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The Empty Food Bowl: Discourse Disconnection of Australian Agriculture

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Agriculture, Environment and Development
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Abstract

In 1997 John Wilson wrote that “while the hunger of Aboriginal Australians continues to be both a national and international scandal, hunger experienced by many other Australians is best described as hidden or silent hunger, not readily acknowledged publicly” (Wilson in First World Hunger: Food Security and Welfare Politics, Riches (ed.), University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 14–45, 1997). Sadly, this is still the case. Against the backdrop of high rates of local food insecurity, worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic and the failure of the just-in-time logic of global supply chains, Australian farmers and other food producers are under increasing pressure to meet the needs of both distant and local markets under volatile trade and environmental conditions. Yet the nation lacks a long-term vision that balances agricultural exports with domestic food security and, for Aboriginal people dispossessed of their homelands and access to productive resources, the impacts of white settler colonialism persist.

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Correspondence to Alana Mann .

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Mann, A. (2022). The Empty Food Bowl: Discourse Disconnection of Australian Agriculture. In: Ioris, A.A.R., Mançano Fernandes, B. (eds) Agriculture, Environment and Development. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10264-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10264-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-10263-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-10264-6

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