Parramatta. Feeding Sydney research project

The Parramatta-based UWS Urban Research Centre (URC) is concerned about the future of produce production in the Sydney basin will undertake a long-term, interdisciplinary project designed to deliver the research needed to address this and other food supply issues. “The time has come to re-examine the wisdom of sacrificing agricultural lands adjacent to our cities to new residential sub-divisions. These lands may well be critical in the delivery of sustainability, quality of life and health outcomes in the decades ahead,” said Professor Phillip O’Neill, URC director. The centre said the Sydney basin produced in 2001 an estimated $1 billion worth of agricultural output, and supplied over 80 per cent of Sydney’s total perishable vegetable requirements.