Food Security Resilience Lab

What is the WSM Food Security Resilience Lab?

Our national food sector faces chronic challenges due to rising geopolitical tensions, geo-economic and landuse transitions, climate change, deteriorating water security and rapid technological advances. As a major food producer, the Wimmera Southern Mallee, which exports about 60 per cent of its crop, is not immune to these challenges.

This short project, funded by the Foundation of Rural and Regional Renewal, builds on the National Food Security Preparedness Green Paper, 2025. Using the Paper’s methodology and findings, it is working with community to better understand and analyse WMS’s food security risks and threats and the region’s  capacity to respond to each of these.

We have identified four key themes

1. Climate Smart Land Use (and unforeseeable events) resilience – Climate impacts, water and other natural resources and land health and use.
2. Governance and Preparation impacts – National and international politics; national and local policies, frameworks, systems and preparedness capabilities.
3. Inputs, freight and infrastructure resilience -Reliance on imported agricultural inputs; storage, transport and other infrastructure risks; Energy and fuel production and supply.
4. Workforce and social food resilience – Addressing labour, housing and social issues  impacting food security resilience.

The WSM Food Security Resilience Lab will then prioritise threats and risks and create a framework  for future preparedness action.

What does Food Security mean in the Wimmera Southern Mallee?

We asked four people about their thoughts on food security.

Craig Henderson – a WSM farmer

John Martin – an engineer whose job involves maintaining our road system

Bev MIatke – who works with volunters to provide food for those facing food insecurity in their daily lives

Rob Hardie – who works with NBN to ensure communications are there for farmers and the health industries

Watch the video below

What was the Food for thought forum, March 2026?

Farmers, emergency managers, welfare workers, local business people and government have joined to take a hard look at where the Wimmera Southern Mallee’s food system is most exposed.

The forum, organised by the WSM Food Security Resilience Lab, worked through the drivers, risks and threats facing regional food security — and the actions the community can take in response.

What came back was direct. The region grows a significant share of Victoria’s grain, but it depends almost entirely on imported fuel, fertiliser and crop chemicals to do it. Any disruption to those supply chains hits here harder than almost anywhere else in the state.

During the day fuel emerged as the sharpest immediate risk.  Despite this Agriculture is not on the national emergency fuel list — something that needs to change.

Read below for some of the key findings from the day

The region grows a significant share of Victoria’s grain, but it depends almost entirely on imported fuel, fertiliser and crop chemicals to do it. Any disruption to those supply chains hits here harder than almost anywhere else in the state.

What where the key local food security risks identified?

Food security and access to inputs

As the cropping season begins WSM Food Security Reilience Lab has been looking at the impacts of fertiliser access and prices as a result of the war in the Middle East.

WSM Fertiliser update April 2026

What happens next