Call goes out for growers to step up to Food Ladder

The call-out was issued by Food Ladder chief executive officer, Kelly McJannett, at the Protected Cropping Australia Conference in Adelaide earlier this month.

Food Ladder is a social enterprise committed to addressing food security challenges around the world by supporting communities to achieve their vision for sustainability.

It currently has projects in different phases of maturity in Australia, India and Afghanistan.

Utilising Australian research, innovation and design, Food Ladder uses the potential of hydroponic greenhouse systems as a solution to the global demand for clean, healthy, high yield vegetables.

Ms McJannett said each year 6 million children die before the age of five and 45 per cent of those deaths are due to malnutrition.

She also added that one in 10 in the current global population go hungry yet less than 1pc of the global development budget is spent on tackling the issue.

"There is a lot of work to be done around food security," Ms McJannett said.

While the humanitarian perspective is key, there is a looming economic impact as well.

"To put it simply, not investing in nutrition today could represent a two to three per cent loss in GDP by 2030," Ms McJannett said.

She detailed some local success stories where Aboriginal communities in Katherine and east Arnhem Land, were utilising greenhouses to grow their own crops which they would not have had otherwise.

"There's no debate that the consumption of fresh, nutritious produce is the root of the endemic health challenges that we see proliferating across remote communities across Australia," she said.

"And while we are incredibly fortunate in Australia to have a health system, the issue remains that it is the access to nutritious food that is letting us down."

The Food Ladder program can be integrated into all parts of a community, from school programs through to those wanting to obtain horticulture production certification.

Ms McJannett said the success of each project relies heavily on community buy-in.

She said there were plenty of stories of failed market gardens in such communities but Food Ladder only goes where it has been asked, taking care to work with empathy and cultural awareness in each community.

The organisation is funded through private, philanthropic supporters, plus grants and some government support.

Ms McJannett said the organisation has not had a failed project in the past decade.

She acknowledged protected cropping consultant, Graeme Smith, for his assistance and guidance to the program, before issuing a request to the audience.  

"If you believe you have a solution, or a product or expertise that would help make a difference, and further impact what we are doing, I would love to talk to you," Ms McJannett said.  

"Australia is a first world country, home to the oldest continuing civilisation on earth, and I believe we must work in collaboration as an industry to deliver a sustainable solution to food security for good."

Food Ladder works with on-ground partners including Australia’s preeminent universities, local councils and remote community leaders in order to maintain a light touch approach and to ensure that each project is self sustaining and has strong local ownership and accountability.