore interests is of great concern. Good governance in ensuring soil quality and suitable crops through water usage audits also become important to this issue.
• There is likely to be increased pressure on Australia to provide clean green food to the rest of the world under burgeoning populations and climatic disasters, as well as humanitarian aid in unsettled regions of the world.

Q4.  Food security means protecting ownership of our productive land, and that we encourage and protect agricultural practices, that we don’t leave farmers to plough into the ground crops which are unable to financially compete with imported, produce in a global market.

To achieve food security would mean looking at climate change in it’s entirety and appreciating the fact that moving food around the world, particularly appreciating the distances travelled and perishability of the produce. It makes no sense to use precious resources of fuel to clock up thousands of food miles. Food does not travel particularly well without high degrees of technology and speedy delivery to achieve produce in its optimum state for nutrition. If we can grow sufficient foodstuffs in our own country it make little sense to the climate change issue that we would import replacement produce in order to justify a place in the world market.

We would know if our food is secure if we had a robust local food supply from paddock to plate that ensured the original objectives of question one.

Q5. The most important benefits to Australian consumers are trust and security, ensuring clean healthy, uncontaminated, nutritious simple food is available at a price that is fair and does not play into the hands of Global mega corporations. Consumers should also be able to select appropriate foods to ensure health and wellbeing without needing a science degree in sorting real foods from marketed neutraceuticals. As we overcomplicate life in many areas it is very difficult to be sufficiently knowledgeable about how to sort truth from marketing spin, and how to sort real food from highly sophisticated manufactured products, designed for lifestyle diseases. Basic skills like Food Hygiene are often not well understood, so it is evident that FOOD has become a topic of great complexity already.

Issues paper

Chapter 4  Diet, nutrition, food safety and the consumer………responses

Q 17. There is a responsibility on all levels of food production to ensure public good nutrition. Nothing is clearer than the current food related health epidemic to show evidence of what happens to the health of the general population when consumers are left to consume what is marketed at them. Again I reiterate a consumer shouldn’t need a science degree to determine the sugar levels of a snack bar that hides total sugars amongst fructose, glucose, honey, maltodextrin, and invert sugar to effectively deceive the consumer, who is looking at the listed ingredients expecting to see the ingredient with the greatest proportion listed near the top.

Mandatory truthful nutritional labeling should become the standard. It should include total protein, total sugars, total fats & oils, total fibre, total salt, and vitamin content if relevant. It should also realistically set a “suitable portion size” suggestion, not a tiny size designed to mislead, nor by the 100 grams, since most serves do not equate to this. Environmentally it would be useful for food that is sourced from Australia was labeled as such, not only to support local agriculture, but also to reduce the footprint of what we consume, this should include all fresh produce from meat to fish to fruits and vegetables.

Q20. There is little confidence in truth of labeling when it is designed by some to mislead. “Produce of” and “made in” being two examples of the potential for confusion. The amalgam of “made in” using local and imported produce leaves us thinking we are being hoodwinked. Is 5 % local and 95% imported before being processed here? If so why bother? The facts need to be truthfully labeled.

The other way that food is unsafe is in the retail and hospitality sector, where self training and monitoring of food safety procedures in handling have largely taken the place of mandatory training and local Government monitoring. This leaves those who want not to comply, in a better position to remain ignorant of food safety legislation. With society including so many more of us with compromised health status, it is a necessary requirement of all food handlers to be fully aware of both personal and food hygiene practices to ensure food safety.

Chapter 5  Investment..responses

Q 21.Most Australians are disturbed by the concept of profit leaving our country. So many well known food brands are now American owned, and lately it is clear that we are also selling off the farms to global investors. Large tracts of South west Victoria being bought by Quatar interests, as an example. I feel sure that most Australians do not wish to see foreign investment in our water, animal farming, food agriculture, food manufacture or distribution.  Rather I see the future where we are in a position to invest and grow these industries to the point where we are able to sell surplus to other less capable of supplying themselves.

Capital, stock & infrastructure

Q 24. Again with reference to the environment, food should ideally not need to be transported far, but when it is we should be maximizing our rail network to the fullest. This is the only way to create less fuel dependence and increased prices, reduce carbon emissions and make safer roads. Efficient loading and off-loading at train terminuses, when road transport must take over is an opportunity for our country to design and use goods transit stations, where freight containers are lifted from rail track to truck, for short distances only.

Also maintaining our agricultural land and ensuring protection from foreign interests, and from mining for resources, as a matter of right. It is disturbing to find that the environmental message of looking after the planet, is consistently under attack, form those who feel the need to exploit under the guise of “the economy & jobs”. Farms are our lifeblood, and probably more than ever before we are more dependent on successful outcomes, as proportionally the balance of city dwellers who have no opportunity to grow any meaningful quantities of food for themselves, far outweighs  the number of country dwellers who grow our food for us. Because this is now a very small group of individuals, we need to be supportive and aware of their needs and requirements, to secure our own future supply of food.

Q 26. The hot topic of live exports is another wasteful method of transport, not to mention exporting jobs, and crossing expectations of Australia’s animal welfare regulations. There should be no plausible reason for the animal to be subjected to lengthy trips in crammed dirty conditions, only then to be subjected to methods of killing that are unacceptable to our standards. Destination countries should be strongly encouraged to purchase freshly slaughtered meat, vacuum packed and chilled.

Innovation …responses

Q 27 to 38, In essence the “food industry” as opposed to food growers, are a group with whom we have a complex relationship. Some of what is produced is “good” but much of what comes from the food manufacturers is contrary to what we believe equates to good food. A basic product like rolled oats may be considered as processed, it would be an example of “good”. But it is hard to equate this with Pringles for example where the humble potato, is cooked, dried powdered, made into paste and injected into hyperbolic shapes then crisped and sold in a tennis ball canister, at many times the original price and with highly questionable food value. Sadly the food industry per se is gaining a reputation that is perceived as being more of the “questionable” and less of the “good”.

The food industry is caught up in the same “commercialism for gain” mentality as much of the rest of our current way of life, and it is precisely this that is at the root problem of the environment. Associations like the Slow Food Movement are an example of what is needed for the future if we are to do more than pay lip service to the plight of Climate Change. Community assisted agriculture CSA, is another concept that fits with those who wish to leave a small footprint on the world.

Labour & skills…responses
Q 43, Of great importance is the opportunity for the environmental approach to become mainstream in the food industry. From local generation of power, to water conservation, to land protection, to diversity of species, to reduction in dependence on insecticides, to heritage seed banks, to companion planting, to tree planting to clean waterways………none of these are negotiable going forward. There needs to be a significant mind-shift, as many farmers are showing is possible with tree re-vegetation as an example, to take seriously the environmental component of what sustains the best outcomes for our collective future.

In Tafe education, there is now an “in principle” component to consider the environment in all aspects of food production. In Hospitality it is considered bad form to serve “Orange Roughy” for example, and the ethos of the Slow Food Movement to grow and eat locally and seasonally has become well practiced amongst many in the industry. Change takes time, but it needs to be seriously on everyone’s agenda for success. The Schools vegetable garden project is another grass root way to ensure connectivity with the younger generations about food and it’s origins, so their understanding and association with food is not divorced from reality by only the supermarket experience, which has been considered normal in recent past history.

It is THE most appropriate time right now with this opportunity for a National Food Plan, to ensure environmental concern is on the list throughout this Government process.

Chapter 6
Sustainable food industry……responses

General Comment……….. Like health, which has slid into (lifestyle disease prevention) we need to ensure that food does not become (disease prevention oriented) nor (neutraceutical oriented), as is evident in current advertising of many products. Life is too stressful already, for our focus to be on “cure and fix it technology” rather than living and enjoying food without guilt or scientific verification. Food is not only a basic need, like water and air, but something enjoyed by all of our five senses, smell, sight, hearing, tasting and feel. Food is more than a means to an end. It should be fresh, clean, uncontaminated, nutritious, and healthy. It used not be a complex issue for humans. It was seasonal, perishable, and of limited variety. What we have done to it by allowing it to be changed in seasonality, preserved, manufactured and promoted mercilessly, is to create an artificial situation that now has health consequences that to reverse, is tantamount to stopping floodwaters!  

Q 48. Because of the commodification of food into packaging and in predetermined quantities it has become too easy to purchase excess food. Other contributing factors are up-sizing, getting more on specials or two for the price of one. Food sent to waste in landfill is a huge environmental and social problem, and is endemic from the supermarket to the individual consumer. There ought be a disincentive for retailers to be permitted to purchase the volume that is bought.  All of us are paying for this waste, as obviously it is factored into purchase price, and is part of the high cost of living.

Consumers are never asked the questions of “would you be prepared to buy something else?” if a product runs out. Consumers are never asked ”do you want cheap chicken, but we need to factory farm it to do that?” The food industry is NOT driven by the knowledgeable consumer, rather it is driven by low cost – the assumption being that the consumer can be blissfully unaware of how this price is achieved, and they will be OK with that. For too long, decisions about food are being made by “Industry spokespersons” and the consumer is treated with contempt. The Food industry employs “community tasters” as foolish guinea pigs, to drive the industry to make products that have market appeal. These consumers are not well educated about farming issues, transport, advertising in the media, human nutrition or waste responsibility and social conscience.  Food waste like any other hemorrhaging system will be able to be reduced, it just takes the will and perseverance and the will to change it. It is interesting to note in the questions provided for this response, that sustainable food is the last topic on the list.