Securing Australia’s food & water systems

Understanding and addressing environmental and social risks

Australians share a deep relationship with our land and water, one that includes Indigenous connections to country, cultural associations that derive from a history of riding ‘high on the sheep’s back’ and an understanding that ours is a sunburnt country ‘of droughts and flooding rains.’ However, both the social and environmental climates have undergone substantial changes since the times of early white settlement, with future impacts likely to affect the ways we are able to grow and access food and water.

Join our discussion with Associate Professor Rebecca Ford from the Environmental Futures Research Institute and Associate Professor Sue Jackson from the Australian Rivers Institute to delve into the broad and complex topic with its many intertwined issues. Explore the major factors that require immediate consideration for securing equitable food and water resources for all Australians.

This event was held at the Brisbane Square Library on the 5 November 2015 

 

Associate Professor Rebecca Ford
Environmental Futures Research Institute

rebecca-ford-hi-resRebecca Ford is a member of the Environmental Futures Research Institute and Director of the Master of Science program at Griffith University. Her research focusses on improving the sustainability of local, regional and national food production systems through engagement with and working alongside grower groups, agronomists and national crop breeders. She has developed and implemented novel tools for selective breeding to improve the sustainability and security of plant-derived food production systems through the mitigation of biotic and abiotic factors that impact yield and quality and the optimization of resource inputs used for their management. In particular, she is currently working with the Southern Morton Bay Islands producers to develop a local food hub for the supply of fresh and nutritious food to the local communities, and she leads the national chickpea pathology program for the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Know More: Environmental Futures Research Institute
Associate Professor Sue Jackson
Australian Rivers Institute

sjackson-210x236Sue Jackson is a geographer with over 20 years’ experience researching the social dimensions of natural resource management in Australia, particularly community-based conservation initiatives and institutions. She has research interests in systems of resource governance, including customary Indigenous resource rights, and Indigenous capacity building for improved participation in natural resource management and planning, as well as the social and cultural values associated with water. She has conducted research in the Kimberley (WA), the Top End of the Northern Territory, the Pilbara (WA), Cape York (Qld) and the Murray Darling Basin.

Sue is currently a member of the Research Executives of the TRaCK (Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge) Research Hub and the NERP Northern Biodiversity Hub. Since 2011 she has been an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. In 2013 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to undertake research on Indigenous water management and rights in the Murray Darling Basin.

Know More: Australian Rivers Institute