The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Future Food & Farm Project aims to inspire a step-change towards food and farming systems that are genuinely sustainable.

Having grown used to cheap food, at any time, from anywhere; we now have to face up to the big sustainability challenges, as well as some opportunities. Consumers and producers are both feeling the strain and expense of a rapidly changing climate, an end to cheap oil, and declining land and water resources.

Australians’ consumption habits come with a high environmental price tag - around one quarter of our carbon pollution related to the food we eat - yet most of us never know the true cost of our food.

Many farmers are already showing local leadership, but official report after report shows that the critical life-support services provided by a healthy environment are still in decline.

Time is short, but our wealth, democracy and knowledge give us an edge. The longer we wait to change, however, the more opportunities will slip through our fingers.

With support from the William Buckland Foundation and a focus on the state of Victoria, the Future Food & Farm Project is a first step towards sustainable food and an Australian first.

ACF is exploring a leadership role for government in helping our whole food supply - from paddock to plate - to become sustainable.

By bringing together diverse interests - farmers, policy specialists, agribusiness, restaurateurs, retailers, scientists, consumer advocates and opinion leaders - we’re tackling hard questions like:

• What would a sustainable food system look like in a carbon, water, oil, land and nutrient constrained world?
• How do we ensure everyone has access to healthy, affordable food at minimal environmental cost?
• What role does farming and the food value chain have in turning around some alarming health trends?
• What opportunities do we have to capitalise on sustainable food and farming, to ensure our ‘clean and green’ rhetoric matches reality?
• How can farming communities reach their potential as custodians of wildlife, carbon, soil and rivers?
• What roles and responsibilities should consumers, retailers, agribusiness, distributors and restaurateurs have in shaping a sustainable food system?
• What should governments be doing?
• What are the milestones of progress between, say, 2010 and 2020?