Far North Queensland food producers Matt and Jess Fealy have been listed by an American non-profit organisation, Food Tank, as one of 10 farmers from around the world you need to know.
The only ones on the list from Australia, their Blue Sky Produce farm at Mareeba producing mangoes, avocados, passionfruit and limes, joins others from Hong Kong to Uganda on the list designed to highlight small-scale farms increasing access to nutritious food for communities around the world.
Jess, who, along with Matt, is described in the citation as leaving the city to start their orchard, and being passionate about sustainable farming, said it had been nice to get the recognition.
“It’s an organisation that does a lot of advocacy round reducing food waste and holistic production.
“We do a lot of mulching round our trees and integrated pest management, and they found us on social media.
“We may be able to tap into some of the others on the list, and get good connections that way.”
Matt will be travelling next year as part of his research for his Nuffield Scholarship, looking at robotics, automation and emerging technology.