The Australian Greens welcome the release of the National Food Plan Green Paper.

"In the face of the impending global food security crisis, the Greens identified the need and called for the government to develop a National Food Security Plan two years ago during the 2010 election campaign."  Senator Christine Milne said.

"We will be scrutinising the green paper released today with great interest."

"The Greens strongly believe that any National Food Plan for Australia must prioritise two things. It must maximise food production for global markets and it must prioritise providing food security for all Australians.

"Maximising food production means keeping famers on the land and taking on the supermarket duopoly and the issue of foreign ownership of land and water.

"Farmers need to be supported, not under assault from coal seam gas, urbanisation and low farm gate prices.

"As the green paper identifies, Australians on low incomes too often face the challenge of food insecurity and the Greens have shown that welfare payments such as Newstart have fallen so far behind the cost of living that people relying on these payments regularly have to miss out on meals.

"Indigenous Australians in particular suffer unacceptably high levels of food insecurity. A wealthy country like Australia that is a major food producer and exporter has fundamentally failed if it cannot deliver food security for all, and is instead relying on charities as we are now to fill the gap.

"Climate change will lead to more extreme weather events and building resilience in rural communities is a high priority for the Greens."