LABOR FOOD PLAN MUST BUILD ON R&D

THE Queensland Farmers’ Federation welcomes the announcement from Federal Labor that it would implement a National Food Plan, in a policy move that QFF has been requesting for several years.
QFF CEO Dan Galligan said central to creating a food policy would be to strengthen the research and development base for agriculture and food production in an integrated way.
“Australia’s food sector has inherent strengths – our marketing, our environmental management, world class efficiency, and high economic contribution are just a few.
“But at the moment our farmers are facing impediments to growth.
“Research funding is declining, and especially in Queensland we are facing fierce pressure from the mining and urban development sectors for access to our best farming land and water.
“These issues have come about because of poor Government policies of the past and this election commitment must redress this issue.”
Mr Galligan said he hoped a proposed National Food Plan would look for opportunities for growth, new markets, strengthening supply chains, and opening up new areas for food production.
“That means looking seriously at sustainable opportunities for Northern Australia.”
He added that it would be very welcome among farmers that the food policy would analyse the entire value chain.
“Building sustainable food production areas would deliver sustainable populations. The entire value chain has an important role in ensuring this is the case.
“QFF will continue to make the case for this type of policy regardless of who wins at the polls on August 21.
“But to be really serious, a plan must involve all the players and it must deal with the reality of producing more food and fibre with less energy, less water and less land in the future. “Therefore the plan’s development must be attached to funding for activities and policy reforms along all the critical points of production; including farming systems, infrastructure bottlenecks and processing.”