#coffsharbour — Public Fediverse posts

The Blueberries of Wrath on the mid-north coast of NSW
Bitter fruit: the dark underside of the booming NSW blueberry industry

"Blueberry farms have become an increasingly common sight across the rolling hills of the NSW mid-north coast...The number of people in need of ... support points to a dark underbelly of exploitation in the blueberry industry that authorities appear incapable of dealing with...It’s semi-organised crime, that is how I would describe it. "

"A NSW parliamentary inquiry into modern slavery is currently investigating worker conditions."
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/oct/04/nsw-blueberry-industry-farm-labour-loopholes-dark-underside
#food #workers #slavery #plantations #exploitation #AgriculturalIndustry #plantations #CoffsHarbour #MidNorthCoast #NSW #LabourLaw #regulation #PALM #Pacific

"... Poor pesticide spraying practices in the Nambucca Valley and Coffs Harbour regions...Chemical banned by European Union still used in Australia."

When you drive from Nambucca Valley to the Coffs Harbour regions you can see giant white plastic nets enclosing blueberries, raspberries and blackberries plantations. There are toxic chemicals on some berries, the water and the area.

"Banned chemical thiometon detected in berries sold at supermarkets."

"Blueberry farming has boomed in NSW, including in the Nambucca Valley, as minimal red tape is required to set up. Blueberry farms can be started without formal registration or oversight, making it hard for authorities to track pesticide use. Since January 2022, the EPA has prosecuted 21 pesticide-related incidents across a range of crops in local courts across NSW... The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) announced a review into the use of dimethoate on blueberries, raspberries and blackberries."
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-07/pesticide-review-thiometon-dimethoate-blueberries-raspberries/105701674
#food #regulation #toxins #pesticide #water #BerryIndustry #EPA #APVMA #governance #fruits #blueberries #NSW #plantations #MidNorthCoast #nambucca #CoffsHarbour #pollution #sprayDrift #dimethoate #thiometon #neurotoxins

Australian biodiversity conservation and 'fighting the government.'

"A rare legal win for an ecologist over a violent confrontation with NSW loggers exposed years of intimidation from corporate forestry representatives and law enforcement ."

"In environmental science circles, state surveillance and persecution of an ecologist whose findings refute or debunk state land management practices surprises no one. Last year, the International Science Council, a body representing more than 250 organisations, summarised that “the findings of environmental scientists … have long triggered censorship, intimidation, harassment and even violence when these challenge economic interests, political agendas, or ideologies”. It reported that scientists “have been physically attacked, wrongfully detained, and killed for their research and advocacy … threats and attacks are widespread in virtually all fields examining human impact on the environment”.

"A 2021 joint university study of Australian environmental scientists found more than half employed in industry or government “are routinely constrained in communicating scientific evidence on threatened species, mining, logging and other threats to the environment”. In some cases, “scientists self-censor information for fear of damaging their careers, losing funding or being misrepresented in the media. In others, senior managers or ministers’ officers prevented researchers from speaking truthfully on scientific matters...In all logged states, time spent fighting the government has overtaken the fieldwork time of ecologists and forest researchers."
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https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2024/june/katherine-wilson/combative-nature#mtr
#NSWForestry #NSWLogging #LoggingImpacts #breaches #violence #GumbainggirCountry #activism #ecology #conservation #science #researchers #Koalas #ThreatenedSpecies #extractivism #mining #logging #defamation #surveillance #CivilDisobedience #CoffsHarbour #Gondwana #TheGreatKoalaNationalPark #ExtinctionCrisis #BiodiversityCrisis #democracy #governance #Australia

Outrage as endangered species living in forest goes unnoticed by loggers chopping it down. 'Nothing to see here': Greater gliders, yellow-bellied gliders, koalas and powerful owls.

“Forestry Corporation admitted that they don’t do surveys for the nocturnal greater gliders at night! No wonder they aren’t finding any — they don’t want to find them, as it would seriously restrict their operations,” CEO Jacqui Mumford

"Endangered marsupials have been discovered inside a forest that was being chopped down by the NSW government, prompting calls for its operations to be suspended across dozens of sites across the state."

"After the Environmental Protection Agency was asked to intervene this week, NSW Forestry Corporation voluntarily asked its contractors to cease operations at the Styx River State Forest which borders the Cathedral Rock National Park, west of Coffs Harbour. It’s the second time since August the state-owned agency has been forced to down chainsaws because of the discovery of greater gliders."

https://au.news.yahoo.com/outrage-as-endangered-species-living-in-forest-goes-unnoticed-by-loggers-chopping-it-down-063558748.html
#MoonparSF #CoffsHarbour #NativeForests #NSWForestry #NSWLogging #gliders #Koalas #wildlife #biodiversity #surveys #ExtinctionCrisis #StopLogging