Manly Microgreens Co.

When you think of cutting-edge, innovative business ideas, unless you’re an ancient Egyptian, it’s unlikely your first thought will be of toiling the earth to produce precious agricultural goods. Farming’s thousands of years old. We’ve got it pretty much sorted, yeah? Well, no. Far from it in fact. 

Thanks to the startling degradation of global soils via mammoth-scale unsustainable farming practices, and the monster food miles associated with getting produce from the ground to your plate, in 2021 we find ourselves inundated with drought-prone farming land, our “fresh” produce armed with alarmingly low nutrient levels, and we’re reliant on a minute group of multinationals to provide us with our food. This is not a healthy state of affairs.

Enter this month’s Silicon Brooky feature, Manly Microgreens Co. Founded by Séan Newman and Marco Poggi. “We both discovered the problems caused by global soil degradation and farming mismanagement around the same time,” says Marco. “Not only were we deeply concerned, but we both wanted to get our hands dirty and make a change.” 

Marco’s expertise is in the corporate arena. Séan’s career is in construction. They’ve both left strong professional positions to establish Manly Microgreens Co., fully committing to making the changes in the world they themselves want to see. 

“Our original plan was to buy a 20hectare farm, but property prices went ballistic, the economics simply didn’t’ stack up,” recalls Marco. “From the outset my wife said urban farming was the way to approach this. Like with everything else in life, she was right.” 

The urban farming approach meant Séan and Marco could base their agriculture HQ in Manly, surrounded by tens of thousands of customers within a few kilometres. Ideal for decreasing food miles, even better for ensuring supreme nutritional value of their produce. 

“30% of a food’s vitamins are lost within 3 days,” explains Séan. “And on average in Australia, it’s at least 9 days from the time of picking before people eat the food they’re getting from major outlets. We deliver a living product! Your veggies are literally still in the soil up until the moment you cut off what you want to eat.” 

Having only been in business a short while, Manly Microgreens Co. is quickly proving a hit; For parents of kids who don’t want to eat their greens, the fact microgreens have 40x the nutrition of mature veggies means parents need only convince their little angels to have 1/40th of the amount. A huge bargaining chip at dinner time negotiations; For those who want maximum nutrient value from their food, microgreens are unbeatable; And for anyone who appreciates beauty, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better way to adorn your kitchen than the Manly Microgreens Co. packaging – nutritious produce in plastic-free, soil-laden, paper-based, home-delivered pots.

While it’s great to have happy customers, growing in number every week, a fantastic situation for every start-up business, Marco and Séan are also finding tremendous satisfaction in having backed their decision to leave their former professional roles. “We set out to do this because we truly did want to get our hands dirty,” Séan reasons. “And dedicating our time and energy to producing living plants for maximum flavour and nutrition, it’s so rewarding.” 

It’s taken a huge amount of hard work to get up and running, but Séan and Marco are now able to help people change their lives for the better by the food they eat, microgreens packed with goodness. And their customers can rest safe in the knowledge that when their food is sourced from Manly Microgreens Co. that it’s plastic, pesticide and chemical free, and no food is wasted, Séan and Marco grow only what their customers order.