The federal Labor government released its “National Food Plan” on May 25. Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig said the plan is “about putting our Aussie mark on food and making sure that we all get a benefit out of it”.
Research group Beyond Zero Emissions released the statement below on May 28 in response to the plan.
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This week’s National Food Plan ignores the serious threat to agriculture posed by climate change. Yet research shows that an expanded Carbon Farming Initiative could have major benefits in combating climate change.
Andrew Longmire, research fellow with Beyond Zero Emissions, said: “The federal government’s National Food Plan released this week downplays the impact of climate change on Australian agriculture and the large impact of agriculture on climate. The plan relies on the $1 billion Clean Energy Future Plan for mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, which is not nearly enough.
“Revenue generated under the Clean Energy Future Plan is paid back to carbon intensive industries. These and other resources would be better spent improving the resilience of our food production systems and advancing sustainability of farming. Our national food plan missed this opportunity."
While it recognises that climate change could significantly reduce agricultural productivity, the paper proposes doubling food exports by 2030. This would rely heavily on exports of higher value carbon-intensive animal products, hence on-shoring of significant emissions.
Climate change has already had significant negative impacts on agriculture and food production, and caused great damage to farmland. Climate change has great potential to further alter conditions for agriculture in Australia.
The National Food Plan fails to take seriously the prospect of dramatic negative impacts on productive landscapes, and fails to look at the enormous capacity of agriculture to mitigate climate change.
Longmire said: “Both of our major political parties work on a misguided premise that their current policies will be enough to reduce the great risks to our food system posed by climate change.”
The National Inventory Report (NIR) attributes 16% of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions to agriculture, but other sources have estimated it is much higher.
Agriculture is a strong emitter of methane, especially from intestinal fermentation in sheep and cows. Methane has a high global warming potential, meaning that reductions in methane emissions represent a low-cost opportunity to reduce total emissions.
A 2009 CSIRO study estimated Australia could store 140 million tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) each year, or 77% of Queensland’s 2007 greenhouse emissions, by rural land use change that either stores carbon or mitigates emissions. The Carbon Farming Initiative aspires only to weak targets that are not nearly enough.
Longmire said: “The National Food Plan needs to recognise that our food system both depends on a safe climate, and is also one of the biggest levers we’ve got to influence atmospheric carbon levels.
“We need to pay farmers a fair price, both for the quality food they produce, and for their frontline role in combating climate change, and also support them with research as they see close-up the effects of climate change.”