Sydney's farms under threat

Agriculture in the Hawkesbury Nepean Basin is worth $1 billion to NSW each year. This figure grows to $4 billion annually when you add the indirect income generated from Sydney agriculture.
Help protect Sydney's unique farmlands here.
Taking up just 2.5 per cent of the state’s land, Sydney farms produce:

• 15% of the state’s agricultural produce
• 20% of the state’s vegetables
• 100% of leafy greens – including the Asian vegetables we love to eat
• 48% of its poultry
• 100% of its mushrooms 

And Sydney’s farmers are not just productive, they’re efficient - five times more efficient than the rest of the state’s farmers.
The average return per hectare from Sydney farmland is $543 per hectare Across the rest of NSW, it’s just $136 per hectare.

In fact, the river flats of the Hawkesbury Nepean Basin are among the best and most fertile farmland in Australia.
To put that in a global perspective, due to environmental degradation and population pressure, the world is rapidly running out of good farmland  - in Australia alone three million hectares of farmland are under threat from salinity.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone

No one disagrees that we need to plan for Sydney’s future growth – although research by the NSW Government shows that Sydney’s growth, at 0.85 per cent, is actually lower than most other Australian population centres (both Melbourne and Brisbane have significantly higher growth rates than Sydney).  
Which makes it even more pointless to build suburbs on increasingly valuable farmland. Especially when there are alternatives. There’s plenty of land for housing, but precious little good farmland.
The first stage of the NSW Government’s Metropolitan Strategy (based on inflated figures that put Sydney’s population growth at 1000 a week when its actually 700 a week) proposes the release of large tracts of land in the city’s south west. This is known as the Bringelly Release and will build 30,000 new houses on rich river flats.
It will also wipe out Sydney’s lucrative and important Asian vegetable farmers, 60 of whom will lose their market gardens in the redevelopment.
Goodbye bok choy. Goodbye coriander.
Diane Beamer, then Minister for Western Sydney and Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Planning told the Bringelly farmers that there is no  place for them in the Metropolitan Strategy. She said "….they [the market gardeners] should know that they will have no future beyond the next 20 years."

Fresh Sydney food for Sydneysiders

If something isn’t done urgently, our farmers will be forced to cross the mountains. This would mean:

• They would be separated from their natural market - Sydney
• They would have to leave a reliable supply of water
• The further away from market the farm, the more fuel is needed to get there – and the more we will pay for our food
• Farmers need constant contact with markets to know what their customers want.

The closer the food, the fresher the food. Berries grown in the basin can be at the market the day they’re picked. Interstate berries sometimes take two three days to get to your greengrocer. Taste the difference.
More and more, the world is recognising the importance of food security - situating farms close to big cities to maintain a supply of fresh food.
Internationally, it’s accepted that every community should be able to produce at least a third of the food required by its residents. Also, every community should have a food system that connects producers, processors and distributors.
Sydney already has this. Let’s not throw it away.

Real food, not real estate

How can we stop the NSW Government selling off the farmland that provides us with income, jobs and – most importantly – fresh food?
Firstly, by asking your greengrocer to supply food grown in Sydney, and buying that in preference to imported food wherever possible. That way, you directly help Sydney's farmers.
You can also make a difference by letting the Planning Minister, Frank Sartor, know how important farmland is to Sydney. The last thing we need is concrete from the mountains to the sea.