Response to National Food Security Strategy Discussion Paper

Australia is a nation of extremes, with a diverse landscape and weather patterns that include rainforests, deserts, droughts, floods, snow, and fire. We have abundance in the coastal areas, and reduced access to food and services in remote parts of our ‘wide brown land’.

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Recently, the Australian government released their discussion paper as the first step towards developing the Feeding Australia: National Food Security Strategy. They called for responses to this discussion paper. Given WBTi AUS has already made a submission in the past to the National Inquiry in to Food Security in Australia, it made sense for us to continue this advocacy. 

In collaboration with the Australian Breastfeeding Association and Dr Phillip Baker we made the following key recommendations – 

1.     Recognize breastfeeding as the central pillar for food security for infants and young children in Australia’s National Food Security Strategy. 

2.     Implement regular Australian Infant Feeding Surveys and include the production of breastmilk in national food production statistics. 

3.     Fund and implement the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy: 2019 and beyond in full to protect and support breastfeeding. 

4.     Legislate the full scope of the World Health Organization’s International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes and subsequent World Health Assembly resolutions, to which Australia is a signatory.

5.  Recognize breastfeeding as a key climate change mitigation strategy and improve resilience through prioritizing infants and young children in national disaster and emergency planning.

You can read the full submission including previous related submissions here.