UPDATED: Tom Bisogni looked on sombrely on Thursday as the fruit trees that had been his livelihood for the last 45 years were dozed to the ground.

In order to get the 850 plum trees uprooted before they became biohazard to surrounding orchards, Victorian Farmers Federation president Peter Tuohey and another colleague volunteered their tractors and time to help Mr Bisogni, who could not afford to get the orchard removed himself.

The Shepparton orchardist’s contract with SPC Ardmona (SPCA) was among those severed earlier this year.

Stranded with a bank overdraught and accumulated loans to pay off, Mr Bisogni said he could not pay to have the trees taken out, many of which he planted last year on advice from SPCA.

“Why did they tell me to plant more trees? I don’t know,” he said.

“I bought more trees, put the irrigation together, pruned them and sprayed them, and now they don’t want the fruit anyway.”

Mr Tuohey said the VFF were currently trying to address issues such as labour costs and cheaper fruit imports, but said there was one major problem: “we need Australians to eat Australian food”.

Implementing a policy that stipulated the percentage of Australian grown produce supermarkets sold was something Mr Tuohey said was crucial to ensuring a future for the farmers.

“We’ve been arguing about it for years… i’ve been pushing for 75 per cent.

“So now i’ve said ‘stop the arguments, just do it’”.

Introducing labeling laws that made it clear where food was sourced was another goal of the VFF, Mr Tuohey said.

Following the dumping of his contract, Mr Bisogni said he had been let down by SPCA, the government and the bank.

Several years ago when he was struggling with interest repayment, Mr Bisogni said the bank was not willing sell the orchard and redeem their money until land values increased.

“What the bank does is say, ‘right, you have got no money and you can pay no interest, so we won’t sell you up yet. You look after the trees - you spray, you water, you prune, you take an income - and then when we are ready we will sell you out’.

“So they give you string, and then they choke you with it.”

More to come