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WOMEN IN AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE
Growing an urban farm from backyard to business
Some weeks, Amy Pascoe spends more time with mushrooms than humans. In this Q&A the Little Acre co-founder talks stereotypes, innovation, and the problem with “Grown in Australia” labels. How have you grown your urban farm from its humble backyard beginnings? Seven years ago I couldn’t tell you anything about mushrooms! My partner Mickey and I were living in Brisbane, working office jobs, trying to find the idea that would free us from the 9-5 grind. Of course, you soon learn that running your own business (let alone a farming business) is 24/7… but that came later. Shipping container farms were a recent novelty in 2016 and we followed a few YouTube farmers growing fast-growing, high value crops in urban plots and backyards. The idea of bringing food production into city spaces was inspiring for us. When we stumbled across mushrooms, they ticked all the boxes. We started doing trials in a makeshift greenhouse we hacked together under our rental Queenslander. By 2018 we had estab- lished ourselves in two shipping containers in a private car park and started supplying local cafes and restaurants. Now we operate from an indus- trial warehouse on Brisbane’s northside. Have you faced any challenges as a woman in agriculture? On our recent world research trip I was dis- heartened to only meet with three women run-
ning operations in this industry, out of 26 facilities we visited. It’s not dissimilar in Australia. I’d say I haven’t faced any discrimination, but when a trade turns up to a farm and asks to speak to the owner they’re not expecting me to be that person – they’re looking for a man. I have a lot of opti- mism for the future though – those stereotypes are being challenged all the time. What are some of the innovations in your in- dustry? All farming can be scientific, but mushroom growing is heavily weighted towards science. Every aspect of the growth cycle is highly controlled, monitored, recorded, and repeated. We have cleanrooms for our tissue culture work, where we grow the mushroom mycelium on different med- iums before transferring it to the final fruiting sub- strate. Mycelium or fungi is a versatile organism. We focus on the culinary aspects of fungi currently but mycelium can be applied to building materials, medicine, waste recycling or upcycling, textiles – there are many innovations emerging through the exploration of the uses of mycelium and fungi.
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