Page 4573 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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people sharing the earth’s land and resources. By 2030, the world’s population is expected to hit 8.3 billion, which will cause further stress. I did not put the figures in here, but that is going to be, I think, about another 30 per cent to 40 per cent increase in food demand.
At the same time, we are reducing the world’s agricultural productive capacity. There is a litany of abuses—deforestation, urbanisation, industrialisation, mining, pollution, overgrazing, extensive monocultures, acidification, salinity, pests, overfishing, droughts, floods, severe weather and climate change. And the world’s situation sets the context for local population. As a world, we are short of food, so we cannot say that the rest of the world can solve this issue.
Another reason for local food production is just supply chains. At the beginning of this year, we saw floods in Brisbane which led to local food shortages there, and we have just been through the second banana shortage caused by Queensland cyclones. As fuel and transport costs rise, imported food—probably all food—will become more expensive, as my colleague Ms Bresnan has touched upon. Local food inherently can be fresher and tastier. If done appropriately, local food production will have less environmental impact.
How can we improve Canberra’s food production? The Greens are very pleased with the new draft planning strategy, which now at least recognises agricultural production. One of the fact sheets is called “Food”, and it has a very good discussion of the various issues. Target 8 in the draft strategy even says:
Valuing the land by using it efficiently, protecting and enhancing areas of good biodiversity and agricultural production.
This hopefully signals a major change in direction for ACT planning to seriously look at food production in ways we have not done for at least 40 years, as Mr Corbell said. I say 40 years ago because I grew up in Canberra in the 1950s and 1960s, and it was all about local food production. Most people lived on suburban blocks which were big enough for serious vegie production and to have a small orchard. We had local dairies; we had local apple production. As Mr Corbell said, we had a lot of local food production.
I believe that we can still produce significant quantities of fresh food, despite our increased population. Most households in Canberra are still detached on-ground residences which have some arable space, and many apartment residents have pots on their balconies. Gardening and vegie growing have become a popular hobby, and backyard or balcony growing can make a difference to food production. For instance, even one square metre, intensively maintained, can produce all the lettuce that the average household consumes.
And of course there are community gardens. There are around 20 in Canberra. We had a motion supporting those earlier this year. I would like to recognise the contribution of COGS in promoting them. These gardens grow food, and they can also group people and community. My dream is that they will become widespread in Canberra. I would like to see that everywhere we have multi-unit development we
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