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Abstract
The Crawford Fund’s Annual Parliamentary Conference for
2012, ‘The Scramble for Natural Resources’, addressed a
question of fundamental importance to Australia and to the
international community: that is, how to feed, adequately,
an extra 2 or 3 billion people within a few decades without
irretrievably damaging the planet. The consensus response
— from the panel of speakers and the extended question
and answer session — was, in short, that the world probably
has enough land, nutrients and water and, one might infer,
ingenuity, in aggregate, to meet the challenge. Yet a foodsecure
world will only be possible if ‘major distributional
and degradation problems’ are addressed with efforts to close the gap
between achievable and actual yields, as well as increased investment in
research to raise yield potential. Increased production, based on a better
understanding of interactions between agriculture and natural ecosystems
and urban and rural development, enables, at least theoretically, increased
yields, lower costs and reduced erosion and water degradation. Even with
all of this, however, food price spikes and horrifying episodes of famine
seem likely to recur, requiring specific policy interventions and emergency
responses — including to changing climate and weather patterns.
Australia can contribute to a food-secure world by growing and exporting
as much food as is possible within constraints formed by our natural
resource base and by market demand and prices. Within these limits, and
with increased allocations to research, Australia could become one of a
number of food bowls. By itself Australia cannot feed more than a fraction
of the world. Its contribution through research, however, could be globally
significant and contribute beneficially to the diets of 100 million or more.