Our 2025 Food Security Journalism Award Winner
August 11, 2025
The recipient of the 2025 Food Security Journalism Award was announced at the opening of the Crawford Fund’s 2025 Annual Conference and the winner is:
Carl Smith for his feature One Atoll’s Fight: Micronesian community and scientists unite to protect remote atoll by reawakening traditions which explains the unique collaboration between scientists with the people of Ulithi to overcome challenges to their way of life and food security.
Carl is a Walkley Award-winning independent science journalist, who has worked for ABC Radio National’s Science Unit for over a decade. Carl also makes audio documentaries and written features and has been an ABC News Cadet, a geneticist, a reporter on ABC’s BTN – Behind the News, a ‘Journalist in Residence’ in Germany, and an animated presenter. Carl also co-hosts the ethics podcast for kids, Short & Curly.
The judges also gave a special mention to Neena Bhandari for her piece Empowering local communities to become groundwater-wise and to Lucy Cooper for ‘Food fit for a King’: Samoan growers tasked with growing crops for King Charles, hoping to draw attention to climate challenges’.
The Crawford Fund’s Food Security Journalism Award is part of our efforts to encourage Australian journalists to delve into the important issues around global food and nutrition security.
The prize for the award is a ‘seeing is believing’ visit to a partner country interacting with passionate researchers and local farmers, and then sharing their stories with the Australian public.
Special thanks to this year’s judging panel – communications expert Edwyn Shiell, Senior Consultant – Strategy, Facilitation, Advocacy and Communications at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; ag science expert Dr Suzie Newman, General Manager – Partnerships at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and Cathy.
“It was another difficult job this year, with entries investigating a range of challenges and opportunities around food security,” said Cathy Reade, Special Projects Director of the Crawford Fund.
“Thank you so much to all the journalists who applied and it’s great to see the award is growing in profile,” she said.
Other entries (in alpha order) were:
- Steph Allen, Australian Community Media – Mango producer named 2024 Horticultural Farmer of the Year
- Roderick Chambers, The Wire –Clean Water and a Good Education
- Andrew Chounding, ABC Landline – Spray Strife
- Angus Dalton, Sydney Morning Herald – The man who saved bananas from certain death – and next, 750,000 children
- Victoria Ellis, ABC Country Hour – Developing Panama disease-resistant bananas at Lambells Lagoon
- Xanthe Gregory, ABC News – ‘Forever chemicals’ found in Sydney sewage by-products used in food production
- Melanie Groves, Growing Country – Farming for Food Security in Bermuda
- Clint Jasper, ABC News – Coffee prices hit fresh highs as weather wreaks havoc on crops in Brazil and Vietnam, with Australian roasters under the pump
- Sophie Johnson, ABC News – Live sheep export ban triggers food security fears for Kuwaiti importer
- Brooke Littlewood, Australian Community Media – Morocco Wants Our Sheep
- Kristy O’Brien, ABC Landline – India’s Growing appetite for Australian Almonds
- Kath Sullivan, ABC Landline – Undercover cattle and a boom in thirsty crops
- Faith Tabalujan, ABC News – Butchery program brings Indigenous youth from Wadeye to Beechworth, with focus on food security
- Courtney Wilson, ABC Landline – Water from Air: The tiny bush school creating clean drinking water from air
Over the award’s 12 years, radio, print and TV journalists have had visits to the Philippines, Vietnam, Morocco, India, Taiwan, Timor Leste, Colombia and Nepal, with Indonesia scheduled soon. These visits result in significant media coverage of issues related to agricultural development and food and nutrition security to a wide Australian audience.
Here’s to another great year in 2026 and to sorting a great ‘seeing is believing’ visit for Carl!
