Bicycle Network Helps Us Rescue 6000 Bananas!

Grow, harvest, transport – these are the three main steps in the journey that your food takes from seed to plate. Farmers put endless time and care into growing beautiful produce for us all to enjoy. However, months of hard work can be wiped away in minutes when Mother Nature decides to remind us who’s boss. The catastrophic floods which hit NSW and Queensland have had a major effect on the supply of fruit and vegetables. Anthony Joseph, a fruit and vegetable wholesaler and exporter, told ABC News that wet weather in south-east Queensland meant lettuce growers lost one crop and struggled to plant the next one as freezing temperatures set in.

In an average year, more than half of the workforce for fruit and vegetable harvesting is made up of backpackers from overseas. COVID-19 stopped this workforce in its tracks and farmers were left with no option but to dig their produce back into the ground as they had no workers to perform the harvest. Currently it’s nearly impossible to get your hands on a lettuce but back in January, Mornington Peninsula farmer Paul Gazzola explained to The Age that he was having to plough 30% of his weekly lettuce supply into the ground as he had no pickers.