Planning against hunger in a time of abundance: scarcity, affluence, and food security within contemporary Australian urban planning

At present, certain paradoxes and fears related to food are observable in Australian urban planning. Despite general affluence, concerns have arisen in planning discourse around food scarcity, and more specifically, 'food security'. This paper examines two key ways in which food security has been conceptualised within public debates in relation to urban planning: (1) food security and urban and peri-urban agriculture; and, (2) food security as consumer access to food, and particularly 'healthy food'. It then goes on to develop arguments that these two dimensions of food security discourse can be seen, respectively, as an aspect of planning's management of risk in the context of uncertainty, and as an aspect of the management of freedom within liberal polities. In addressing such questions, the paper discusses the interplay of ongoing tensions between scarcity, fear, and affluence, certain normative values around food production within urban planning thought and practice, and effective planning strategy within liberal polities.