Key Facts:
- The appointees to the National Food Council were announced on Friday.
- A coalition of health, agriculture, food and environmental experts say the Albanese Government has stacked the Council with vested interests to serve big business
- Tasked with developing a national food security strategy , experts warn the newly announced Council has large "gaps" with no experts from public health, family farming businesses, climate change and sustainable farming – all overlooked in favour of big business
- The appointment of the National Food Council follows a new global Lancet series on the negative health and environmental impacts of ultra-processed foods (UPFs)
- The Lancet series found Australia has some of the highest consumption rates of UPFs in the world – UPFs making up more than half of Australian adolescent's daily energy intake
- 1 in 3 Australian children have a BMI within obese or overweight range – childhood obesity fuels life-threatening diseases: type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, high blood pressure
- The Government's own recent Climate Risk Assessment reports Australia's agriculture sector is at risk from the impacts of climate change, with agriculture and supply chains among the top 11 Priority Climate Risks
A coalition of health, agriculture, food and environmental experts and organisations have today launched a national campaign – called Who Decides Food? – putting a spotlight on the recently appointed National Food Council's work developing a new national food security strategy .
The Who Decides Food? campaign comes as the National Food Council is anticipated to meet for the first time on 5 December and begin work on the Feeding Australia strategy. Feeding Australia will set out a long term plan for how the nation grows, produces and accesses food.
The Who Decides Food? campaign aims to ensure the National Food Council delivers a plan that makes Australia's food system healthier, fairer, and focused on delivering for everyday Australians – from policy, to paddock, to plate.
The launch of the campaign follows a new global Lancet series on the negative health and environmental impacts of ultra-processed foods. The series, which includes a number of Australian co-authors such as Dr Phil Baker from the University of Sydney School of Public Health, exposes the long-term impact ultra-processed foods are having on our collective health, health system and the detrimental influence of multinational corporations on food and public health policies.
Michelle Gortan, CEO of Macdoch Foundation says: "For too long, decisions about food have been shaped by the profit maximisation aims of multinational corporations and vested interests, while long-term health outcomes are being ignored. Industrial systems that over-process and over-extract have been rewarded, while the interests of people and the places that grow, make and share real food have been sidelined. The food that is being marketed to us is driving chronic disease, negative environmental outcomes and growing inequality.
"Delivering a meaningful food plan that truly puts people, including farmers, health and the environment at the centre of Australia's food future will be the National Food Council's biggest test."
Emma-Kate Rose, co-CEO of the Food Connect Foundation says "Our new National Food Council must rise to the challenge and deliver a strategy that puts people's health, fairness and the environment first, not as afterthoughts but as the foundation of our future prosperity. If we get this right, the new strategy can do more than secure our food system. It can build a healthier nation, more resilient, ethical supply chains, and a fairer future for generations to come."
Kelly McJannett, CEO and Co-founder of Food Ladder says: "The new Food Council has a big responsibility on their plate in guiding the development of Australia's national food strategy. Food security is a crucial component of this - access to healthy and affordable food is imperative to the wellbeing and positive development of all Australian children." Jade Miles, Co-CEO of Sustainable Table says: "We have amazing farmers and food leaders all over Australia already showing what regenerative and nature-positive food systems can look like. What is missing is national coordination and the political will to put these solutions into practice, and this must be prioritised by the new National Food Council."
Serenity Hill CEO of Open Food Network says: "Large corporate influence has shaped and continues to shape every aspect of our food and agriculture systems, including government regulation and investment across landscapes and population health. This has real and material impact - degrading soil health and compromising future production, the allowance of toxics throughout the food supply, national security risk around reliance on fertilizer and diesel imports, and the reinforcement of food consumption patterns that result in widespread chronic disease and metabolic ill health.
"Past attempts at national food security policy reform have failed to address the underlying structural issues and we remain stuck. The Council needs to address these structural issues if we are to move the dial on the important issues threatening national food supply."
