Food regimes and food security

The 2011 Symposium will be held in the Academy’s 40th year. To mark this event, the 2011 Symposium provides an opportunity for the social sciences to showcase their role in addressing issues of national importance, and the role of collaboration and cooperation across and between disciplines. The Symposium will examine food in all its phases: production, distribution and consumption. Among the topics to be explored are:

An overview of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) report Australia and Food Security in a Changing World from a social science perspective

• A social-science based appraisal of the food system in Australia in the context of the PMSEIC report
• The concept of food security and its relevance to Australia
• Pathways from production through distribution to consumption
• Climate change and food production, with special reference to the Murray-Darling Basin
• The food production workforce
• Pressures on the inputs to food production
• Systems of distribution and cultures of consumption including the role of supermarkets in food distribution
• Food security in remote Indigenous communities, including community stores and their role in the health of remote Indigenous communities and the Mai Wiru program