A new report highlights how our nation’s food security is at increasing risk from ill-considered Australian Government policy.
Regular supply of fresh milk, one of the healthy staples that is an essential part of our diet, is under threat as dairy production plummets.
The report on the Impact of Water Buyback on the Southern Murray Darling Basin Dairy Industry paints a disturbing picture, including analysis that milk production in the region could plummet by up to 15 per cent if buybacks are not stopped immediately.
The Murray Regional Strategy Group, which represents a vast range of community and farming organisations across the NSW Murray region, says it is imperative the Australian Government acknowledges the damage of its buybacks and halts further water purchases until additional research is undertaken.
MRSG Chair Geoff Moar said communities have almost pleaded with the government to work with them on sustainable solutions that protect both the environment and the production of staple foods on which Australian families rely.
“Food security should be at the top of the national agenda, alongside other important issues such as housing affordability and defence. Yet at present it does not appear to be a government, or even community, priority.
“If we do not change this thinking we could be heading towards a food security crisis,” Mr Moar said.
He supported comments from NSW Farmers and its Dairy Committee Chair Malcolm Holm, himself a dairy farmer in the southern MDB, who stated “our own government is stripping us of the water we need to produce the nation’s milk, and it’s pushing us out the door of the industry”.
Mr Holm says we need smarter Basin decisions that balance the priorities of the environment, agriculture and our communities, if we are to have any future.
Mr Moar said the water buybacks are not only threatening milk production, but also the supply of other staple foods.
“In Australia we have the most efficient rice farmers in the world, but buybacks also threaten their future. We have the ability in irrigation regions to continue producing food for domestic consumption, with the potential to also grow fodder to assist farmers in drought or flood affected regions.
“Yet for some inexplicable reason we are putting all this at risk for an environmental ideology that was developed 20 years ago and has not kept pace with changing times and technologies.
“We can stop buybacks, and with smart use of existing water do everything that is needed to sustain the environment. Our only hope is that the Australian Government realises this indisputable fact before we have destroyed the nation’s food bowl, while at the same time increasing our reliance on imported food of lower quality and at a higher price,” Mr Moar said.