Interdisciplinary Conversations on Complexities of Food/In Security

Abstract

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. 201 0, 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).