Australia’s food system includes all the processes involved in producing, distributing and consuming food and food ingredients. This report helps to build a robust evidence base for exploring the directions the food system could take in the future, highlighting gaps and biases in reporting, and developing practical strategies for overcoming these. 

Key messages

• The ability to manage Australia’s food system to pursue a balanced set of economic, sustainability, equity and health outcomes depends on whether it is possible to see and manage the interactions that determine these outcomes.
• Current reporting tends to see the food system as mainly agriculture, with a focus on economic metrics of production.
• A focus on sectoral economic goals has crowded out reporting on broader economic goals, as well as reporting on sustainability, equity and health goals.
• More holistic and regular reporting would allow better recognition of food system opportunities and challenges, enable allocation of responsibility for managing these, and help prioritise practical action.
• Better managing the food system will unlock a range of benefits, including enabling the proactive design of healthier and more affordable food environments; enabling high value regional food manufacturing; and supporting efforts to minimise waste and improve sustainability across the food system.