MEDIA RELEASE
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

9 December 2025 (Australia)

The Agroecology & Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) has raised alarm that Australia’s newly constituted National Food Council (NFC) is overwhelmingly dominated by corporate agribusiness interests, following a meeting last week between the Who Decides Food? campaign and senior officials from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF).

Despite DAFF initiating the meeting, AFSA says discussions revealed a “deeply concerning level of denial” about the council’s composition and its implications for the development of the National Food Security Strategy.

“The National Food Council is a textbook case of corporate capture dressed up as expertise,” says AFSA Focal Point for Farmers, Tammi Jonas. 

“What DAFF calls ‘expertise’ is in reality a narrow group of actors whose business models depend on the very systems that make our food less secure, less just, and more vulnerable,” Jonas continues.

AFSA says the NFC is dominated by major industry and export-oriented institutions, including:

• • Bega Group (valued at approx. $3.5 billion)
  • The Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, representing just 11 companies controlling 50% of Australia’s fresh produce

• The National Retail Association

• Grain Trade Australia

• The National Farmers’ Federation’s interim CEO
• Academics tied to agribusiness accelerators and commodity-export sectors

“One First Nations representative and one union representative cannot meaningfully counterbalance an entire governance structure built around capital accumulation rather than community nourishment,” Jonas states.

According to AFSA, the Assistant Secretary claimed during the meeting that he did not see where corporate interests were represented on the NFC. 

“To suggest that bodies like Bega Group, the Fresh Produce Alliance, or the National Retail Association are not corporate interests defies logic,” says Jonas. “It’s bureaucratic gaslighting — and it’s dangerous.”

AFSA says DAFF also insisted that council members are participating “as individuals, not representatives,” rendering their organisational affiliations irrelevant. However, in an article published by The Weekly Times earlier this week, the businesses and organisations represented on the National Food Council were listed alongside their corporate and personal interest in the Council. 

“This linguistic sleight of hand erases power and denies the material interests shaping the council,” Jonas says. “It’s how corporate capture is normalised.”

DAFF confirmed the National Food Security Strategy will be drafted internally, with the NFC providing advice — but only within its current, corporatised membership. DAFF indicated no plans to expand the council to include:

• small-scale farmers
• food-justice or community food organisations
• independent public health experts
• broader First Nations food sovereignty leadership
• Climate change and environmental organisations
• workers beyond a single union representative

Public consultation will be offered, but AFSA says this does not constitute meaningful participation.

“Public submissions are a democratic minimum — not decision-making power,” Jonas said. “If a strategy is written by a department guided by corporate actors while communities get pushed to a submissions portal, the result is predictable: more consolidation, more export dependence, fewer farmers, and greater vulnerability.”

AFSA argues the NFC fails the basic test of democratic food governance: community control.

“Who decides food? Right now, the answer is clear: those who profit from large-scale agribusiness and export markets,” Jonas said. “Meanwhile, the people who feed local communities, care for Country, build resilient food systems and fight for justice are sidelined.”

AFSA is calling for a National Food Council built on:

• food sovereignty
• agroecology
• democratic representation
• First Nations leadership

The Who Decides Food campaign  is urging government to immediately:

• expand and rebalance the NFC membership, free from major industry dominance;
• ensure transparent appointment processes and clear criteria for representation;
• and centre community-led resilience, not export-market growth, in the National Food Security Strategy. 

“Australia urgently needs a National Food Council — but it must serve communities, not corporations,” Jonas said. “The current model is unacceptable. But together, we can change it,” concludes Jonas.

-ENDS-

Contact:

For AFSA enquiries: Jessie Power, AFSA General Coordinator 

• m: 0403 795 670
• e: coordinator@afsa.org.au

For media enquiries: Tammi Jonas, AFSA Focal Point for Farmers

• WhatsApp: 0422 429 362
• e: farmers@afsa.org.au