The rapid threat of urbanisation in Sydney is posing our first food crisis. Alix Vanny reports.

Market gardeners are being relocated due to urban planning and growing infrastructure. Image: J Bar

Sydney may be currently unaware of the severe threat to the fresh fruit and vegetables markets we buy from, but the reality is; this industry may quickly disappear.

Market gardeners and vegetable growers living and working in the Sydney basin areas know all too well about the dangers their businesses face if they are relocated or shut down. They currently risk this fate all to make room for more infrastructure and physical growth and to keep up with urban progress.

The most recent urban planning documents for Sydney, The 2005 Metropolitan Planning Strategy indicates there are plans to build 380,000 homes in two growth centers which are also high food production areas for fruit, vegetables and poultry.

The Feeding Sydney Research project officer from the Urban Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney, Sarah James said, “These plans only account for about fifty-two-percent of housing that will eventually introduced to the area around Liverpool.

“There is currently no specific planning for the relocation of workers… particularly migrant gardeners who work the farms and thus are vulnerable to losing their land and community as they refuse to be paid off and resettled elsewhere.”

At present, market gardens and farming can coexist with housing and business offices in the area. However, with the extensive plans for urban development, James admits that this coexistence will not be feasible.

Bodies bump from side to side in the hustle and bustle of the Sydney Produce Markets at Flemington. Faces move quickly as they try to push their way through to trade and buy from favourite sellers and obtain the best produce on offer. The mixture of languages from Mandarin to Italian creates a buzz as the market gets busier and busier.

Approximately $3 billion is made annually at this single sale space.

The process for farmers commonly known as “market gardeners” is tough. Work is hard. A combination of early rising and gruelling labour. The process begins with growing and feeding crops, spraying and regulating temperature and then harvesting and packaging for sale.

Joe El Bustani, the president of NSW Greenhouse Vegetables, moved to Australia from Lebanon and his entire family are part of the market gardening business.

His cherry tomatoes “are the best in the world.” But like El Bustani, many migrant farmers realise their land, business, home and community is in danger.

With market gardens usually owned by the first generation migrants who took them on – farmers are finding little other choice than to sell their land to the government as the process of Sydney’s urbanisation spreads to the west.

Areas like Bringelly at the heart of an urban growth centre are likely to disappear altogether.

Growers are hesitant to be relocated to rural areas further away due to the problems this would have on fresh produce and getting to Sydney markets where they make their living.

”You don’t want to grow lettuce 100 kilometers away. Then transport and pollution are an issue,” said El Bustani.

Rosa Vella is the part owner of the Austral Seedlings Company and prepares seedlings such as tomatoes, lettuces and Lebanese cucumbers for sale to backyard growers or market gardeners.

She said, “The costs of relocation due to urbanisation are going to double or triple [for market gardeners]. Some farmers as migrants have been in the same place for twenty to thirty years.

“Equipment for farming and harvesting is much more expensive today. Transport costs to get produce to get to markets will increase dramatically. All the costs for farmers are going to increase yet they will still be getting the same return if not less back as the prices in the fruit and vegetable industry has not changed for years (looking specifically at markets and not grocery stores).”

Farms are now very different from the traditional stereotype once associated with them. As a result of the rapid growth of technology – market gardens have also become more intensive, using the latest equipment and technology to perform tasks such as regulating temperatures that is vital for the success of the growth of some crops.

The frightening processes – technology and urbanisation, quickly disturb the initial serenity of feeling far, far away from the city.

“Despite its economic, cultural and social importance peri urban farming on the fringe of Sydney has been forgotten altogether in the development of the blueprint for Sydney’s future growth and urbanisation,” said Doctor Frances Parker from the Social Justice and Social Change Research Group at the University of Western Sydney.

The importance of the livelihoods of market gardeners is extreme, yet the blueprint for Sydney’s urbanisation fails to recognise other important factors for the whole of the city.

Dr Parker said, “In the migrant market gardeners that currently inhabit this urban edge space, the discourses around food sustainability intersect with issues of cultural diversity, community and local employment. The dismissive approach of those within the Metropolitan Strategy ignores the contributions that these growers make towards all three tiers of sustainability for the city— economic, social and environmental.

In 2008, the number of vegetable establishments such as market gardens in Sydney alone was equal to 1052.

Dr Parker said, “The agricultural industry in the Sydney basin is the single largest industry in western Sydney, with a farm gate value of over $1 billion pa, including vegetable production of over $250 million pa, poultry $278 million pa and cut flowers $185 million pa.”

With the process of urbanisation being labelled by some politicians as necessary, the long-term future of these markets looks bleak.

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