Grow your own food to protect city from disaster, Sydneysiders urged

Interesting article from Sydney's major morning newspaper today....


SYDNEY'S fresh food would only last two or three days if a cataclysmic disaster struck, experts say.

Steven Newton, the chairman of the Retailers Action Working Group, which plans food industry responses to potential national crises such as pandemics or floods, said that ''fresh food would be the first thing to go in a crisis''.

He said the supply channels of Australia's increasingly concentrated and commercialised farming industry were more vulnerable to disaster shocks than the dispersed small-scale farming model of 30 years ago.

''The average distance food travels is 1500 kilometres,'' Ms Hill said. ''If anything interrupts that flow you have a real crisis on your hands.''

Read more: [link to www.smh.com.au]