This quick guide provides an overview of Halal food certification in Australia. Halal Halal is an Arabic word that means permitted or lawful in Islam. It is both an umbrella term used in relation to all food products, and a term that refers to a method of livestock slaughtering consistent with Islamic rites. What is...

Sugar and health is a topic that is surrounded by mixed messages in the New Zealand media. This summary of the current evidence sets out to remove some of the confusion around sugars in food, sugar intake, how sugars are processed in the body, and health effects from sugar consumption. Consumption of sugar and sweetening...

In the introductory abstract to ‘Vision Infinity for Food Security,’ (Sharma and Wightman 2015), co-author Dr Shashi Sharma draws our attention to the 1798 prediction by Thomas Malthus that human kind’s ability to feed itself was limited by population size. Malthus foresaw a time when human numbers would exhaust the capacity of planetary food producing...

The value of Melbourne’s foodbowl to the regional economy is significant: Melbourne’s foodbowl accounts for more than 1.7 million hectares of agricultural land, consisting of a mix of enterprises, most notably vegetables, poultry, dairy and livestock production. It contributes $2.45 billion per annum to the regional economy of Melbourne . The value under future scenarios...

Increased anxieties over contemporary crises such as climate change are generating interest in urban agriculture in Australia. The connection between suburban food producing environments and the urban environment is complex and often misunderstood. The food system is multi faceted and frequently intersects with economic, political and cultural aspects of society. By looking at historical events...