Food security Archives

About Us

Science is in the genes, for our award-winning geneticist

Can you inherit a love of science? How do you make a weed less 'weedy'? What do these questions have to do with each other? There's only one way to find out.

Farming

Climate work-around could boost Australian wheat yields

We’re working to adapt Australian wheat to a changing climate through new genetics and farming practices.

Health

Protecting Australia from African Swine Fever

While many of us have been relaxing over the summer holidays, our staff at AAHL have been testing seized pork products for African Swine Fever.

Healthy diets, healthy planet: it is possible

The food we eat and the way we produce it are causing some pretty big environmental problems. We now have global scientific targets give to all humans a healthy diet without depleting the planet’s resources.

Love fish? Choose a range when selecting seafood.

Our research shows that huge economic and environmental benefits could come from fully using fish now discarded. If all of the edible fish caught was kept and sold, both the sustainability and profitability of fishing would significantly improve.

Future foods could make you healthier, and the planet greener

Could future foods such as insects, seaweed and lab-grown meat feed us in both an environmentally sustainable and healthy way?

Here’s the seafood Australians eat (and what we should be eating)

Over 85 per cent of seafood caught in Australia is sustainable. However, just because a fish is sustainably caught, it doesn’t make it the most nutritious and healthy option – and vice versa. We've compared the two to see what seafood is both sustainable and nutritious.

Our food detectives are on the case

Just as a fingerprint can identify a person, our food detectives are working to stamp out food fraud by using isotopes to trace food from the paddock to the plate.

Farming

The Midas lunch: we fed prawns gold and sifted through the mess, for science

The secret to better prawn health could be in their digestive system, and feeding them gold could help to provide the answer.

Farming

Global strategies needed to combat antibiotic and pesticide resistance

Resistance to antibiotics and pesticides is rising at alarming rates. Global strategies, such as those developed for Australia’s cotton industry, to maintain ‘susceptible’ insects, are key in our fight against resistance.

Healthier rice is extra nice

Everybody loves rice. Everybody loves to be healthy. We’ve discovered a way to combine those two loves.

Top four food trends you’ll soon see on supermarket shelves

Some food trends come and go (we’re looking at you salted caramel) but some are much more long-term because they’re based on science.

Food security