Sectors of Australian Food Industry

Question 1

Agri-food chain/sectors

Answer 1

1. agriculture and fisheries
2. food processing and manufacturing
3. food service and catering
4. food retail

Question 2

Agriculture and fisheries sector

Answer 2

• dairy farming
• exports and meat
• crop industries
• fishing and aquaculture

Question 3

Food processing and manufacturing

Answer 3

• ‘value adding’ or alteration
• enhancement to increase shelf life and/or selling price
• e.g. pasteurisation of milk or convenient packaging
• largest sector
• commonly highly mechanised and computerised

Question 4

Food service and catering

Answer 4

• hopso industry. all aspects if commercial food prep, production, service
• commercial - restaurants, cafes, fast-food etc. profit
• non-commercial - hospitals, prisons, armed services. non-profit.

Question 5

Food retail

Answer 5

• selling to consumers
• eg woolies, coles - big stock large and diverse range for large demog
• smaller - bakeries, corner stores

Question 6

emerging technologies in food production (brief examples)

Answer 6

• online shopping
• organic farming
• home delivery
• packaging

Question 7

biotech in GM foods -

Answer 7

• modifying genetic material
• duplicate, remove or insert genes - desirable characteristics
• transgenic
• has potential to increase world food supply and security

Question 8

Ecologically sustainable production methods

Answer 8

ecological farming
- all methods put in place to grow plants and animals
- less harmful to environment
- includes: prevention of soil erosion, reduced carbon emissions etc
Organic farming
- processed w/o pesticides, herbicides, fertilised or growth hormones
- 10% fresh food business
- negative - crop failure and low yields.

Question 9

Emerging agricultural technologies -4 key areas

Answer 9

• sensors
• foods
• automation
• engineering

Question 10

emerging agri tech - sensors

Answer 10

real time traceability and diagnostics
- air and soil sensors - farm, forest or body of water conditions
- livestock biometrics - automatically identify livestock, relay vital info
- crop sensors - identify crop health

Question 11

emerging agri tech - foods

Answer 11

availability of foods may be increased
- Genetically designed food - formation of completely new strains of food - better address bio and physio needs
- In vitro meat - flesh produced that has never been part of a complete, living animal

Question 12

emerging agri tech - automation

Answer 12

using large scale robots and micro robots to observe and maintain crops
- agricultural robots - used to automate agri processes (harvesting etc)
- precision agriculture - farming management using into-field variations, satellite imagery.

Question 13

emerging agri tech - engineering

Answer 13

tech that extends agri to new mans, places and areas of economy
- vertical farming - could mean year round crop production
- closed ecological systems