In a global world, how do we define ‘local’ when it comes to food? Produce grown overseas, like avocados from Mexico or garlic from China, clearly does not meet the criteria. Produce grown in your backyard or neighbourhood obviously does! But that leaves a lot of middle ground…
Local food is widely known to be better for people’s health, local economies, and the planet. And yet, as more businesses claim to source local produce and ingredients, it can be difficult to know where food is actually coming from. With only a handful of commercial growers in our region, much of our produce labelled as ‘local’ is likely grown outside the Illawarra.
When you order a Green Connect veg box, our goal is to provide you with as much produce that has been grown on our farm in Warrawong as possible. When the farm is in full production and crops are thriving, our produce can make up to 80% of the veg in your box.
We have always sourced potatoes, onions, and most fruit from other growers. We also supplement our veg if crops have failed or to add a bit more variety to your box. We strictly follow organic growing practices and only source additional produce from certified organic growers.
But is the produce we source ‘local’? We currently go through an organic wholesaler based in Sydney to purchase additional fruit and veg. We try to select items grown as close to the Illawarra as possible, but our choices are often very limited; most of the produce we select is grown in NSW, and some items like bananas are grown in other states.
We must also consider the cost of the produce we bring in as it determines how much we can afford to pack for customers. Ensuring value has become more challenging recently, with prices of organic produce skyrocketing. Our margins have gotten smaller as we try to give customers good value for money. Sometimes we have no choice but to pack fewer items than we would like (one cucumber instead of two, for example).
Local food can only exist if it is purchased by local people and the more demand there is for it, the more local growers will try to supply it! Thank you for purchasing directly from our farm and supporting a stronger local food system in the Illawarra. We are proud to be one of the few truly local producers supplying fresh, healthy, and sustainable produce to our community
Lindsay Burlton
Fair Food Coordinator