What does a low carbon local diet look like for Melbourne?

Food systems in cities are under increasing pressure. Food production is occurring further and further from the point of consumption and extreme weather events due to climate change are impacting on food supply networks. It is possible that cities will have to rely on their local regions to meet at least some of their food needs in the future. Although large amounts of food are produced on the outskirts of cities, it is not clear the extent to which the nutritional needs of inhabitants could be met sustainably. This paper aims to investigate if it is possible to feed the city of Melbourne a healthy diet from the local area (i.e. achieve direct food availability) and what that diet might look like. It tests a new methodology using linear programming to find the optimal mix of food types to produce a diet profile that meets the Australian Dietary Guidelines within theproduction capacity of the local ‘region’. Results from three region scenarios are presented – Greater Melbourne, Foodbowl and Rest of Victoria. No solution could be found that satisfied all constraints for any region, however this identified issues surrounding availability of certain food types, particularly fruit, vegetables and legumes. Systematically increasing certain constraints provided insight into how diets could be composed to meet requirements and where it might be necessary to increase production within a region or future proof food supply networks. It also highlighted conflicts between sourcing food locally and reducing carbon emissions