David Thompson is a farmer but he’s also a cultivator of change. David runs a 3000 hectare property just outside Katanning in WA and like thousands of farmers he’s seeing the effects of man-made soil salinity first hand.
“Around 10 per cent of our farm is in some way affected by salinity and salinity is a major global problem. Every second, 8 square metres of the world’s land is being lost to salinity,” David explains.
“Even more shocking is that over half of that lost land is in the southern part of WA. The Wheatbelt for example is losing about 20,000 hectares a year and has now lost 1.72 million hectares of productive land to salinity. That’s a massive amount!”
Several years ago David decided to diversify his business (from solely grain crops and sheep) and start to grow sustainable, saline-infused food products. His business, Moojepin Foods, now produces saline greens that have won numerous awards and accolades.
The impetus for this change came after a Perth chef rang to ask if David had any saltbush for sale.
“He told me he was buying saltbush from the Eastern States. It had to be fumigated before being sent across the border and the chef said he actually had to add salt to it. We sent him a sample bag of our saltbush and he loved it. That got me thinking as to what else can grow in saltwater, on salt land.”
Moojepin Foods now supply nearly a dozen different salted greens to some of Australia’s top chefs. They grow SeaKiss Saltbush, Warrigal Greens, Crystal Iceplant, Samphire (also known as Sea Asparagus) and award-winning Red Karkalla.
“All these plants have been chosen for their ability to draw up salt and store it in the leaves. We’re ultimately selling salt in the form of a leaf.”
To help manage demand David has joined forces with one of his distributors, Lance McCloud, to share the workload and create a partnership. David handles on-farm production while Perth-based Lance is in charge of packaging, sales and distribution.
The company now grows around 15 hectares of saline food products, most of which is saltbush planted directly into the ground. There’s also a number of massive greenhouse tunnels where David grows his other greens. Hydration for these, and the ground-grown plants, is provided by salty water pumped up from underground.
The economics of David’s venture are definitely stacked in his favour as growing foods for human consumption is far more profitable than growing feed for livestock.
“Animal feed might bring in $200 to $250 a tonne. Human food can bring in $20,000 a tonne so you can afford to spend on infrastructure if you’re getting that kind of high return.”
And David’s environmental and economically sustainable initiatives don’t end there. To help grow these nutrient-starved saline plants David uses an innovative fertiliser created from waste wool. It’s produced by a WA-based company using wool from WA sheep farmers and is rich in amino acids which works to improve the organic content of the soil.
There’s yet another benefit that’s come from David’s decision to pivot and diversify his business. He’s created a business that’s helping sustain his family too. One of David’s daughters, Izzy, has a degree in commerce and international business and has recently returned to the farm to help her father in the business.
Like David, Izzy can now imagine a different future for land that once was lost.