ABC Reporter, Brett Worthington Wins Our 2017 Food Security Journalism Award
August 7, 2017
Our Food Security Journalism Award is part of The Crawford Fund’s commitment to encourage working Australian journalists to investigate the important roles that agricultural research, training and rural development play in global food security. The prize is a ‘seeing is believing‘ visit to a developing country. Now in its fifth year, we have supported radio, print and TV journalists with visits to India, Timor Leste and Nepal.
Taking home this year’s top prize is Brett Worthington who is a member of the ABC’s National Regional Reporting Unit for his story on ‘Improving access to agriculture in the global effort to eradicate hunger’. Brett’s win was announced by The Hon John Anderson, Chair of the Crawford Fund the annual conference dinner on 7 August.
Speaking about this year’s entries, Cathy Reade, Director of Public Affairs and Communication at The Crawford Fund said, “It was another strong group of entries this year across TV, print and radio, and the larger number of entrants hopefully means that there is more awareness and reporting of food security issues by Australian media.”
“It is a bonus that most entrants also had their stories posted and promoted through their outlets’ social media. For example, last year’s winner, Sean Murphy of ABC TV Landline, had his recent award trip report to Nepal watched by over a million viewers and an online audience of hundreds of thousands of people.”
This year’s judging panel with the Fund’s Cathy Reade included Dr Rodd Dyer from ACIAR as our agricultural scientist member and Jenni Metcalfe from Econnect Communication as the nominee of the Australian Council for Agricultural Journalists.
“The winner stood out for his ability to tell a good story using several different dimensions to engage the reader about food security,” said Ms Metcalfe.
Reflecting on this year’s applicants, Dr Dyer said that the winner gave “a raw look at some of the human and social dimension affecting local food security in many parts of the world”.
The Fund thanks all the entrants to this year’s award, which are listed in random order below:
- ‘Bad crop: R&D risks future’ by Mike Foley, Senior Journalist for The Land
- ‘Crook Food’ and ‘Fraud on the menu’ by Alex Sampson, Reporter at The Weekly Times
- ‘Indian couple visit Australia to learn about efficient farming practices’ by Lucy Kinbacker, Reporter at Queensland Country Life Reporter
- ‘Farming okra leading to gender role reversal within Dinka communities’ by Stefan Armbruster, SBS World News Correspondent
- ‘African breakthroughs to help Aussie wheat growers’ by Gregor Heard, Farm Online Reporter
- ‘GMO advocate says growers should tell their stories’ by Ashley Walmsley, Editor, Good Fruit & Vegetables
- ‘Agriculture and food security – where are we headed in 2017?’ by Lisa Cornish, Devex Reporter
- ‘Anderson: Plenty of fake news in agriculture’ by Colin Bettles, Canberra Bureau Chief, Good Fruit & Vegetables
- ‘Mango trees go high density’ by Mark Phelps, Editor-in-chief, Queensland Country Life
- ‘Lamb rich in omega-3 fatty acids could help combat heart-disease, obesity’ by Fiona Breen, ABC News Reporter
