Greens’ food security plan to tackle the ‘supermarket duopoly’

The Greens party has launched Our Food Future, its plan for Australia’s food security. The plan includes seven initiatives totalling more than $600 million in commitments over the next four years.

Senator Christine Milne launched the plan yesterday via an interactive online release, claimed to be the first of its type undertaken in Australia.

Key points of the plan include:

• Providing grants to rebuild local food systems to connect communities with farmers.
• Establishing an independent National Biosecurity Authority and Biosecurity Commission.
• Running a national food waste reduction campaign, including funding for research into financial mechanisms to avert avoidable post-harvest waste.
• Increasing Commonwealth funding for agricultural research and development by 7% each year.

The plan also includes strategies to “stop the supermarket duopoly from squeezing farmers and small business”. This will include placing a temporary ban on expansion by Coles and Woolworths while the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) carriers out an ex-post assessment into their decisions regarding the grocery market, and preventing these companies from purchasing agricultural land.

The party has also pledged to extend the Australian Consumer Law framework dealing with unfair contract terms to business-to-business agreements involving small business and farmers, as well as increasing the resources and effectiveness of the ACCC.

“Too many of our farmers are struggling to make a living, we’re losing precious agricultural land to mining, and we’re not prepared for the impacts of climate change,” Senator Milne said.

“Our Food Future is a roadmap for making Australia’s food system healthy, prosperous, fair and sustainable. We will give our farmers a fair price and help them stay on the land, because we can’t give every Australian healthy food without them.

“It’s time to think about where and how our food is produced, what we eat, and choose a better way.”

AUSVEG has welcomed several of the initiatives outlined in the plan. “The plan contains several initiatives which allow Australian growers to remain productive and competitive in what is becoming an increasingly challenging global market,” said AUSVEG Public Affairs Manager William Churchill.

Churchill voiced AUSVEG’s support for the Greens’ Country of Origin Labelling initiative and its push for a shift from free trade to fair trade.