Food Policy

Agricultural and food policies can have a significant impact on agricultural landscapes, food prices, international trade, and farmer and consumer decision making.

Some of the specific issues at the core of research into food policy in the Centre include:

Role of the private versus public sector in establishing food safety and food quality standards and governance in food chains.
Public good versus private benefits of food labelling systems.
Consumer willingness-to-pay and welfare implications of policy alternatives.

Active projects

Food Insights Questionnaire (FoodIQ) is a twice-yearly online survey of Australian food shoppers.

The flexible survey instrument is designed to be responsive to current food issues and trends.

Completed projects

Getting to the meat of the matter: social and economic issues in animal welfare in Australia’s livestock industries

This project aims to document understandings of animal welfare along the animal production value chain in Australia, determine how these perceptions influence both consumer and industry behaviours, and provide insight on how to foster better alignment between industry practices and consumer demands.

Developing smallholder inclusive food value chain models for local and global markets

The project studies the dairy, meat, fish and horticulture sectors and draw on the experience of farmers in six economies.

Asian Food in Transition: Priority Research for Food Security and Sustainable Futures in Australia, China and the Asia-Pacific Region

The Group Mission successfully identified a range of critical challenges and impacts facing China, and connected the need to understand and inform debate regarding how China's responses to these will affect Australia, the region (including developing countries) and global markets.

Pacific Agribusiness Research for Development Initiative (PARDI)

The PARDI research program sought to promote sustainable livelihood outcomes for South Pacific households. The project involved collaborative teams of researchers from NGOs, government agencies, universities and private enterprises.

Assessing farmer responses to climate change: adjustment policy options

The aim of this work was to design policy to mitigate the cost of adjustment by farmers to climate change and thereby to improve their livelihood.

Identification and assessment of value-added export market opportunities for non-GMO labelled food products from South Australia

This research aims to identify potential value added market opportunities for Non-GMO products in the American, Chinese, Japanese and British markets.

Developing value chain innovation platforms to improve food security in East and Southern Africa

This research is also exploring how the establishment of IPs can be most cost-effectively scaled up across a range of contexts.

The Vietnam urban food consumption & expenditure study

The primary aim of this project is to address a number of knowledge and data gaps with a focus on understanding changing consumption patterns in the large and rapidly emerging urban areas in Vietnam.