New Rules Will Effectively Shut Down U-Pick Farms in NSW Australia
By Margaret Tadrosse
New planning rules proposed by Planning NSW risk destroying ALL Pick your own farms in NSW. They currently have a proposal underway to deciminate all the Pick your own farms in NSW and want to put unrealistic limitations on the number of visitors per day that attend these farms. The current proposal they have is to only allow 50 people per day to attend the farms and a maximum of 10 days per year that these farms are allowed to open for PYO. This is just not viable for farmers and we want this proposal stopped immediately and want the Department to consult with the farmers to get their input on what is viable for us. If this proposal in mandated, we feel that farmers will just pull out their trees and visitors will not be able to attend theses farms. We understand that there have to be regulations but we need them to be sustainable for the farmer and we would like the opportunity to consult and comment on these rules.
Help us by signing this petition to have this stopped immediately. Please share this with your family and friends and get them to sign it also. This is important to the agriculture and farming of our country. We already import a lot of fruit and vegetables in the country, if this goes ahead there will be fewer farmers in Australia and more imported fruit to make up for the farms that have disappeared. Don’t let this happen. Support the Australian farmers.
If we win the farms will be permitted to operate as they have been and you will be able to enjoy these farms and come and pick fruit. If we lose PYO farms across NSW will probably have no choice but to close if they do not adopt the proposed changes. Most farmers that currently have PYO are from a more mature age demographic and will not have the energy to deal with all thee changes. So they will just rip out their trees or worse just sell their farm.
