16/10/2025
Food for Thought
Why Provenance is important
At a time when everyone seems to be claiming that they’re ‘supporting local farmers’, we need to ask ourselves: what’s local? And which farmers? And how supportive?
Because when push comes to shove, a lot turns out to be ‘farm-washing’, local means: anywhere in Australia, and supportive means: we just buy your produce at the lowest price, thank you very much. (And continue to charge customers like wounded bulls). Luckily, scientists are getting very close to being able to determine where a prawn was actually caught, or whether a corn-fed chicken was actually fed corn, or where a bunch of kale was grown locally (for example, by George Portelli in Maroota), or someplace else. https://ow.ly/QRb150Xa7OT
Box Divvy has invested a lot of time and effort into setting up the traceability and transparency of not only our fresh produce, but of all products we sell.
The importance of ‘provenance’ (literally: the place of origin ) is especially relevant when it comes to blueberries: a lot of publicity around the rapid expansion of blueberry farming around Coffs Harbour highlights two major issues: the improper and possibly excessive use of chemicals (and not following guidelines with regard to withholding periods – i.e. the minimum length of time between spraying and picking), and the flouting of labour laws by unscrupulous labour hire firms.
https://ow.ly/rEeA50Xa7P2
Around 90% of our blueberries are sourced from 2 suppliers:
• The bulk comes from Mountain Blue who has been growing in the Lismore hinterland in northern NSW since 1975. They are very strict on when and what chemicals they use, and on observing the withholding period when they do. In all their testing, they have never found any chemical residues. They also do not employ labour hire firms, instead preferring to employ picking and packing staff directly – and looking after them. For more information, check out their website – there are sections about sustainability and employment (including a handy guide about accommodation options – in case you were thinking of doing a road trip to the Northern Rivers region…)
• OZ Berries (Or: OZ Group) is a 100% farmer-owned co-operative (similar to Norco), with farms from Grafton to Macksville. Most are family farms, where literally the whole workforce of pickers and packers consists of husbands, wives, cousins, brothers and sisters. Where they employ external staff, they strictly follow ‘Fair Farms’ guidelines. https://ow.ly/k61950Xa7ON
Oz Group has been a Fair Farms member since 2019. All their berry supply is also compliant with Freshcare certification, which includes strict guidelines for chemical use. For more information (and to meet some of their growers), check out their website. https://ow.ly/jEBZ50Xa7P5
