Chats for the Goals: Food Security

Tackling Food Security and Climate Change

Our food system contributes around a third of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. There are huge opportunities to decarbonise the food and agricultural value chain, from farm inputs all the way to the dinner table and beyond. While the world has mapped out net zero targets for sectors like energy and transport to decarbonise, the food and agriculture sector remain largely uncharted.

The good news is the actions to decarbonise the food system can also have a positive benefit on food security, public health, energy security, jobs, water and ecosystems. For example, producing renewable fertilisers from our organic residues like food waste, wastewater and manure can reduce Australia’s GHG emissions, divert organic waste from landfill, reduce our dependence on risky foreign supply chains, support food security, and protect our waters from the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment to the Great Barrier Reef from widespread nutrient pollution.

In this talk, Associate Professor Dana Cordell from the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures will explore the opportunities to transform our food system for climate change, food security and more, as we progress into a circular economy.

About the Presenter: Associate Professor Dana Cordell, Research Director (Food Systems)

Associate Professor Dana Cordell is a Research Director at UTS’s Institute for Sustainable Futures where she leads the Food Systems research group. She has over two decades of experience working with stakeholders across Australia, Europe, Malawi, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, China and the U.S to identify how food systems can transform in response to sustainability challenges, ranging from climate change to urban sprawl to the emerging global phosphorus challenge. She recently led the Australian Government funded Phosphorus and Climate Smart Agriculture Network (PACSAN) which modelled how Australia and China’s food value chains can decarbonise and ensure phosphorus security, together with a network of stakeholders across both countries. Dana currently leads the AgriFutures-commissioned project ‘Optimising Organic Waste and Cultivating Circularity for Australian Agriculture’, where she facilitates stakeholder engagement and the systemic identification of roadblocks and opportunities to scale up circularity in agriculture. In 2008 Dana co-founded the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative – the first global platform to undertake research, policy and public engagement to ensure food systems are resilient to global phosphorus scarcity risks. As a global food security expert, Dana provides expert advice to UNEP, Australia's Chief Scientist and the UK Parliament. Her internationally recognised research on phosphorus security was awarded one of Australia’s top science prizes – a Eureka Prize.

This event is part of UTS Global Goals Month 2025, and is presented by UTS Sustainability and UTS BUILD. Explore more of the Global Goals Month program here.