Posted by kathryn in Shopping Basket and Sustainablity

Did you know that in the outer suburbs of Sydney, around Liverpool, Leppington, Austral and Bringelly there are over 2,000 small farms? These farms grow 90% of Sydney’s perishable vegetables – all our Asian greens are grown there, as are 80% of mushrooms and most of the tomatoes, snowpeas, Lebanese cucumbers, herbs, spring onions and shallots that we consume. It all adds up to a farmgate crop that’s valued at about $250 million per year.

As Sydney grows more and more of these farms are being squeezed out and the land converted to housing. As this happens, these beautiful fresh, fresh ingredients are going to be harder to find – plus they’re going to be of poorer quality (if they’ve had to travel from further afield) and probably more expensive.

There’s an interesting article on the issue in today’s Good Living.

28 November, 2006