Most seafood we buy we don’t know how or where it was harvested or by who.
We want to give you the whole ocean to plate experience where you meet the fisher, learn how they harvest and order straight from them.
You’ll track your box of seafood as it leaves the trawler and arrives at your door!
By the start of Summer 2020 we want to have home delivered in season, sustainably sourced seafood from trawlers in the Gulf of Carpentaria direct to homes and restaurants in Far North Queensland, making this Summer a time to celebrate what can be done to make a better world!
Our project is based in Far North Queensland we are passionate about sustainable food production, reducing food miles and enabling producers and harvesters to get a fair return for their produce which in turn creates a bright and vibrant future for Australian communities.
We are a small team working on a big dream to make a virtual farmers market into a full delivery experience straight to your door! It all started with us organising events using produce from our local region.
What we found is numerous challenges of not knowing what produce was in season, which producers and harvesters would have it and which would be able to provide the quantities we were after. We’ve been connecting producers to the people who love what they do, and want the food they harvest, ever since. Direct delivery though from producers who have unique and sustainable produce is the biggest challenge, especially for cold or frozen products!
Seafood being the ultimate challenge usually travelling all the way from harvest points to capital cities before its redistributed, accumulating a lot of food miles on the way! Where we live in Far North Queensland the majority of our locally harvested food will travel to main markets in Brisbane, Sydney and even Melbourne before it comes back to us for sale in supermarkets or restaurants. Taking on a lot of food miles and losing the freshness and provenance along the way.
This project is focused on delivering products that are certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and harvested from the worlds first certified sustainable tropical prawn fishery in the Gulf of Carpentaria. We love the seafood from the Gulf and the two products we are focusing on for this pilot project are amazing - freshly wild caught Skull Island Tiger Prawns and Moreton Bay Bugs.
We want to give Far Northern Foodies the full story of how this seafood is harvested and delivered in season, including details of minimal impact on bycatch, redesigned nets, turtle exclusion devices and annual science surveys to monitor the status of the fishery.
We expect to reduce food miles by a minimum of 3362 km per box. This is the additional distance seafood found in Cairns supermarkets travels to main markets before coming back to Far North Queensland. Yes, this really happens :( . This reduction in food miles will mean less carbon emissions and more clean air for everyone!
Farmer Meets Foodie was founded by Erica Hughes, who with her family, live on a small farm in Far North Queensland. The whole family are involved in the business and are passionate about supporting producers and harvesters in getting good value for their products, sharing the stories behind how food is grown, reducing food waste, reducing food miles and supporting commercial foodies in their commitment to using local produce. We have developed a small Queensland team who are equally committed to revolutionising our food system. Having lived in the Gulf Country we fully appreciate the environmental values of that region and want to ensure that producers that are leading the way in looking after those values are connected with the customers that want to source quality sustainably harvested produce.
We would love you to join us on this journey for a better world, if you’re not in Far North Queensland to order these amazing boxes of seafood we have other epic rewards including lots of amazing holiday experiences in our beautiful region - nature’s play ground! We also have awesome locally designed tote bags and caps, or join us in Cairns at Barrier Reef Brewing Co for Our Summer of Sustainable Seafood Launch Event!
Rewards in the campaign include home delivery of Skull Island Tiger Prawns and Morteton Bay Bugs sourced from Karumba, an array of amazing holiday experiences starting with styled Boho beach picnics featuring sustainably sourced local produce. Other smaller rewards will include Mareeba designed tote bags, Farmer Meets Foodie caps and tickets to the Summer of Sustainable Seafood Launch Event at Barrier Reef Brewing Co in Cairns.