Traumatic landscapes of plastic, pollution and exploitation

The coastline of Spain is known as the ‘Sea of Plastic’ ("Mar de Plástico”) It is the world’s largest plastic greenhouse complex with 350 square km of fruit and vegetables grown by immigrant labour for the horticultural industry. >>
https://www.behance.net/gallery/22272681/Mar-del-Plastico#

Could we do the same thing to the coast of NSW?
NSW Greens to move bill to let councils better regulate berry industry as it continues rapid expansion

“People move into these beautiful valleys for the lifestyle and the environment but then wake up one day and within months they are looking at an industrial-scale blueberry farm."

"Faehrmann’s bill will call for mandated buffers between intensive horticulture farms and homes and waterways, as well as strict controls on spraying, runoff and irrigation and greater monitoring of produce for pesticides."

"Blueberry farming is rapidly expanding beyond Coffs Harbour, where it began several decades ago, into the Nambucca Valley and the Kempsey area to the south, and west toward Grafton and Bellingen."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/31/australia-berry-industry-bill-nsw-greens
#rivers #water #extractivism #pesticides #MidNorthCoast #ChinasOrchard #horticulturalIndustry #regulation #runoff #pollution #plastic #PALM #blueberries #SeaOfPlastics #TraumaticLandscapes #NSWCoast #NSW #CoffsHarbour #Nambucca #Kempsey #Grafton #Bellingen #residents #habitability #NSWLogging

Modern slavery in Coffs Harbour?
Where does the fruit for Christmas come from?

"Migrant workers have given evidence in Coffs Harbour at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into modern slavery...More than 100 reports of migrant workers being exploited across Coffs Harbour in the past two years."

"The Coffs Coast is the nation's largest producer of blueberries."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-13/modern-slavery-migrant-hearings-in-nsw/106130342

Modern slavery au
https://www.modernslavery.gov.au/
#CoffsHarbour #NSW #IR #work #fruit #food #PALM #workers #exploitation #plantations #LabourMobility #HorticulturalIndustry #blueberries #ModernSlavery #PacificNeighbours

Christmas hamper contextualised with fruit from the plantations of the Coffs Harbour coast, ChatGPT

Non-native plants and animals expanding ranges 100-times faster than native species

"An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human help. Even seemingly sedentary non-native plants are moving at three times the speed of their native counterparts in a race where, because of the rapid pace of climate change and its effect on habitat, speed matters."

"To survive, plants and animals need to be shifting their ranges by 3.25 kilometers per year just to keep up with the increasing temperatures and associated climactic shifts—a speed that native species cannot manage without human help."

"We know that the numbers of invasive plant species are increasing exponentially worldwide...Plant nurseries are exacerbating the climate-driven spread of invasives and that confronting invasives is one of the best ways to prepare for climate change. What we wanted to find out is how fast both native and non-native species are moving right now, and how far could they go."

"Essentially...there's no chance for native species to keep up with climate change without human help...We need to seriously consider and begin implementing assisted migration"

And stop selling 'ornamental horticultural' invasive species.
And of course stop polluting our atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.

>>
https://phys.org/news/2024-06-native-animals-ranges-faster-species.html
#weeds #FossilFuels #biosecurity #NativeSpecies #conservation #ecology #ecosystems #restoration #biodiversity #PlantNurseries #HorticulturalIndustry #gardening #ornamentals #trade #climate #AssistedMigration