Food Insecurity – three times a day problem

Written by Carolyn Suggate:
Executive Director of ORICoop

Executive Summary 

Food is a human right.  We all expect to eat daily.  We depend on the food we eat to be nature friendly, nutritious, healthy and to sustain our life.  We expect the same of water.  What if both food and water were not ‘sustaining’ our communities but actually the opposite?  Who is to blame?  Is it the farmers?  Or, is it actually the food system we all subscribe to three times a day to provide for us? More questions than solutions are raised in this paper as there are no quick fixes.

Systemic change is required to fulfil the United Nation’s description for universal Food Security.

ORICoop is a National Organic Organic Producer’s Cooperative dedicated to its Farmer Members across the country – passionate and skilled growers and successful business people dedicated to growing nourishing foods for the consumers who consciously choose healthier, more sustainable and nature friendly food options.

 

A little history lesson:

There are multiple reasons as to why ‘food’ is an issue for millions of people, some which are included in the latest Eat Lancet 2025 report.  Lifestyle choices are hurting our families and communities.  They are hurting our farmers and supply chains and destroying our planet but are we being channeled into making critical decisions which are not in our best interests? Could there be other beneficiaries?

Historically, the existing industrial agriculture model stemmed from the repurposing of chemicals post World War ll.  Farmers were persuaded they could not activate the soil enough to grow crops as they had for centuries. Suddenly, farmers were beholden to the chemical and fertiliser companies and all agronomic advice was linked to the sale of these products (and still is today).  

Many people of this era bought very little at a supermarket and some today would think of this as ‘subsistence’.  Perhaps it is more ‘self-reliance’.  Fast food companies push convenience to time-poor families with the concept that these ‘products’ are the equivalent to nourishing ingredients.  The skills, art and wisdom of cooking and feeding a family with raw, seasonal foods on a budget are being lost in a single generation.  You see this in a supermarket trolley.  How much of a weekly budget is spent on soft drinks, junk or ‘convenience’ or Ultra Processed Foods (UPF).  Statistics indicate most Australian and American diets include more than 55% of UPF’s in their diets on a regular basis. 

Australian farmers are applying more chemicals than ever before using more cocktails of chemicals; chemicals that are only assessed individually by the Regulator, the Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) as if they are being used singly so the cumulative effects are unknown 

Blueberries are a current case: 15 chemical products can be applied to one small fruit in its short growing lifetime.  What is the impact of these chemical cocktails on the farmer or person applying this toxic soup and their direct exposure to such a mix of harmful chemicals on a regular basis?  What is the risk to the consumer, especially children who eat more than 20gms of blueberries in one day?  

Today, farmers are being pressured to grow more food for less financial return. This mantra is for higher yields, more demands on ecological systems, resulting in higher rural debt than ever before in history as per the following ABA report –

https://www.ausbanking.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/254512-Agri-report_WEB.pdf   

The prevailing business model of agriculture producing commodities is known as the price-taking path – to grow very large volumes to benefit from the ‘economies of scale’ yet accompanied by high risks from shifts in market values, the inability to negotiate prices, high volatility in weather conditions and declining terms of trade; all factors outside the farmers’ spheres of influence.

Sometimes 30-40% of the establishment cost is just the labour, planting, fertilising and chemical applications and all before there is a harvestable crop.  The current ROI cash rate of return in farming enterprises is around three per cent per annum; no other sector would continue with that low return (less than current interest rates) not including capital growth.

The future can be equitable, clean, fair and delicious:

ORICoop’s Food Security submission covered the lack of supply chain integrity across our food and farming systems that lack the need for better food literacy and healthy food choices in schools, kindergartens, universities and hospitals.  What if, just as a start, all this was funded as a positive Government investment rather than the sickness industry caused by bad diets resulting in chronic diabetes, heart disease, malnutrition.  No child in Australia should lack access to affordable and healthy food yet charities like OzHarvest are donating more food than ever to working class families which cannot afford to put food on the table.

As listed in many of the Public Submissions around Food Security made to the Government in October 2025, is it really the growers causing the bottleneck?  Or is it actually a much deeper and complex system that is sinking the notion of Australia being the ‘lucky country’.  Tammi Jonas from AFSA has suggested that the peasants of the world have a better check on reality, especially the health of their communities and their loyalty to feeding their own and ensuring that each community has more than enough sustenance to maintain their lives.

Are our food choices actually related more to our life choices than we realise?  What if, like in Italy and Greece we all invested more than 30% of our weekly wages in healthier life choices?   Instead, Australians are ‘investing’ or wasting in excess of 50% of a family’s weekly wage on large mortgages chasing the Australian ‘dream’.  As the true cost of our love affair with large homes now costs us the liberty of slow food, of a healthier overall lifestyle not pressured by trying to make ends meet; what is the true and long term cost of this destructive outcome?

Perhaps this is the reason that farms in Korea are thriving while in Australia they are diminishing
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-koreas-small-farms-thriving-while-wests-dying-peter-james-qhpbc/?trackingId=8F3ZssCQSamKtM6clUaEyA%3D%3D

ORICoop’s submission covered the lack of supply chain integrity across our food and farming systems and identified the need for better food literacy and healthy food choices in schools, kindergartens, universities and hospitals.  What if, just as a start, all this was funded as a positive Government investment rather than the sickness industry caused by bad diets resulting in chronic diabetes, heart disease, malnutrition.  No child in Australia should lack access to affordable and healthy food yet charities like OzHarvest are donating more food than ever to working class families that cannot afford to put food on the table.

Another example to add to the blueberry scenario, what will be the (literal and metaphoric) downstream impact on 850,000Ha of land that has been treated by harmful chemicals on the notion to contain or eradicate fire ants?  With little environmental or human health consideration aside, including on unsuspecting organic farms.

Like many organic growers around Australia who now collectively farm and steward more than 55M hectares of land, these and other biological growers demonstrate that food can be grown in a sustainable, resilient and nutritious way that sustains the growers, the end-consumers, and also enhances the environment in the process.

Agroecology is a scientifically based and validated  model and the  viable alternative to the current (failing) industrial agricultural paradigm that is not meeting humanity’s needs regarding food security.  This localised food system includes:-

 

Local farms gaining an economic edge.

When fuel and freight costs rise, distance matters. A farm 20 kilometres away suddenly has an advantage over a farm 2,000kms away not because of size, but because of proximity, local resilience and the local farm story.

Long distance supply chains are under pressure.

Large centralised systems rely on cheap transportation. Those days are gone. High diesel prices, truck driver shortages, and cold-storage demands are squeezing the margins of national distributors.

Regional food systems are more resilient

Business models including Farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture collectives, local processors, and small-scale  distributors proved stronger during the pandemic, weather events, and longer supply-chain disruptions. Shorter supply chains recover faster and cost less to maintain.

“Buy where it’s grown” is no longer a slogan, it’s an economic strategy.

The data shows a clear trend: as transportation costs rise, proximity becomes value. Local food isn’t just fresher, it’s becoming more financially competitive.

A new hybrid food system is emerging.

Large farms will still supply commodity crops.  But small and mid-sized farms will increasingly dominate perishables and specialty foods where logistics matter most.

Why This Story Matters

It’s about real, measurable economic change happening right now.

Rising costs of logistics are rewriting the rules. They’re shifting power. They’re creating openings for regional farmers, small producers, and decentralised distribution.

The future of food is more local, more resilient, more diverse and more distributed than the system  built over the last 75 years to benefit multi-national interests.  This article gives you the facts and the context behind that shift and why it’s creating one of the most important agricultural realignments of our time.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rising-logistics-costs-reshape-us-food-supply-local-lfl2c/?trackingId=cJ9kmJKLTaexJ2%2B3v1FmCQ%3D%3D

In many countries, Governments subsidise farmers to grow more food to underpin their own food security.  No longer is Australia’s clean and green image genuine to entice Asia, the Middle East or the EU to pay more than what is sourced elsewhere.  Furthermore the Australian Government need to realise the cost-benefit of supporting more sustainable and regenerative outcomes rather than focusing solely on an export and profit driven agribusiness steam train heading in the wrong direction.  Instead, Australia must increase its transparency and profitability per hectare from the heart of farmers across the country without destroying the environmental heartbeat in the process, especially our critical land and water systems.  

Food needs to be grown in a more transparent, sustainable and biological manner to decrease the unhealthy dependency on harmful chemical and synthetic fertilisers.  The Australian farming sector is awakening to the harm these products are having on our farmers with one of the highest cancer, mental ill-health and cognitive disease trajectories in the world.  In addition, the degradation of our land and sensitive aquatic systems demonstrated by algal blooms and land degradation is no accident due to this commodified food system shambles.  

The Organic industry in Australia is at a precipice: internationally, the industry has grown 11% over the past year.  Astute consumers seek more clarity and information as to where their food has originated and how it was grown than ever before.  All sections of the Organic sector are collaborating to grow food more transparently to meet this growing demand.  But, the cost of labour in Australia combined with our exponential increase in land prices and the cost of doing business makes Australia one of the fewer ‘lucky’ countries in the world. Increasingly, our offshore competitors produce food more cost effectively than in Australia.  Australia must embrace our conscious consumers and demonstrate that more nutritious food with less of an environmental footprint is good for the planet and for the country.  Our future depends on it.

We need eaters to return to their roots of resilience and raw food which translates as becoming less time-poor and more food and health conscious.  If (when?) there is a world war or fuel shortage (noting Australia only has three weeks supply of fuel in stock reserve) where will your next meal come from?  How well do you know your local farmers?  How ‘resilient’ would your life be then?

The world needs brave change makers and farmers have often been at the forefront of change.  They are the ones who feed people in times of need through wars, natural disasters or pandemics. 

If there was equitable public funding investment into Australia’s own food security instead of supporting mining companies which pay little, if any, tax, all Australians could be sure of ongoing food security. This would enable Australia to be a prosperous and food-secure nation in the difficult times to come.  Agriculture must not only sustain the environment but have government reinvestment into the very communities that underpin regional Australia.

We all need to live more sustainably, and to do this some hard choices must be made.

A measure of success should be affordable local, healthy, nutrient dense food which, literally, doesn’t cost the earth.  

? Should Australia be pursuing a target of a $100 billion agriculture sector as supported  by the National Farmers Federation?  What if this singular export focus was leaving Australians vulnerable to geopolitical shocks?    

It is beyond time to have a financially and environmentally sustainable agricultural strategy that feeds our own first, then supplying premium local and export markets without the cost to people’s health or that of the land.

What if farmers could halve input costs, sell for a premium price while growing a product increasing in demand every year.  Wouldn’t that be a more sustainable model?

All this is already happening now and all we need are more farmers desiring to be profitable and participate in the fastest growing food sector on the planet.

Conclusion:

There is a reliable food future ahead when vested interests represented by lobbyists are taken out of the equation. We need to identify, recognise and celebrate those who are already growing nourishing foods, are profitable, collaborative and visionary.

Many of these people are members of the Organic and Regenerative Investment Cooperative (ORICoop) and nothing can stop an idea whose time has come…….and the time is now.

Become an ORICoop member here and enjoy preparing the futures we want.

————————————————————————————————————

Quote from Andre Leu

‘The majority of people who buy organic food do so to avoid pesticides’ says Andre Leu, International Director of Regeneration International.

‘Research from around the world, including Australia, shows that the majority of food from industrial agriculture contains multiple pesticides and these chemicals are now found in our blood and urine. There is no peer-reviewed science showing that this cocktail of pesticides is safe for people. There is a large body of published scientific evidence showing that the smallest amounts of many of the chemicals approved by the APVMA can cause a range of serious diseases and adverse health effects in children, even in-utero where we can’t hear their cry for help’

‘The APVMA will not release the studies it uses to approve the safety of chemicals as they are the commercial-in-confidence property of the pesticide companies or, worse still, generated by the companies asking for compliance; Carey Gilliam. These studies are hidden from the public and independent researchers and scientists. The public has the right to a fully open and transparent regulatory system, especially when the agency is allowing toxic poisons to be used in our food supply. These now contaminate our developing children. This should be seen as a monumental failure of the regulatory process.’

Dr. André Leu D.Sc., BA Com., Grad Dip Ed.

International Director, Regeneration International
Ambassador, IFOAM – Organics International
Author, Growing Life,  Poisoning our Children, The Myths of Safe Pesticides

Further Quote from Adam Willson

Australia’s laissez-faire approach to conventional Agriculture has led to many amortised costs which will be paid for by future taxpayers. Toxic agricultural chemicals not only have dangerous effects on humans and the ecosystems at large but they also have epigenetic effects that endure for generations. Chemical fallows used by grain growers to maximise water for the coming crop actually increases radiant heat, extinguishes the small water cycle, increases soil erosion and speeds up desertification in which Australia is a leader. Broad acre applications of herbicides (like Tebuthiuron) for the removal of trees to enhance grasses has oversimplified our farming landscapes leading to massive reductions in biodiversity and long term unpredictable costs.

Adam Willson

Organic Research Agronomist
Soil Systems Australia
Masters of Science in Research
Bachelor of Science in Agriculture
Author  ‘Hydrology, carbon and contours – the future of farming’.

 

REFERENCES:-

• List of Food Security Strategy Submissions – https://haveyoursay.agriculture.gov.au/food-security-strategy/survey/list
• ORICoop Food Security Submission – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f3yHmwtB8e-awzvvsSpcPENhxcIJcV_k/view?usp=drive_link
• APVMA Submission on DiMethoate here – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tCj67lyWCrxUxtl23UXHI9UGkjsD3KoM/view?usp=drive_link
• EAT LANCET REPORT – https://www.thelancet.com/commissions-do/EAT-2025
• Prior GUARDIAN ARTICLE – https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/29/with-the-right-incentives-organic-farming-could-be-australias-way-to-a-pesticide-free-future
• FIBL REPORT – https://www.ifoam.bio/global-organic-area-continues-grow