Published Feb 03 2023

‘What Happens Next?’: Is Food Insecurity Getting Worse?

Susan
Carland
Academic, author and social commentator
Liza barbour
Teaching Associate, Nutrition Dietetics and Food, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Roslyn gleadow
Professor of Plant Sciences
Sue kleve
Senior Lecturer, Nutrition Dietetics & Food
Ian carson
Co-founder, SecondBite

Have you noticed your grocery bill rising lately? Get used to it.

When we think of “food insecurity”, many of us think of extreme poverty in the global south, not of Australia and other first-world countries. Nonetheless, food insecurity is a serious issue here – and one that will only continue to grow.

Climate change brings with it warmer temperatures and rising sea levels that threaten staple crops, and an increase in natural disasters that impact supply chains already challenged by global events such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This combination is creating a perfect storm, reducing access to reliable food sources even for the most privileged among us.

Read: Breadbasket case: The impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on global supply chains

Who’s facing food insecurity? How will we feed more people than ever on an ever-warming planet? And what can we do to help?

Season seven of Monash University’s podcast, What Happens Next?, returns from hiatus with an investigation into food security. Host Dr Susan Carland’s expert guests include dietitians Dr Sue Kleve and Liza Barbour, plant scientist Professor Ros Gleadow, and Ian Carson AM, a Monash alumnus and co-founder of food rescue organisation SecondBite.

“There are students who are missing meals, there are people who are homeless who are missing meals, there are people with families that don't have enough money to buy their food and they're missing meals … And given the amount of food we produce in this country, I don't think that's acceptable.”

Professor Ros Gleadow

Hungry for more? What Happens Next? will be back next week with part two of this series, “Can We Take a Bite Out of Food Insecurity?”.

If you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast app, and rate or review What Happens Next? to help listeners like yourself discover it.

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Listen to more What Happens Next? podcast episodes

About the Authors

  • Susan carland

    Director, Bachelor of Global Studies, and Lecturer, School of Language, Literature, Cultures and Linguistics

    Susan's research and teaching specialties focus on gender, sociology, contemporary Australia, terrorism, and Islam in the modern world. Susan hosted the “Assumptions” series on ABC’s Radio National, and was named one of the 20 Most Influential Australian Female Voices in 2012 by The Age.

  • Liza barbour

    Teaching Associate, Nutrition Dietetics and Food, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

    Liza started teaching at Monash University in 2010 and has designed one of Australia's first undergraduate units on food sustainability systems for nutrition and dietetics students, which she continues to coordinate. Her PhD seeks to describe the role of local governments in promoting healthy and environmentally sustainable diet-related practices, and to understand the contextual factors which influence the policy-making process.

  • Roslyn gleadow

    Professor of Plant Sciences, School of Biological Sciences

    Ros is a plant biologist who studies the effect of climate change on food security, with a focus on plants that make cyanide as a herbivore defence, examining the issues from the molecular through to the ecosystem, and even global scales. She coordinates the core undergraduate science program at Monash and is a pioneer in the use of new technology in higher education

  • Sue kleve

    Senior Lecturer, Nutrition Dietetics & Food

    Sue is an Accredited Practising Dietitian who came to Monash with more than 20 years experience working as a public health nutritionist. It was through this experience that she developed her research interest in household food security (physical, economic and social access to sufficient nutritious food on a daily basis) in high income countries. Her PhD explored the existence and experience of food insecurity in low-to middle income Melbourne Households. Sue is the convener of the Australian Household Food Security Research Collaboration.

  • Ian carson

    Co-founder, SecondBite

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