Alice Star and Phil Garozzo are ‘closed-loop’ farmers operating a 2-acre bio-intensive market garden 30km NW of Brisbane in the Samford Valley. They partner with local venues, including kitchens at city cafes, restaurants, brewers and bars with the aim of closing the loop on food ‘waste.’ Loop Growers have created a weekly collection system of surplus organic materials (‘yields’) in colour-coded buckets from their Brisbane business partners, saving valuable resources from landfill. Their recycling collaboration salvages fruit and vegetable kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, spent grain from breweries, eggshells, and even wood shavings.
The collected yields feed their worm farms and are converted into biologically diverse compost to grow nutrient-dense crops. Loop Growers sell their freshly harvested produce back to the food business partners in their collaborative. They facilitate a win-win team effort that supports their local communities with nutritious chemical-free food, strengthening community ties, connecting customers to the land and educating consumers on sustainable food production.