Challenging Food Futures

Presenting author: Jesse Raneng (Griffith University)

Other author: Professor Catherine Pickering (Griffith University), Associate Professor Michael Howes (Griffith University)

Community gardens are increasingly popular in part because they provide diverse benefits for local communities, as well as more broadly contributing to food security and the conservation of agrobiodiversity. With greater recognition of the many different values of community gardens, it is a popular topic for research globally. However, most research is still focused on the communities and not what is grown and how, with limited research on how factors such as climate change will affect the gardens.

The proposed research will update and expand previous studies in Australia (see Guitart et al. 2013) by assessing the potential of community gardens to conserve agro-biodiversity and contribute to food security in cities. This includes detailing what is grown and how, the security of community gardens as well as other types of local food sources in south eastern Queensland Australia. 

Presenting author: Katherine Gibson (Western Sydney University)

Other authors: Anisah Madden (Western Sydney University), Bhavya Chitranshi (Western Sydney University)

This session brings an historical perspective on the rise of food security as a concern and its subsequent institutionalization in development practice together with analysis of contemporary struggles to wrest food production from the hold of technocratic agendas that privilege agri-businesses. The three papers will bring a 'reading for difference' to their examination of development debates of the 1950s, peasant and Indigenous  struggles to reclaim food futures via the UN Committee on World Food Security, and current movements and alternative community practices in India that are seeking to shape food futures.  

Three papers will be presented followed by a collaborative reflection by the paper presenters        

Katherine Gibson "The Geographer's Burden-feeding India's starving millions: Oskar Spate's misgivings" 

Anisah Madden "Remembering the culture in agriculture: Reclaiming food futures via the UN Committee on World Food Security"

Bhavya Chitranshi "Decolonizing food security in India: Reimagining agriculture through farmer's protests and indigenous women's collective farming practices"

Reflections on co-creating new infrastructures of geographical knowledge

Presenting author: Amy Lawton (WESTIR Ltd)

Other author: Professor Nicky Morrison (Western Sydney University)

Unprecedented growth in Australia's metropolitan regions has led to rapid urban expansion into the peri-urban fringes, with agricultural land converted to alternative land uses, and particularly housing. The purpose of this paper is to focus on Greater Western Sydney (GWS), one of the fastest growing peri-urban regions in Australia. By 2031, its population is expected to increase to 3.3 million in 2031, with the region becoming home to over half of Sydney's population. Whilst this urban transformation has attracted ongoing public attention, there appears a lack of political will and commitment to address the implications of rapid urban growth on the demise of the peri-urban agricultural sector. Yet like many cities, internationally, Sydney has been hit by a rapid succession of shocks and stresses, drought, bushfires, storms, floods and now the global pandemic, calling into question pro-growth trajectories that put economic imperatives and development needs above natural resource depletion, and local food security concerns. Juxtaposing longitudinal housing, agriculture and land value datasets, alongside interviews with NSW and local government representatives, the paper charts state-local tensions in managing population growth and housing pressures, on the one hand, whilst protecting (as far as possible) existing peri-urban agriculture lands under threat. The paper concludes that the size, value and extent of loss of the peri-urban agricultural sector in GWS has been historically under-valued, and will remain so, relative to competing housing priorities and private market interests, unless political priorities change.

Presenting author: Milena Bojovic (Macquarie Univeristy )

My PhD project examines the social, environmental, political and economic dimensions of dairy farming in New Zealand and considers future policy interventions to mitigate the environmental and economic impacts of intensive animal farming on landscapes. The objective of this research project is to identify the current issues facing the dairy sector from external threats such as climate change and emerging food innovations (from plant-based to synthetic proteins) and how these will impact the future of one of Aotearoa New Zealand's most prized commodities. The PhD is intended to be a thesis by publication, with each publication focusing on different issues within the sector and with the final paper considering possible policy interventions to create more sustainable plant-based (or other non-animal protein) food production systems.

The project will draw on theoretical perspectives from sustainability transitions and multispecies justice literature to explore the future possibilities for humans, non-humans, and environments in the context of climate change and just food transitions. Further, this project intends to consider alternative pathways to environmental and social sustainability for communities, the economy, and the environment. 

Presenting author: Nicolette Larder (University of New England)

This paper is an intervention into the way we think about agriculture in Australia. To date, and for good reason, a productivist imaginary has overwhelmingly dominated the way we understand Australian agriculture. Despite the obvious need for different ways of doing food production, there is no doubt productivism continues to dominate the way agriculture is practiced in Australia and understandings of 'good farming' largely reflect productivism's core tenants. But this is not the entire story.

Drawing on fieldwork with farmers in two regions of Australia, this work finds there is in fact a nascent culture of more-than-production in rural Australia that holds good farming as that which balances production with environmental care and recognises the role of non-human actors in production systems. This work is thus a step towards an expanded imaginary of cultures of food production in rural Australia.