Food Security for Fellowship

27th June, 2022

Perth NRM was recently invited to present to the WA Climate Smart Agriculture Fellowship program on the work being done to progress the WA Food Security Plan.

The WA Climate Smart Agriculture Fellowship program was delivered in partnership by Farmers for Climate Action and AgZero 2030 as a free program open to farmers, pastoralists, ag industry professionals, researchers and students.

The key theme of the program was the ability to learn and discuss climate, carbon, sustainability and global scale challenges.

Shay Crouch, Senior Program Manager for Agriculture at Perth NRM presented on the work being done in this space, with a key focus on the food security of our current systems and how we might be able to utilise these systems better.

“It was great to present to engaged farmers and participants from across WA who are all heavily involved with agriculture and our food systems,” she said.

“With the increasing concentration and aggregation of the food industry within Australia at both the food processing and food retail level, food chains in WA are becoming longer. This exposes West Australians to greater risk of a food safety breakdown and a reduction in the resilience of our food system to price shocks, breakdowns in transportation and climate variability.

“The susceptibility of our food system to supply chain disruptions caused by flooding on the Nullabor Plain is becoming an all too frequent occurrence, supporting and indeed encouraging a resurgence in local food production.”

The presentation also asked participants to identify the greatest on-farm challenges and opportunities for WA.

This feedback revealed a common theme around climate change and its effect on water security, and extreme weather events.

Then the opportunity of how incentives for sustainable land management could drive change, such as through Natural Capital programs.

“Having these robust conversations with a diverse audience, with so much knowledge and experience is important,” Crouch said. “These discussions will drive the landscape and system change we need to secure our future food supply chains.”

The WA Food Security Plan project is managed by Perth NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

Partners

We acknowledge and appreciate the support of all our partners, supporters, funding bodies and sponsors.

Subscribe to any of our newsletters

Perth NRM produces a number of e-newsletters. Subscribe to stay in touch!

Events

Check out our event listings or submit your own!

Share with
Back to Top