Region. Farms will 'cripple growth'

Preserving farms on Sydney's fringe in the name of agricultural self-sufficiency will cripple the city's growth, putting extra pressure on renters and home owners, said Aaron Gadiel, chief executive officer of the Urban Taskforce a property developers' lobby group. Chairman of the NSW Farmers' Association's horticulture committee, Peter Darley, said that the city needed to retain its farms because they had a more reliable water source than those further west, especially during drought. Sydney farmers can eliminate the ''middle man'' because they are within 50 kilometres of the market, but if they moved further west, they would have to employ more people to move the produce, increasing the cost of vegetables, he said.