Op-ed by Dr Olivia Rundle
Strict regulations are proposed for local community food swaps and sale of excess backyard produce, which could increase food insecurity in regional Tasmania.
Biosecurity Tasmania has released for public comment its phase 2 version of proposed regulations of leafy vegetables, berries and melons. The December 2025 phase 1 consultation attracted strong submissions from regional communities including growers, consumers, organisations and local councils from King and Flinders Islands, the Far South, and North of the state.
Submissions explained the essential role that home growers play in providing access to fresh produce. They also explained that imposing even minimal regulatory burdens was likely to result in excess produce becoming unavailable through local food systems, thereby increasing food waste and food insecurity.
The concerns of the Tasmanian community have been largely ignored by Biosecurity Tasmania in preparing the phase 2 draft. While a regulatory exemption applies to people who give home grown produce away to friends, family or neighbours, the exemption does not apply to home growers who give their excess produce away at a community crop swap, to a food relief service, or who ask for any money in exchange for their produce.
If home growers plan to engage in any of the regulated activities, they will be required to notify Biosecurity Tasmania of their name, address, plus a description of each production activity they undertake, and the locations at which they engage in ‘horticulture produce production’.
These details will be contained on a public register, although Biosecurity has backtracked from original indications that private details would be publicly available. Registered details will still be able to be accessed on request.
Additionally, the backyard food grower will be required to complete a complex Food Safety Management Plan, the template for which is a 30-page document.
Biosecurity Tasmania will inspect the home grower’s garden ‘periodically’. Fines will be payable for failure to comply with any of these requirements.
The Food Safety Management Plan – essentially a lengthy form – bureaucratises backyard food production. Given reports that almost one in two Tasmanians of working age is functionally illiterate, the need to prepare a complex Food Safety Management Plan is likely to be a significant barrier for some home growers. The template demands details which do not fit the scale and context of home food production.
It assumes pre-planning of what is grown and predicted harvest quantities, multiple risk assessments, policies and procedures, water testing, and verification of all inputs. Backyard vegetable and fruit growers operate quite successfully without any of this paperwork, and there is no evidence that any Tasmanian has supplied leafy vegetables, berries or melons that are unsuitable for human consumption.
Submissions made in phase 1 of the consultation suggest that many growers will cease sharing their produce because of the difficulty of complying with regulatory requirements.
For example, one resident from Flinders Island submitted that: ‘The likely outcome is that growers stop selling or reduce production altogether. On an island already facing challenges with food affordability, availability, and freight reliability, this would have significant negative consequences for community wellbeing.’
Another grower from the south of Tasmania explained that: ‘…it will cause actual harm, because the added bureaucratic burden, and cost of implementing the regulations, will cause some small growers, whose produce improves the quality of life for many in their community, to just stop growing.’
While Biosecurity Tasmania asserts that the requirements are proportionate to the capacities of home-based growers, they, in fact, introduce a barrier to localised community food sharing and community sufficiency. This contradicts the Tasmanian government’s Food Resilience Strategy 2025-2031, which aims to build a ‘resilient, community-led food system’ that is ‘sustainable, coordinated and inclusive’ and ensures ‘all Tasmanians have dignified access to nutritious food.’
This Strategy frames food systems as needing to be ‘localised where possible’ and ‘equitable across regions.’ Existing barriers for food access recognised in the Government’s Food Resilience Strategy’ include supply limitations, geographic inequality and availability of fresh produce. All of these will be negatively affected by the proposed system.
Localised food systems are identified as improving access to fresh food, community resilience and economic participation, through local food hubs, social supermarkets, community gardens and neighbourhood food programs.
When launching the Food Resilience Strategy, the Tasmanian government said it wanted to connect local producers with communities, emphasised place-based approaches tailored to local needs, and committed to community-led solutions.
Instead, what these proposed regulations will do is to disconnect communities and inhibit existing community led solutions, such as community crop swaps and roadside produce sales.
The phase two consultation period for the proposed regulation in relation to leafy vegetables, berries and melons is open until 30 July 2026.
Submissions can be made to the product integrity division of Biosecurity Tasmania through their online form at Have Your Say
Dr. Olivia Rundle is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Tasmania, a home grower of berries and leafy vegetables, and an enthusiastic participant in community crop swaps in her regional Tasmanian community.
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