In the year or so since ASPI released its National Food Security Preparedness Green Paper, its argument that Australia should strengthen its food system as a matter of national security has been reinforced with uncomfortable …
Articles by: "Andrew Henderson"
Australia produces enough food to feed more than 70 million, yet a single Cabinet decision in an unrelated portfolio can quietly undermine that strength. Federal decision-making processes don’t systematically test how new policies affect the …
The economic and social costs of the war in Iran, particularly its effect on global food security and agricultural production, are a reminder for Australia to strengthen food-security resilience at home and abroad. The blocking …
Food supply is long overdue for elevation into national security policy. As The Australian reported on 19 February, there are persuasive arguments for Australia to follow the United States in treating our agricultural capacity and …
If BRICS can assemble an economic and political coalition with strategic intent, why shouldn’t the Commonwealth countries? This is the hard question Australia and its allies should be asking themselves, as existing institutions fail to …
‘Agriculture is foundational to our nation,’ says the US National Farm Security Action Plan issued in July. Now the plan is being operationalised, with US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Defense Pete …
When Dutch General Tom Middendorp speaks, the world’s security apparatus pays attention. As the former chief of defence of the Netherlands and current chair of the International Military Council on Climate and Security, Middendorp, widely …
In an era of continuous, concurrent and cascading risks, Australia’s reliance on siloed departmental frameworks has become its own threat to national security. Nowhere is this more evident than in the collision between climate mitigation, …
The path to a truly safe and secure Indo-Pacific is not just through military interoperability; it requires a more holistic and enduring form of statecraft that recognises food security as a foundation of cooperation. A …
When the varroa mite was first detected in Australia in 2022, many outside the beekeeping and horticultural industries viewed it as a nuisance—a distant problem for a few farmers. This was dangerously naive. In breaching …
The dust has barely settled on the 2025 federal election and the returning government has already reaffirmed its commitment to delivering a national food security strategy. That’s a welcome and long-overdue step forward. But unless …
Australia’s agriculture sector and food system have prospered under a global rules-based system influenced by Western liberal values. But the assumptions, policy approaches and economic frameworks that have traditionally supported Australia’s food security are no …