The Hidden Wealth of Food: Cultural Value, Social Meaning, and Economic Opportunity

Rethinking Food Systems: Why Agricultural Production Is Only Part of the Story

John H Howard*, 8 July, 2025

The analysis of Australia's food system appears constrained by a commodity paradigm that obscures where significant value is created.

Official accounts indicate that agricultural production, including food (from plants, animals and fish) and fibres (wool, cotton, hemp, etc), contributes 2.4% of GDP. Broader food system activities, including food and beverage manufacturing and related sectors, are estimated from various sources to be at around 11 to 15 per cent.

But even then, something is missing. These numbers do not account for the role of food in Australia's broader cultural, social, and economic fabric, beyond its nutritional and health benefits. In addition, the “food media revolution" and the material culture of cooking have transformed food from mere sustenance into a new consumption phenomenon.

These developments suggest that food may have an even greater contribution to GDP when viewed as an aggregation of integrated adaptive systems and through the lens of complex value chains.

This missing perspective would appear to have structural foundations. Rural Research and Development Corporations undertake a substantial amount of agricultural research in Australia. The 15 Corporations, funded by producer levies and matched Government payments, tend to focus on “farm-gate” metrics. This issue was addressed in the recent Innovation Insight, Stretching the System: Why Australia's Agricultural Innovation Model Must Evolve on 1 July 2025.

Unfortunately, the 2023 decision to defund Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) signalled a policy preference for measurable production outputs over market signals and demand responsiveness. FIAL is a rare cross-cutting intermediary focused on demand-driven innovation.

As food comes to represent more than sustenance, there is a need to develop new conceptual and analytical frameworks. Policy thinking must shift from a production-centric approach to incorporate demand-side and market-led approaches that recognise food's role in community, creativity, and lifestyles, enabling meaningful nourishment, enjoyment, and experiences rather than merely efficient eating.

Beyond Commodities: The Cultural and Economic Reality

While the production focus of food captures measurable outputs, it misses meaning, experience, and community. It reduces the social dimensions of food—such as hospitality, cohesion, and intergenerational knowledge transfer—to dietary outcomes. The role of food in pleasure, tourism, education, and aesthetic experience receives minimal consideration, despite representing growing economic sectors.

This narrow focus has other cultural consequences. Unlike societies shaped by scarcity, Australia's abundance has created a systematic undervaluation of food. This manifests in staggering food waste levels (7.6 million tonnes annually)—not merely logistical inefficiency but symptomatic of treating food as a disposable commodity rather than a cultural substance deserving respect.

The assumption that efficient production automatically delivers positive consumption outcomes is therefore increasingly problematic. Current challenges relate less to scarcity than to meaning, connection, and cultural preservation. Despite food abundance, Australians face nutrition challenges, eroding food traditions, and declining opportunities for culinary learning and communal eating.

Cultural Transformation: Food as Identity and Performance

The "food media revolution" has fundamentally altered the social role of food. Beginning with instructional cooking shows, the genre has expanded into celebrity chef entertainment, heritage documentaries, competitions, home-delivered meal kits, and digital platforms, making food content globally accessible. Social media has given rise to food influencers, a photogenic meal culture, and viral culinary trends—developments that are rarely addressed in conventional food system analysis.

Food choices can be influenced by a range of dietary considerations and preferences, such as veganism, the keto diet, gluten-free diets, and low-FODMAP diets. Regional identities are strengthened through "farm-to-table" movements, while generational preferences for artisanal coffee and sourdough reflect social distinctions.

Food photography, restaurant reviews, and culinary tourism convey cultural capital. Online cooking classes, free-to-air food channels, and YouTube communicate international skills, history, and values.

Food has become one of Australia's principal cultural languages. Analysis ignoring this transformation misses where current value exists and where future value will emerge.

Multicultural Innovation and Social Cohesion

Australia's Indigenous communities and multicultural society are major forces in shaping its food system. Successive migration waves have transformed what is grown, eaten, and ritualised. Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and other communities have influenced supply chains, farming, retailing, and definitions of "Australian food." Asian greens in market gardens, halal meat processing, and ubiquitous Italian coffee culture demonstrate how adaptation drives innovation.

Food markets, shopping strips, and festivals operate as more than economic venues—they're sites of cultural exchange and mutual adaptation. Dishes like laksa, pho, sushi, souvlaki, and biryani have transitioned from the periphery to the mainstream. Fusion experimentation, often led by younger Australians, contributes to culinary creativity.

Suburban and regional farmers' markets exemplify the complexity of the food system, operating simultaneously as alternative distribution channels, craft venues, social gathering points, and educational spaces.

Though seemingly marginal in official frameworks, they support resilience, cultural preservation, and social inclusion while fostering cross-cultural understanding in a highly diverse society.

Material Culture and Economic Opportunity

The material dimension of food has evolved dramatically. Australians invest heavily in premium and specialty ingredients, such as single-origin flours, spices, and artisanal cheeses. They also purchase specialty appliances, including air fryers, sous vide machines, and fermentation kits, which are generally available across the retail sector. This wave of interest in kitchen gadgetry creates new economic activity in manufacturing and design while democratising professional expertise.

Policy and industry reporting lag these trends, focusing on large-scale export processing while ignoring import dependence on specialty foods or opportunities for small-batch, design-driven manufacturing. Growth has been enabled by venture capital for start-ups, as well as the emergence of incubators and food precincts near research organisations. However, limited access to expansion capital remains a barrier for small firms that lack economies of scale.

The Paradigm Shift: From Production to Consumption

A market-centred approach to food inverts traditional questions from "How do we produce efficiently?" to "How do Australians, and internationally, want to experience food, and how can systems support that?" This requires designing products and services based on desired experiences and creating the necessary production capabilities. Metrics must reflect outcomes that include cultural vitality, social cohesion, experiential richness, as well as equitable access.

However, consumption-oriented models face challenges. Demand, shaped by marketing and convenience, has contributed to the increased consumption of ultra-processed foods. Gaps exist between espoused preferences for good health and actual consumption patterns, which are influenced by commercial forces and practical constraints.

Policy cannot, therefore, respond only to market demand. It must support informed preferences through education and regulation, address access barriers, and enable choices that align with cultural values and community health. This recognises that choice is always influenced by information, opportunity, and social context.

Conclusion: Food as Cultural Commons

Food serves as a foundation for community, identity, learning, and well-being. Policies and analyses failing to acknowledge these dimensions risk missing where real value and resilience are created. Consumers seek authenticity, health, sustainability, convenience, and new experiences. Innovation is now emerging at the intersection of production and consumption, with consumer values shaping the direction of industry.

A forward-looking policy for Australia's food system should begin by asking how to create conditions for people to eat, live, and connect well. While efficient production remains important, design thinking will allow culture, creativity, and community to thrive and ultimately define Australia's food future.

Food represents both economic opportunity and a cultural commons that require careful stewardship and investment in their full potential.

*Comments and suggestions by Mirjana Prica, Chair & Managing Director of FIAL, on an earlier draft of this Insight are greatly appreciated.