As Australia sleepwalks into a food security crisis, regional advocacy groups are pleading with their city cousins to join the fight that is needed to save future generations.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Among the food producers who have long been calling for a fresh approach from governments to the value of agriculture is John Lolicato, who has roles on both environment and food producing organisations.
He is a long-term leader in the Wakool River Association, supporting the health of this Murray River tributary, while also heavily involved in a number of farming advocacy groups.
More recently he was the driving force, alongside Victorian farmer Jan Beer, behind publication of a book titled ‘Caught In The Current’, which highlights mistakes that have been made in water policy and management, while providing solutions that can get the balance between environmental and productive needs in the Murray-Darling Basin back on track. It is the first book which breaks down the Basin Plan from a community perspective.
Mr Lolicato has been critical of both Coalition and Labor Governments for the ‘top down’ manner in which they have implemented the Basin Plan, but is particularly scathing of the direction taken in recent years by the Albanese Labor Government.
He says it is no wonder this government has been described as “the worst in history” for Australian farmers and their efforts to grow food for the nation.
At the core is its insatiable appetite for water buybacks, despite even the head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Andrew McConville, stating unequivocally that it is time “to move beyond water recovery” and “it’s now about using what (water) we have well”.
“National media is slowly starting to realise that in about a decade, Australia will be a net importer of food unless we change the policy direction,” Mr Lolicato said.
“The data, supported by government agencies, tells us that on current trends we will be importing significant amounts of staple foods – from cheese, to rice, poultry to vegetables – by 2027.
“That would have our forefathers, who established agricultural systems to protect our food security and national sovereignty even during times of drought, turning in their graves. We are abandoning food and fibre production with poor policy and implementation, led by city-based politicians and bureaucrats with virtually no knowledge of what is required to feed our nation.
“They make decisions based on ideologies that do not work in the real world, but once their mistakes become obvious they do not have the courage to admit this, and right the wrongs.
“Never has there been a more striking example than the Basin Plan, and this is proven with all the research that was undertaken for ‘Caught In The Current’,” Mr Lolicato said.
He highlighted the issues being experienced in the United Kingdom, which is in the grip of drought but has not developed a suitable food security strategy.
Britain is being warned by its own experts that it cannot simply “import its way out of the problem”, and that it faces massive food inflation of up to 20 per cent in the next six months.
“Will Australia make the same mistake and wait until we are gripped in a crisis that’s too late to get out of before we take any decisive action?” Mr Lolicato asked.
“What is it going to take for our Federal Government to wake up and understand that our growing population needs growing food production? Do our leaders think the food grows on the supermarket shelf?
“Farmers and regional communities are increasingly frustrated. There are billions of dollars for renewable energy projects and any other whim of the government, yet when it comes to the most basic human need in our country – fresh, clean and affordable Australian grown food – they seem to be blind. Perhaps it’s their city upbringing.”
Mr Lolicato said while it is not too late to act on the looming food security crisis, time is running out.
“You cannot close down a farm or food processing facility, then all of a sudden decide it’s a valuable asset and needs to immediately be back up and running. Likewise, we
can’t shut down the world’s best gravity feed irrigation system that exists in the New South Wales Murray, then all of a sudden go, ‘strewth, that was a bit stupid’.
“We need action now to support farmers and encourage them to grow the food and fibre that our nation relies on. The first step is stopping these crazy water buybacks, that might be helping to secure a few city-based environmental votes, but they will end up killing the goose that laid the golden egg … they’ll kill the food production that feeds our people, both city and country.
“When you have the independent MDBA boss stating no more water recovery is needed, and a Water Minister barging ahead with buybacks regardless of the advice and facts, it gives a pretty clear indication of the trajectory to disaster that we are facing.
“Let’s hope our leaders wake up before it is too late,” Mr Lolicato concluded.