Policy - Reports & Submissions

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

The report of the Victorian Food Supply Scenarios: Impacts on Availability of a Nutritious Diet project has been released.

This VEIL-led research project was funded by VicHealth and undertaken in partnership with the CSIRO, Deakin University and the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development.

The purpose of this project was to develop and demonstrate a new methodology to link land and resource use with availability of a nutritionally adequate food supply for Victoria's population. To do so, it has built the capability of the CSIRO stocks and flows model as a platform for on-going 'what-if' investigation of Victorian and Australian food supply security.

The full report and a summary version are available for download here.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

Food sensitive planning and urban design (FSPUD) recognises that access to healthy, sustainable and equitable food is an essential part of achieving liveable communities.

VEIL and David Locke Associates were commissioned by the National Heart Foundation of Australia (Victorian Division) to develop a resource further articulating the idea of 'Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design' (first articulated by VEIL in 2008 as Food Sensitive Urban Design).

This new resource - Food Sensitive Planning and Urban Design: A conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and just food system - is intended to raise the awareness of planners, architects, urban designers, engineers, policy makers, community members and elected representatives of the need to integrate food considerations into urban land use and development. It outlines:

• key areas in planning legislation, policy and processes to realise this outcomes;
• how meeting people's food needs contributes to the broader objectives of planning and urban design, including: health and fairness; sustainability and resilience; livelihoods and opportunity; and community and amenity; and
  
• a challenge to professionals and the broader community to take on a stronger role in ensuring that healthy, sustainable and equitable food is available for all Australians into the future.

It is available for download here.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

This report assesses Best Practice Food Distribution Systems that might contribute to achievement of significant environmental improvements (i.e. reductions in GHG emissions) and/or reduce vulnerabilities in food systems.

Leadership was identified in five categories:

·       Farmer and consumer led initiatives (e.g. farmers' markets; coops; online hubs etc);

·       Food retailers;

·       Food manufacturers and marketers;

·       Third party logistics providers; and

·       Local councils, State and Federal Governments.

38 different initiatives were studied and results were extracted for each category, regarding:

·       Drivers and motivations;

·       Innovative aspects and opportunities;

·       Obstacles and challenges; and

·       Lessons learned - applicability to future initiatives.

This report highlights a wide range of alternatives that can help to decrease GHG emissions, and potentially reduce vulnerability in food distribution systems. Rather than advocating for a unique approach to be used, this report shows that each player in the chain has potential to contribute to the development of sustainable and resilient food distribution systems, whether at a local, national or international level.

Similarly, there are opportunities for players in each category to learn from and develop ideas from the others. The opportunities for abatement, and the creation of more resilient and sustainable supply chains, are significant.

For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This report is part of a larger food freight project, see also project description and Understanding Victoria's F&V Freight Movements.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

To create a sustainable and resilient fruit and vegetable distribution system, it is useful to first try to understand the current one.

This work maps out Victoria's fruit and vegetable freight movements from production to fork and analyses the greenhouse gas emissions produced through these movements. The analysis is focused only on the transport components of the supply chain, including refrigeration within transport where required, but it does not include energy use of emissions from production, processing, packaging etc.

It is hoped that this work will also support further exploration of the circumstances in Victoria where new systems of F&V distribution could achieve significant GHG reductions and reduced vulnerability to oil scarcity / price escalations.

This project was conducted by This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at CSIRO, and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it from Food Chain Intelligence. For general information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it at the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab. For technical information, contact one of these authors.

This report is part of a larger food freight project - see also project description and Best Practice Food Distribution Systems.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

Visions of possible futures; new trajectories for sustainable development.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

This submission briefly addresses part b) of the Terms of Reference:

the potential value of Crown land, and public authority land for areas not committed to a specific use, and report on appropriate future uses relevant to Melbourne's liveability and natural values.

 

This submission outlines VEIL’s position that food production in urban Melbourne will be critical to the provision of secure, healthy and sustainable food supplies, which in turn are essential for a city to be ‘liveable’. We have outlined the need and opportunities for increased food production within urban areas, with particular reference to environmental impacts and vulnerabilities, and highlighted opportunities for innovative and effective resource use.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

This submission outlines VEIL’s position that food production in outer suburban (as well as inner urban) Melbourne will be critical to the provision of secure, healthy and sustainable food supplies.

Viable and sustainable agribusiness – “the businesses collectively associated with the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural products” – will be critical to meeting these challenges. However, we suggest that in light of the challenges facing our food system, the ability of peri-urban businesses and enterprises to deliver ‘sustainable food production’ will be the fundamental underpinning to their success, and their ability to provide high quality employment opportunities within their local and regional economies.  The pursuit of ‘sustainable food production’ and ‘healthy, sustainable and prosperous outer suburban areas’ will require a broader understanding of the types of businesses / enterprises that are valuable in urban and peri-urban spaces – emerging models of sustainable food production and distribution may also contribute to more resilient communities, cultures and economies in peri-urban Melbourne.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

 

Time constraints meant that this was a very short submission! The text of the covering submission is included below, which basically refers the Inquiry to our existing work. Kirsten Larsen will be appearing at a public hearing in March 2009 and the presentation will be available here.

Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) Submission to the Senate Select Committee on Agricultural and Related Industries Inquiry into Food Production in Australia

The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab welcomes the Select Committee’s investigation into food production in Australia and the question of how to produce food that is:
1. affordable to consumers;
2. viable for production by farmers; and
3. of sustainable impact on the environment.

Publications - Policy - Reports & Submissions

The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab has just released its first policy research report and it's all about food!

The report, Sustainable and Secure Food Systems for Victoria: What do we know? What do we need to know? discusses the environmental challenges relating to the food system, examining:

• how the production and consumption of food impacts on the environment; and
• the risks and vulnerabilities of the food system to environmental change and social responses (such as policy aiming to reduce environmental impacts)