A coalition of health, agriculture and sustainability organisations has launched a national campaign urging the newly formed National Food Council to put people, communities and the environment at the centre of Australia’s emerging food security strategy.
The ‘Who Decides Food?’ campaign comes just a week after the federal government announced the inaugural members of the National Food Council. It is due to hold its first meeting on 5 December to advise the government on the development of Feeding Australia, its long-term plan to strengthen the nation’s food security system.
The council was created as a mechanism to coordinate policy across government, industry and the food supply chain in a move widely welcomed by the food and beverage manufacturing sector, which has long called for national-level direction.
Calls for guardrails
But the coalition behind the new campaign says guardrails are needed to ensure the council’s work results in a food system that improves nutrition, strengthens regional economies and supports sustainable production systems, rather than entrenching concentrated market power and the status quo.
Organisations behind the campaign include the Macdoch Foundation, Food Connect Foundation, Food Ladder, Sustainable Table and the Open Food Network.
The campaign highlights concerns raised in a new Lancet series on the negative health and environmental impacts of ultra-processed foods. The series, co-authored by Australian academics, warns of the growing influence that multinational corporations exert over food and health policy.
Macdoch Foundation CEO, Michelle Gortan, said Australia’s food system had been shaped for too long by “profit maximisation aims of multinational corporations and vested interests”, often at the expense of long-term health outcomes.
“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,” Gortan said.
“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 will be the National Food Council’s biggest test,” she added.
Food Connect Foundation co-CEO, Emma-Kate Rose, said the council must “rise to the challenge” and deliver a strategy that places fairness, health and environmental integrity at its core.
“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,” Rose said.
National coordination, structural reform needed
The coalition is calling for the council to prioritise national coordination and structural reform – areas campaign partners say have been missing from previous attempts to design coherent national food policy.
Sustainable Table co-CEO, Jade Miles, said farmers and innovators around the country are already proving that regenerative, nature-positive systems are viable and scalable.
“What is missing is national coordination and the political will to put these solutions into practice,” Miles said.
Open Food Network CEO, Serenity Hill, said corporate influence continues to shape regulation, investment and consumption patterns in ways that undermine soil health, create national security risks through reliance on imported inputs, and perpetuate chronic disease.
“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 issues if we are to move the dial,” Hill said.
