ABSTRACT
Historically, peri-urban landscapes are used for traditional agricultural purposes. Increasingly, these areas are facing pressure from expanding urbanization, causing tensions for the communities and policy makers (Burnley and Murphy 1995). In particular, Zasada (2011: 648) concludes that agriculture in peri-urban areas is characterized by a heterogeneous pattern of production and diversification that requires recognition as an ‘individual policy arena’, not specifically urban or rural. Yet a review of literature by Scott et al. (2013) revealed that rural-urban fringe locales suffer from disintegrated decision-making leading to policy contradictions and disconnection with actual landscape trends. In response, this chapter introduces the Sunshine Coast as a study area, located at the northern end of the South East Queensland peri-urban region, surrounding the capital city, Brisbane (see Figure 13.1). Further, this research analyses the current needs of medium and small-scale producers before providing further insight into the vertical integration (or lack thereof) of government policy on the resilience of peri-urban food systems, such as the Sunshine Coast. The authors argue that the neoliberal approach to policy and regulation that favours an export-driven commodity-based agrifood system fails to support regional and local scale-diversity, thus limiting social, economic and environmental resilience.
