Organic vegetable growers facing huge losses due to drought

Hi everyone,

Claire here (Michael’s partner)- I’m writing this on behalf of Michael and Sam of Plenty Valley Produce who have sadly had a big hit to their business due to the drought- deer have eaten nearly $100k of vegetables.

For anyone unfamiliar, Plenty Valley Produce is a market garden in Flowerdale VIC that grows organic vegetables for farmers markets, restaurants, and veggie boxes across Melbourne. They also donate vegetables to a local Food Bank. The market garden aims to grow quality and variety at affordable organic prices, while boosting the soil and creating local jobs. Michael and Sam are both Dads with families to support, though recent expenses associated with the necessity of moving sites have meant they haven’t been able to pay themselves.

To give a bit more context to our current plight-

The drought conditions have reduced available fodder for wild deer dramatically. This has resulted in the deer eating nearly $100k worth of vegetables before Michael and Sam had a chance to put a fence in to stop them. They have only just moved to this new site and had just received a $50k quote to put in a deer fence, including labour and materials. But without many vegetables left to sell, they’re in a tricky position to fund the fence.

Any money donated would go towards the cost of the fence materials and to cover the significant crop losses.

For anyone that donates- if you ever happen to be out this way we’d be very happy to give you a free veggie box as a thank you, once we have enough veggies again. Thank you so much.