Sydney chef calls for rethink on food security and production

A Sydney chef whose 47ha farm west of Byron Bay took a battering during the recent floods, believes the wild weather events together with soaring food prices is an opportunity for Australia to rethink its food production and security.

Palisa Anderson, who runs Chat Thai restaurants in Sydney, gets her organic produce from the farm as well as supplying ingredients to restaurants including Icebergs and Quay in The Rocks. 

According to Ms Anderson, this year has been a disaster with flooding, the impacts of Covid-19, a shortage of farm hands, and plagues of pests. 

“In the beginning of the winter we had a lot of crop but we had the Covid closures, so all the specialty crops we were growing for restaurants like Quay had nowhere to go and instead I was having to try and flog things like candied peanuts in Chinatown,” she said. 

“Then when demand was picking up we had hardly anything in the ground because we were dealing with rain. There was also a locust plague north of us, we saw a huge jump in the rats and now the floods. It’s been almost biblical.” 

Anderson says current agricultural sector challenges provide a great opportunity to rethink sustainability, including food security and supply. 

“People all ask how do you propose to feed a huge population, but there needs to be a lot more support for small diverse farms – the 100 acre block farms are mostly family owned and when you’re farming on a scale that’s not too overwhelming you can think about country and how you manage it in a way that’s sustainable for when these weather events do come,” she said.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry, which is investigating food security and the challenges facing farmers, has received a submission from the state government highlighting rising food costs caused by supply chain issues, markets and trade relationships and international freight disruptions.

Further to this, increased costs for farm chemicals, equipment, shipping costs and fertiliser make many producers susceptible to increased overheads. 

The NSW Farmers Federation has recommended an economy-wide prohibition on unfair trading practices, retaining important agricultural land, and grants to support small scale producers.

Irit Jackson, 28^th April 2022