Future food security needs to be decoupled from an obsession with agricultural productivity to ensure food is kept on the table of all Australians, sustainability advocates say.
The federal government is currently consulting with stakeholders after the release of a national food security strategy discussion paper last year.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry appointed a National Food Council to consult on the strategy, which aims to strengthen a sector battered by disruptions to supply chains caused by COVID-19, climate change and war.
The review followed a highly critical CSIRO report that found almost a third of Australian households experience moderate or severe food insecurity each year.
It also said Australia's food system had the highest per capita environmental and health costs in the world, estimated to total up to $274 billion annually.
Co-author Rohan Nelson said that current reporting metrics focused on agriculture and economic production, at the expense of sustainability, equity and health goals.
Now, the Australian Conservation Foundation says the strategy is in danger of being hijacked by what it calls export-focused vested interests.
The foundation said it was worried by calls from industry bodies for the strategy to deliver cheaper access to farm chemicals, fertilisers, more export market access, and less red and green tape.
The focus instead should be on making sustainably produced food available to people regardless of what they earn or where they live in Australia, it said.
"The first thing that needs to change is the goal," the ACF's Nathaniel Pelle said.
The success of the food system should not be defined by how much beef or wheat Australia produces, he said.
"It should be about supporting the reversal of nature decline to avoid eroding the ecosystem that food production is reliant on, and delivering the right mix of healthy and affordable food to all," he said.
An expert from the University of Wollongong also said that food insecurity was not just about insufficient quantity, but insufficient quality.
Dietician Katherine Kent said that poor nutrition was contributing to a raft of chronic conditions that cost the health system billions and undermined productivity.
"From a public health perspective, we would recommend that nutrition be elevated to a key priority area," she said.
"Food security really needs to be defined nationally."
Australian Associated Press