Food policy in Australia

Food System Horizons is helping governments across Australia explore the benefits of more coherent approaches to food policy.

Interactions between components of the food system can make it difficult to define the goals of food policy, establish who is affected by changes in policy and manage the uncertainties surrounding outcomes. The broad scope of food systems from inputs (e.g., fertiliser) and natural resources (e.g., soils) through to human health can mean that food policy can be directly or indirectly linked to most other major area of policy. This makes it difficult to map food policy interactions across Australia’s three tiers of government.

Towards greater coordination

Food System Horizons is helping governments explore ways of complementing existing policy arrangements to meet increasingly complex sustainability and social goals. These efforts are being guided by existing instances of systems thinking and collaboration between departments, and policies and programs that have been successful in the past.

The complex nature of Australia’s food system and the distribution of policy responsibilities across three tiers of government means that cooperation is needed to make improvements and solve problems effectively.