Interdisciplinary conservations on complexities of food/in security

Food security and insecurity is more than a primary production-related issue. The food security-related policies and actions decided upon and implemented in Australia today will continue to have wide-reaching impacts on health and wellbeing for future generations of Australians. This chapter is written as a result of a dialogue between the four authors, Foskey, Avery, Brunckhorst and Sims; each bringing different disciplinary and professional perspectives. All four authors have extensive experience working in interdisciplinary environments. Such interdisciplinary approaches are vital in responding to 'real world' issues that defy 'easy categorisation' (Jacobs and Amos 2010, p. 2). The authors began an 'epistemologically oriented' (Huutoniemi et al. 2010, p. 85) conversation focused on theory-building at the intersection of different disciplines, a process acknowledged as playing 'a vital role within the repertoire for producing knowledge' (Zahra and Newey 2009, p. 1061). The goal of this iterative conversation has been to synthesize knowledge across disciplinary boundaries in order to develop an interdisciplinary model of food security (a process outlined in MacMynowski 2007). Our conversations have highlighted how food security lies at the centre of a complex web of inter-relationships. Food security is complex and non-linear. The model developed draws on the work of David Brunckhorst and colleagues, in understanding the geography of 'eco-civic' regions, delineated by resident communities of interest, local social networks and community cohesion together with bio-physical, ecological and land use attributes. Eco-civic regions optimize geographic representation of both community civic interest and its natural resources in a 'place'. Our model also incorporates research of co-author, Margaret Sims which proposes a transfer through the genome, of the effects of food insecurity experienced by one generation, on to at least the two following generations. Epigenetic research suggests that improvements in food security may have apparently paradoxical consequences for human wellbeing where better nutrition does not always result in better health outcomes.