Meet the FABLE Australia team

The team is led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). As Australia’s national science agency and innovation catalyst, CSIRO works with every Australian university, government department and major Australian industry. CSIRO's collaborative research seeks to turn science into solutions for food security and quality, clean energy and resources, health and wellbeing, resilient and valuable environments, innovative industries, and a secure Australia and region.

The team’s main areas of interest have been in improving agriculture’s footprint, resilient farming systems, improvements to nutritional metrics, ecotoxicity, uncertainty modelling, and urban sustainability implications for food and land-use systems.

Models used by the team: FABLE Calculator and the Land-Use Trade-Offs (LUTO) model.

Contact focal point

Former members: Michalis Hadjikakou, Brett Bryan, Romy Zyngier, and Eli Court.

Transforming food and land-use systems in Australia

Australia’s landmass extends to around 7.7 million km2, making it the world’s 6th largest country. This vast continent and its natural resources underpin Australia’s economic, social, and environmental health, and support a large range of uses, grazing in lands with native and modified vegetation, nature conservation, cropland and horticultural activities, forestry plantings, and urban use. Livestock grazing on native vegetation in more arid regions makes up the largest use of agricultural land, occupying almost half of Australia’s total landmass.

Agriculture directly employs around 304,000 people across approximately 86,000 farms. In total, agriculture supports around 1.6 million direct and indirect jobs. Agriculture accounts for around 3% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and over half (65%) of the food and other agricultural products produced in Australia is sent overseas. Australian food and fiber exports play a pivotal role in regional economic growth and contribute to the food security of millions in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2017, Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) accounted for 20% of Australia's total emissions. Notably, the livestock industry stands as the primary source of AFOLU emissions, led by enteric fermentation, followed by grassland, agricultural soils, and manure management. Additionally, activities such as burning fossil fuels for on-farm operations, fertilizer and pesticide production, and their transportation are estimated at 7%, 26%, and 2% of direct GHG emissions. Resource use efficiency gains could influence significantly more than 20% of total emissions, potentially closer to 30%.

Presently, Australians consume high-calorie diets with excessive meat consumption, surpassing the recommended intake in the Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADGs) by 24%. To accelerate positive trends, it is imperative to incorporate stronger sustainability principles in the upcoming iteration of the ADGs, accompanied by robust financial incentives to steer consumption patterns towards more sustainable diets.

Key national objectives and targets

• In this updated NDC, Australia is increasing the ambition of its 2030 target, committing to reduce GHG emissions 43% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
• Australia pledged to halve food waste by 2030. Some of the actions to achieve such target include: negotiating voluntary, waste reduction commitments for the food industry; redistributing food to the food rescue sector; educational campaigns; and research and technological improvements.
• In 2022, the government has committed to protecting 30% of Australia's land by 2030 as part of a plan to ‘halt and reverse biodiversity loss across our nation and put Australia’s environment back on a path of recovery'.
• Australia joined the Global Methane Pledge is a voluntary commitment to work collectively to reduce global methane emissions across all sectors by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.

Publications

• Navarro Garcia, J., Marcos-Martinez, R., Mosnier, A. et al. Multi-target scenario discovery to plan for sustainable food and land systems in Australia. Sustain Sci 18, 371–388 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-022-01202-2.
• Navarro Garcia J., Hadjikakou, M., Ridoutt B., et al. Pesticide Toxicity Hazard of Agriculture: Regional and Commodity Hotspots in Australia. Environmental Science & Technology 2021 55 (2), 1290-1300. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c05717.
• FABLE (2020). Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. 2020 Report of the FABLE Consortium. International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Laxenburg and Paris. 10.22022/ESM/12-2020.16896. Australia chapter.
• FABLE (2019). Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems. 2019 Report of the FABLE Consortium. Laxenburg and Paris: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Pathway for Australia.