Land to house the people or to feed them?

For the first time in the nation's history, Australia is now importing more fruit and vegetables than it exports.

And with the Prime Minister predicting a population of 36 million by 2050, food growers and urban planners will be forced to compete even more for the very land we rely on to feed us.

SBS' Peta-Jane Madam takes a look at how urbanisation has become one of the main issues driving the current agricultural revolution.

As Australia's population continues to grow, where food comes from and how it is produced is undergoing dramatic change.

 The Hawkesbury Region is the agricultural back bone of the Sydney Basin.
 
It's also the battleground to a growing conflict: should this land be used to house people, or to feed them?
 
Lynne Saville is from the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance, an advocacy group pushing for food sustainability. 
 
"They're quantifying people, we quantify water, but we're not quantifying the amount of food that's going to be needed to feed these people," Ms Saville told SBS.
 
The Sydney Basin once boasted more than 2000 farmers. That number has been halved.

She says by 2030, that number will be halved again, as housing developments spill onto arable land. 
 
"If we increase our population and if we don't protect our agricultural land and think of ways to grow food to feed our growing population - we will experience serious food shortages."
 
Already 95 per cent of the food consumed by Sydney-siders comes from outside the Sydney basin, opening the gateway to imported food.

Imported food on the rise 

For the first time, Australia is now importing more fruit and vegetables than it exports.
 
Last year, $826 million worth of food came into the country while $749 million worth went out. 

Most comes from New Zealand, but increasingly garlic, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, beans and corn are being sourced from China.

Store Manager Abilio Paiva says his customers are wary of where their food comes from. 

"When we say it's from China or from America, they don't want it."
 
But imports are not the only issue.

Calls for new labelling system
 
When it comes to identifying what foods come from what country, the labelling can be confusing.

To be a Product of Australia it must be grown, processed and packaged in the country. 

To be Made in Australia it simply needs to be processed here.

Otherwise, the ingredients can be entirely sourced from overseas.

There are also concerns about how imported food is grown - the use of chemicals and standards in storage.
 
These fears were raised, when the federal government moved to allow beef imports from countries previously hit by mad cow disease.

"We have the highest standards of food safety in the world but I can't say that with confidence about the products sourced from many other countries," CEO of AusVeg Richard Mulchay said.

Some argue that the safety of imported food wouldn't be an issue, if our agricultural land was preserved in the first place.

"We've lost that connection between food consumption and where our food is produced, Sustainable agricultural expert at the University of Sydney Bill Billotti told SBS.

"In the long term it's a very negative thing, because it means that our farmers are struggling to remain financially viable, and it means our policy and our planning is not protecting or preserving some of our best agricultural land."

"If we continue to see this rise in imports, then we're going to see a situation where the smaller farms, the Australian families working on those farms, are going to have to close down," Professor Bellotti said.  

Calls for national food framework

Agricultural experts have been monitoring this trend for years, and say the solution must begin with a national framework.
 
"The umbrella danger is, we don't have a national food policy in Australia,"  Senior Lecturer in Rural Systems and Development at the University of Western Sydney Dr Gavin Ramsay said. 

Until one is developed, people can expect to see more imported food appearing on their plates.

Despite Australia's landmass, it is estimated that only 10 percent of it is suitable for growing food. 
 
Much of that land, with its rich soil and regular rainfall, lies on the fringe of our cities, with the very areas earmarked for development.
 
"We always talk about the Murray-Darling Basin as the food bowl of Australia. It's not the food bowl of Australia, it's one food bowl of Australia, town planner Ian Sinclair told SBS.