Food

On Saturday, the health promotion team at West Wimmera Health Service hosted the fourth Grow Local, Eat Local cooking competition. Three home cooks from across the Wimmera—Warracknabeal, Horsham and Natimuk—each prepared a plant-based dish for the crowd, with television cook Tim Bone judging the entries and choosing the winner.

Spring is here and it’s time to start planting your vegetable garden. It’s also the perfect time to take inspiration from other gardeners who are passionate about what they grow and how they grow it. Many of us can only dream of being self-sufficient in regards to fruit and vegetables but for avid gardener, Artha Holmes, this dream is a daily reality.

Agriculture investment is evolving globally. Once focused on farmland, today’s investors are targeting entire supply chains. Rising costs and flat land prices are pressuring returns, and the focus is shifting to yield, resilience and ESG-linked income.

Annual food price inflation slowed to 3 per cent in the June 2025 quarter, the latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has shown. This is down from 3.2 per cent year-on-year food price inflation recorded in the March 2025 quarter.

Territory Mangoes, NT beef, local barramundi and Kakadu plums are among the Northern Territory’s major exports – but once they’re on the plate, how many people ponder the origin of these products? A new PhD project at Charles Darwin University (CDU) will help the Northern Territory become synonymous with its food produce, providing much needed marketing support for food NT producers and manufacturers. 

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, has completed the first-ever national stocktake of our $800 billion food system, which feeds around 100 million people – including 27 million Australians – with food produced by 100,000 farmers ... the report urged a new approach to managing and reporting on our food system to make it more resilient to the challenges faced by farmers...

“We’re really excited about partnering with talented artist Claus Stangl and believe the portraits he’s created bring to life the hidden creatures in our soil in a really fun, educational and unique way”: Alicia Doherty, Kellogg's ANZ.

A Lower Clarence Op-Shop that has helped thousands of people with discount grocery items is celebrating 10 years since its launch by reinventing its footprint and relocating the food pantry. The Wellspring Op-Shop food pantry on Treelands Drive, Yamba, which distributes on average 100 pallets of food each year, was an initiative of pastors Eric and Helen Aaron...

Rachel Hagan. With high-cost-of-living pressures and increasingly demanding lifestyles, eating healthy on a budget can be hard to prioritise, but chef Jo Minks says that, once you know how to use ingredients effectively, anyone can do it ... the SYP Community Hub delivered three workshops on creating low-cost and healthy food ideas.

A new sustainable food rescue program in Kyogle aims to bring together businesses, producers, and home gardeners to support people experiencing food insecurity. Foodbank’s 2024 Hunger Report reported that two million Australian households are experiencing severe food insecurity and do not have enough to feed their families.

First Nations science, knowledge, skills and culture were all celebrated at the annual Nharangga Cultural Day at Minlagawi. On Sunday, May 4, well over 100 people travelled to Gum Flat Reserve in Minlagawi (Minlaton) to celebrate everything Nharangga with the wider community.

Inflation ticked higher across the majority of food categories the latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, has shown. On a year-on-year basis, food and beverage inflation rose 3.2 per cent in the March 2025 quarter data...

A quiet revolution is brewing in the world of food, and it's not happening in the paddocks – it's in the pharmacies. New weight-loss drugs, like the much-talked-about Ozempic, are not only helping individuals shed pounds but are also prompting experts to consider a seismic shift in our food systems, potentially even more significant than the impacts of climate change.

Sebastian Calderon. Recently released data revealed price increases across a range of items, including those in the Riverland, adding extra pressure on household budgets during the current cost-of-living crisis. The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, from December 2024, revealed a significant increase in the prices of common grocery items.

Food Futures is Australia's leading event on agricultural development in the north. The biennial conference is being held today and tomorrow (8-9 April 2025) at the Darwin Convention Centre, bringing together industry leaders, researchers, and government representatives to explore new opportunities for northern agriculture.

...statement from the chief executive of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM), Melina Morrison, on the Federal Budget ... “The significant expansion of aged care and housing policies unveiled in the Federal Budget will ensure many Australians can now rightly expect a better quality of life.

Australia’s food market appears to be "normalising" after a "chaotic" five-year period – impacted by factors including Covid, supply chain disruptions and inflation – Rabobank says in a newly-released report.

Leader of The Nationals David Littleproud said Labor can’t be trusted on its hollow promise to deliver a food security plan, after treating the sector with contempt, with new taxes, soaring energy prices, and a crippling Industrial Relations (IR) and workforce agenda. Mr Littleproud said Labor had ignored calls from industries across the supply chain for almost three years for a security and resilience plan, to get food from paddock to plate.

The US’s trade surplus with Australia has so far helped keep Australian food and agri exports off the ‘wheel of misfortune’ when it comes to the new wave of US tariffs, Rabobank says in a newly-released global report.

Exorbitant prices for groceries in outback stores are often the subject of outrage but are rarely dealt with a great deal of logic ... Why should the public purse kick in $50m over four years from 2025-26 to provide remote stores with low-cost access to about 30 food products?