Commercial monoculture berries

[happypalms]

Apart from my own hobby growing ventures I also work on a commercial blueberry raspberry blackberry and macadamia farm 200 acres of monoculture i have been working on the same farm for 18 years doing irrigation as they say a job is job and a cheque is a  cheque at the end of the week mono culture to me gets rather boring after a while the same seasonal thing happens roughly the same time each year maybe that’s why I grow and collect palms and plants mono culture has its weaknesses one out all out if there is a major problem plus insects devour them continuously it’s an interesting job irrigation its great on hot days but freezing in winter you get rather wet from time to time water has the very similar movements as electricity once you understand it’s easy to work with but sometimes can be called irritation when it goes wrong on a 43 degree heat wave day or week with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake in crops it can get quite stressful on the brain I enjoy my job working with plants it’s fun then I get to come home and relax in my own piece of paradise I have grown 

[mnorell]

Interesting to see some of the details of these big monoculture operations. Is there a movement in Australia toward more organic principles, diversification and use of nitrogen-fixing cover crops/permaculture etc on farms?

[happypalms]

8 hours ago, mnorell said:

Interesting to see some of the details of these big monoculture operations. Is there a movement in Australia toward more organic principles, diversification and use of nitrogen-fixing cover crops/permaculture etc on farms?

There is some organic farming but that is in certain geographical locations more so from the community of people with sustainable beliefs for the environment but the big chain stores stock a very small range of organic foods and are not interested they just want shelf life not flavour the large farm in my area over 2000 acres has completely destroyed the ecosystem and changed the whole demographics of the area more and more people are moving toward sustainability they have had enough of big corporations taking from the environment at the cost of peoples beliefs and governments turning a blind eye as they say who can stand in the way when there is a dollar to be made the more people who support sustainability the better the whole planet will be for our children’s future farmers are realising the benefits of organic practices but not soon enough for the environment it’s a tiny blue green planet 🌏 and we all need to do what we can from little things big things grow