Dietitians Australia has responded to a consultation on the Feeding Australia: National Food Security Strategy. The Feeding Australia Strategy must be ambitious, equitable and health-centred. Food and nutrition security cannot be achieved through agricultural productivity alone. It requires a coordinated national approach that places nutrition, equity, environmental sustainability and accountability at the heart of the food system.

We put forward 6 general recommendations and 5 recommendations to improve specific parts of the strategy:

General recommendations:

1. Strengthen the scope and intent of the Feeding Australia strategy to address health outcomes and dietary patterns.

2. Recognise safe access to food and water as a human right within the Feeding Australia strategy.

3. Strengthen the focus on environmental sustainability and align with international best practice to ensure long-term food system viability.

4. Further integrate water security across the strategy as a vital component of the whole-of- system approach to the Strategy’s Health and Nutrition section.

5. Strengthen the Collaborative principle by ensuring governance structures include cross- departmental representation and lived-experience advisory bodies.

6. Align the strategy with global best practice as defined in international government agreements.

Recommendations in response to discussion questions:

7. Introduce “Equity and Inclusion” as a standalone principle in recognition of the economic and social barriers to food security and to ensure these barriers are suitably addressed throughout the framework.

8. Embed “Nutrition security” as a key priority area to optimise health and wellbeing and combat malnutrition in all its forms including undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight/obesity.

9. Strengthen the wording “Resilient supply chains” to “Resilient and sustainable supply chains” to reflect the importance of long-term environmental stewardship.

10. Strengthen the wording “People” to “People, culture and equity” to reflect the importance of structural and cultural dimensions of food insecurity.

11. Embed “Monitoring and accountability” as a whole-of-system consideration and commit to regular monitoring of health, affordability and ecological outcomes.

To read more, download our full submission.