Food Security

Something we are passionate about at Millstream Meadows is contributing to growing Far North Queensland’s (FNQ) food security. So, in this article we are delving a little deeper into food security, why it’s important and what we can do to create more of it in FNQ.

The Cambridge dictionary defines it as “the fact that a place is able to produce or obtain enough food to feed its population”.



For most of us, I think it really is about being able to access food when we need it.

At first glance, with an abundance of meat, fruit, and vegetables being grown on the Atherton Tablelands and surrounding areas, it would be easy to assume that we do have a very secure food supply.

The truth is that it actually doesn’t.



When highways are cut off due to flooding, it becomes glaringly obvious that we are heavily dependent on trucks getting through in order to keep food on the supermarket shelves.

In the old days when everyone made things from scratch, people developed relationships with their local butcher, baker, greengrocer, corner store and even their local farmers. 

When supermarkets came on the scene, people began opting for the convenience of the one-stop-shop over their local stores. As the popularity of the supermarket rose, so did the buying power of the supermarkets. The supermarkets then used that buying power to dictate how they bought their produce, putting in place large exclusive-supply contracts direct with large scale farmers which enabled them to set the price and ultimately result in farmers selling much more for a lot less. It also allowed them to reject produce that was too big or too small or not pretty enough which created a lot of waste as farmers were locked into contracts that didn’t allow them to sell to anyone else.

Because the big supermarket chains have stores all over the country, they required the produce to be centralised so it could be sorted and sent on trucks across Australia. The crazy thing is that means our locally grown produce is sent 2000Kms to Brisbane and then another 2000Kms to be sold in a Cairns supermarket!

A similar thing happened with the meat industry with large-scale centralised meatworks requiring live animals to be transported hundreds of Km to production facilities (Townsville being the only North Queensland option).



The more people shopped at supermarkets, the more small, locally owned businesses such as greengrocers, abbatoirs, butchers and bakers closed down.

Every time we have flooding or cyclones in FNQ, the roads inevitably end up being cut off. This means that animals headed to and from the meatworks or the Brisbane markets can’t get through. 

Those of us who have been around in FNQ a while know too well that the panic buying is the next step which results in empty shelves for days if not weeks.



Now imagine if something happened that cut the roads off even longer – how long could your family survive without a supermarket shop? If your answer was not long, you might be seeing why creating a secure food future is so important!

It’s easy to point fingers at the supermarkets and say they should be buying direct and supporting the little guys, but they are making more money from doing it their way. 

Our food security (or lack thereof) came about because of consumer behaviour and it can be changed with consumer behaviour.

When more households start to regularly support businesses who supply local food without the food miles, it encourages more businesses to be created and provides consumers with shopping options. Your consumer behaviour can make all the difference in creating a secure food future for FNQ.



Another aspect is to choose to eat fruits and vegetables that are in season. When you buy out of season produce, it must be grown in other regions or even overseas because lots of fruit and vegetables need certain climatic conditions to grow.

There are so many reasons to create a secure food future for FNQ. Here’s a few you may or may not have considered:

• Fresher food – sending food South to sit in cold storage then be sorted and distributed back here takes time and reducing the freshness and quality of the food.
• Nutrition – the longer food sits off the plant/tree, the lower the nutritional value
• Access - get food when you need it
• Less waste – transportation creates more spoilage so keeping it local avoids that
• Keep your money in your community – local businesses keep money local
• Environmentally friendly – no burning excess fuel in transportation
• Taste – try it and you’ll see, local meat and produce just tastes better

Food security starts and ends with you – the consumer. When you make conscious decisions to support local and encourage your friends and family to do the same, that’s when we all win.



So what are you waiting for? Give a local food network a go today and start creating a safe food future for FNQ!