This panel event brings together a cast of experts across the many dimensions of food security at a time of heightened importance. Supply shocks from COVID-19, natural disasters, and trade wars have rocked the foundations of our economies, putting the supply of our most essential goods in jeopardy. In response, the Hon Min Julie Collins has announced support for a National Food Security Strategy, but the questions remain: what is food security? and what can we actually do to create it?

Special Guest Ms Alison Stone (NSW Agriculture Commissioner) will provide opening remarks and help to set the scene for why food security is such an important issue to address, and why we have to do so from many angles through research, policy development, and industry.

Dr Timothy Neal (UNSW) will speak on the impacts of climate change on food supply and prices in a global context, and the impacts on the macroeconomy. His work touches on the potential consequences for food security as a result of an increasing prevalence of natural disasters and COVD-19-like shocks.

Dr Dana Cordell (UTS, Institute for Sustainable Futures) will address the complexities and threats facing critical inputs into agriculture systems, like phosphorus and land. Her work takes a ‘food-systems’ approach and provides a practical set of data-driven decision-support tools for understanding the trade-offs necessary to build food security.

Dr Joshua Bishop (USYD) will examine demand-side factors to food security, focusing on how tastes, expectations and environmental and health concerns matter for food security policy and trade-offs. Their work also delves into market-based approaches to addressing both food security and environmental externalities.

The Panel Event will be facilitated by Samuel Miller (Principal Economist, NSW Farmers).

COST: Free for members and non-members

VENUE: In-person at The Executive Centre

1 Bligh Street, Sydney 2000, Level 26

DATE: Thursday 15 May

TIME:

Arrive at 11am: tea and coffee served.

11:20: Guests seated for Opening Remarks by Special Guest Alison Stone, NSW Agriculture Commissioner.

11:30: Presentations by Invited Speakers followed by Panel discussion and audience Q&A.

12:30: Light lunch and refreshments served, networking.

1:00: Official proceedings close.

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Speakers

Alison Stone

Alison is the current Independent NSW Agriculture Commissioner, bringing a combined 40 years’ of experience across primary industries, land use planning, rural advocacy, forestry, and infrastructure development. Ms Stone has served in a range of advisory roles across Australia, including the Australian Government’s Forest Industry Advisory Council, the Victorian Fisheries Co-Management Council and the NSW Regional Development Advisory Council

Timothy Neal

Tim is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW in the School of Economics and also the Institute for Climate Risk & Response (ICRR). His main research interests are causation and climate change / environmental economics. His research has involved developing and applying large data to a diverse range of topics including the effects of climate change on crop yield and the macroeconomy, the impact of child labour on child development, and panic buying during the COVID pandemic. His future research agenda includes modelling the economic implications of climate change and exploring the synergies that exist between machine learning and econometric approaches to prediction and causal inference. Personal website

Dana Cordell

Associate Professor Dana Cordell is a Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures where she leads the Food Systems research group. Dana directs and undertakes international and Australian research projects on sustainable food and phosphorus futures. She has worked on collaborative projects with partners in Australia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Malawi, Sweden, UK, EU and the U.S., many of which involve high-level stakeholder engagement to improve policy relevance, impact and foster mutual-learning.

As a global food security expert, Dana provides expert advice and commentary to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Australia's Chief Scientist and the UK Parliament. She most recently joined UNEP's Global Environment Outlook team as a global food security contributor.

Joshua Bishop

Joshua Bishop is an environmental and natural resource economist with over 30 years’ experience. He has published numerous articles and co-authored or edited six books, including: The Economics of the Tropical Timber Trade; Selling Forest Environmental Services; the Natural Capital Protocol; and Global Biodiversity Finance. Dr Bishop was appointed Adjunct Professor at the University of Sydney in 2024, following long employment at WWF-Australia, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). During his career, Dr. Bishop has led or contributed to sustainability initiatives in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and wildlife conservation, as well as the mining, financial services and retail sectors, in Australia and internationally.