FIFTEEN years ago, Burringbar banana farmer Lance Powell was ready to throw in the towel.

The buyers at the central wholesale markets had become increasingly hard-to-please, rejecting fruit with the slightest of imperfections, and paying him a pittance for the little they did accept.

Meanwhile, his health was suffering as a result of his daily exposure to farm chemicals.

“I would get a cold or flu and end up with pneumonia. I knew that I’d damaged my immune system. And I knew that I was making myself really sick. I just thought, I’ve got to try something different.”

For Lance, organic farming was the answer.

He downsized the farm (“we had a big area that I basically couldn’t look after without using Roundup all the time”), and got rid of the chemicals and sprays. He stopped selling to the central markets, and found a new outlet for his bananas:  the local farmers’ markets.

It was a shift that would save the farm, as well as Lance’s health.

Fifteen years on, a once-again healthy Lance farms a small but sought-after supply of sustainably grown organic bananas – as well as avocados, paw, paws and citrus – which he sells direct to his customers.

He says bananas grown on his farm – and anywhere in the region from the Queensland border to Lismore – are particularly sweet, thanks to a slower ripening process than those grown further north.

And while he once spent thousands of dollars on chemicals to keep his banana skins ‘clean’ to please the central market buyers, Lance’s farmers market customers happily buy his ‘imperfect’ fruit.

“I’ve had a lifetime’s experience with the central markets and it just brings a smile to your face. If the bananas have got a blemish on them now I don’t worry. My customers love them as they are.”

He says the growth of farmers’ markets has been a blessing for small farmers like himself, as they provide a decent and reliable living, which can in turn support more sustainable farming practices.

“I’ve got a theory that because people are being squeezed all the time and they only just make a living – and its the same for agriculture right throughout Australia – people can’t look after their land, because they’re not making enough profit to look after their land, so you’ve got land degradation that     follows on.”

   “The land is everything. And the quality of the soil. And if you can’t look after your land;  put enough back to keep the soil       structure and the land rich, then you’re basically just on a downhill slide.”