Question Time – Meeting the Food Security Challenge

ABC’s Q&A Host TONY JONES hosted this fantastic event during Annual Conference 2011.

Panelists included:

• Peter Langridge – Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council & Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics
• Paul Luxton – Syngenta
• Mick Keogh – Australian Farm Institute
• Michael O’Brien – 2009 Farmer of the Year
• Paula Fitzgerald - Chief Executive Officer, Agrifood Awareness Australia Limited
• WWF: Rob Cairns, Program Manager – Sustainable Agriculture

Why all the fuss?

Australian farmers will have to increase their production by 70 percent by the year 2050 to meet the growing world demand for food – but a plan needs to be mapped out to make sure that can happen.

With the encroachment of extractive industries and the selling off of prime agricultural land to foreign interests, how will Australia meet the challenge? Will we have enough to feed Australia and the world’s population?

Australia needs to meet this challenge in a sustainable way. Farmers are a resilient bunch, who have shown they must work with the environment – not against it – to produce food and fibre. After all – a farmer’s greatest asset is their land.

A panel of experts from the political arena, agriculture, research, environment and corporate Australia were selected to participate in Question Time - Meeting the Food Security Challenge at Annual Conference 2011 to help address these issues.