Safeguarding food security in Australia: everyone has an opinion for the inquiry

However, there are also calls for governments to keep their noses out of agriculture.

The inquiry, launched last year, has received almost 170 submissions and is still taking them. Public hearings have been held in Canberra and Hobart and the next one is scheduled for Adelaide on April 20.

The committee's aim is to nail down ways to strengthen and safeguard food security in Australia and it is focussing on the impact of supply chain distribution on the cost and availability of food. It is also exploring the impact of climate change on food production in Australia.

A submission from Perth-based lobby group, the Pastoralists and Graziers Association, said government intervention was now the greatest threat to agriculture in Western Australia.

WA will be the state most affected by the Federal Government's move to ban the live sheep trade.

PGA president Tony Seabrook said left to its own devices, agriculture production in WA would continue to increase.

The cumulative and ever-increasing pressure on governments to instigate carbon neutral or net zero targets was now placing pressure on food security, the PGA submission said.

"Most net zero schemes rely on carbon markets and using arable land as carbon sinks - a tactic that might mean forced removal of the people currently living and working on them," Mr Seabrook said.

"In WA, thousands of kilometres of valuable grazing and watering land has been excluded due to Commonwealth and State national parks and reserves.

"In addition, the WA state government's 2030 reduction target of 80 per cent below 2020 levels is resulting in land being taken out of the pastoral estate for wind and solar farms to develop a WA hydrogen industry."

The approval process for land clearing, and the creation of dams and other watering points, chemical use, transport and stocking densities all remain both costly and prescriptive for most producers, the PGA said.

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The Queensland Farmers Federation submission said excessive costs and the lack of long-term price certainty in critical inputs such as water and electricity was eroding investment.

"Queensland's agriculture sector has some of the highest input costs in the world and does not receive protections or subsidies as in other countries," chief executive officer Jo Sheppard wrote.

"While this has led to efficiencies, in order to remain internationally competitive and maintain the affordability and access to fresh food for all Australians these costs must be addressed."

QFF also suggested a broader view of climate change, beyond disasters, had yet to be fully integrated into food security policy.

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Charles Sturt University, Australia's largest regional university with multiple NSW campuses, suggested the capacity to respond to the challenges being considered by the inquiry already existed.

What was needed was a commitment to action backed by appropriate investment, Vice-chancellor Professor Renee Leon said.

CSU has more than 1600 students in agriculture and environmental sciences and almost 700 in veterinary and animal sciences.

The CSU submission supported the call from the National Farmers' Federation and other agriculture bodies for the development of a national food security strategy and action plan.

Australia was fortunately blessed with world-class universities in major food production regions and well-established research and innovation capabilities in universities, the CSIRO and research and development corporations, Prof Leon said.

The South Australia Food Systems Network argued more investment in strengthening local food systems would reduce the cost of living and food insecurity.

It also recommended investment in regenerative agriculture to adapt to climate change.

"Investment into a food fund encouraging incentives to enhance community initiatives including urban and peri-urban agriculture would strengthen our supply chains, improve community resilience in climate emergencies, support local food production and economies while reducing reliance on our food relief system," the submission from SA FSN said.

The Australian Food Network, known as SUSTAIN, is calling for the establishment of a $500 million national Edible Gardening Fund to be co-financed by federal and state or territory governments to drive a mass expansion of urban food production across Australia.

The SA FSN threw its support behind this.