Food security: Will we have food for the future?

To ensure the security of food in our country we need the knowledge that in the foreseeable future w…

To ensure the security of food in our country we need the knowledge that in the foreseeable future we will be able to stock our shop shelves, farm our fields, and be able to produce our own food at a primary level.

While we are only one of many nations striving to feed our populations, and one that has so far avoided any form of hunger or famine, questions circle as to whether we should protect our resources for our own consumption or whether we should share it around.

The main issues plagueing the minds of the concerned lie with the importation of foreign products and the increasing foreign ownership of farms.

The presence of imported products has been criticised for discouraging a healthy level of employment given that much of that imported product lands on our shop shelves at a lower price than our locally grown or manufactured product.

And regarding the foreign ownership of land, our options range from maximising the opportunity of trade and export by allowing others to buy or lease Australian land compared to using food from our farms to feed our own population.

Dr. Peter Carberry from the Department Dir.CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship in Toowoomba says Australia needs to realise its place on the global stage.

"This is a global challenge, Australia doesn't really have a food security issue, we produce enough food to feed ourselves that is quite adequate, and many other countries in the world are not able to do that."

ABC South East was joined by a panel to discuss whether the future of Australia's food security is in jeopardy.