Sustainable Sustainability in Australian Food Exporting Sustainability

Sustainable

Sustainability in Australian Food Exporting

Sustainability is an increasingly important consideration in both built and natural environments, as human endeavors are revealed to be increasingly fragile and enormously dependent on natural resources that could potentially be eradicated through overuse and unsustainable practices. This affects almost all areas of human activity, including many that might seem not directly related to sustainability issues such as import and export levels. When considered from a regional perspective, however, the exportation of resources -- whether purely natural resources or a combination of natural and built procedures -- becomes directly related to certain concepts in sustainability. This paper will examine current features of Australia's food exportation activities and determine their degree of sustainability.

Crop Production

The amount of arable -- i.e. food-producing -- land in the world is diminishing, in some regions at alarming rates, meaning that agricultural products are already becoming increasingly rare (Midmore 1993). This does not yet pose a problem to developed nations, that either possess large agricultural areas or can afford the rising costs of imports (Midmore 1993). Right now, Australia falls into the former category and exports a large proportion of its agriculture to countries around the world. Population changes and a growing scarcity of good agricultural land, however, could upset the world balance of food production to a degree where Australia might be wise to curtail exportations and focus on supply domestic needs.

Regardless of who Australia produces for, itself or others, it is clear that the growing global population combined with currently shrinking agricultural land requires a new approach, with sustainable agricultural techniques being employed in all farming operations (Midmore 1998; Tellarini & Caporali 2000). By developing and utilizing more efficient farming techniques that help to restore or at lest fail to continue shrinking agricultural lands, the current limits of land and water resources can be increased both in the short- and the long-term (Tellarini & Caporali 2000). This will have several effects on exporting, especially if the sustainable techniques are employed in Australia yet global supply keeps shrinking: Australia should be able to maintain an agricultural surplus for some time to come, allowing for the continued exportation of food resources and potential strategic stockpiling, should the situation progress to a point where this is deemed necessary.

Multiple Perspectives

The issue of Australia's agricultural production and the need for sustainable practices is not only important in its effects on exporting activities, however. There are a variety of considerations and different levels of analysis that must be brought to bear on this issue in order to develop a detailed and comprehensive view of the issue (Fresco & Kroonenberg 1992). In addition to the national food supply, situations for individual farmers and for the globe as a whole need to be considered, and with these considerations in place the needs for immediate and worldwide adoption of sustainable practices becomes much more clear (Fresco & Kroonenber 1992).

It is with this recognition in mind that different approaches towards sustainable development have been proffered and implemented, ranging from the more strategic to the more holistic (Shaw et al. 1992). If each country adopted a fully strategic approach to sustainable development, which has largely been the case up until this point, there would be very little incentive (in short-term strategy, at least) to invest in the initial technologies and infrastructure demands that would be required (Shaw et al. 1992). Taking a long view of the situation, however, and/or taking on a more global perspective, leads to the recognition that the entire global food system is at risk if more sustainable efforts are not adopted (Shaw et al. 1992). Issues of exportation profitability begin to pale in comparison to the importance of true world hunger potentially occurring on a scale never before seen in human history.