Australia should appoint a “minister for food” to shore up national food security, with agricultural experts warning recent high prices for lettuce and other produce could be “just the tip of the iceberg”.

Threats to Australia’s food supply include climate change, loss of agricultural land, worker shortages, a looming fertiliser shortage, and global shocks such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Professor Mark Howden, director of the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University, told 6PR Breakfast he backed the idea of a minister for food, given expected population growth in Australia and globally.

“It would be appropriate to have a minister or an existing minister, such as the agriculture minister, actually start to take on board a much more explicit component dealing with food and food security in that portfolio,” Howden told Breakfast host Mark Gibson, in the chair for Gareth Parker this week.

Tap PLAY to hear what other responsibilities a Minister for Food would take on