A friend’s illness made Amy Stewart examine how we produce our food. Now, she teaches others about it

It’s an acquired passion, with deep roots stemming from an idyllic rural childhood in the southern Queensland town of Warwick. A childhood of quiet Sunday morning horserides with her father, packing bags of fresh farm produce and scheming up excuses to avoid homework.

A veterinarian, Amy’s father Ian Olsen owned and operated an agricultural produce business with one of his brothers. He also bred horses and ran cattle on their block of 60 hectares. When Amy and her family visit now, it may be a different acreage, but the abundance of animals has stayed the same.

“It was fascinating to me being involved with everything Dad did,” recalls 34-year-old Amy. “I was in charge of making sure the horses weren’t waking up while Dad was doing a procedure by checking blink responses on their eyes. But you couldn’t get me out of the produce: that was my passion.”

At that time, food production meant fertilisers and chemical use. Amy recalls her father mixing barrels of chemicals with his arm, not for any particular reason, but because that’s the way it was always done. Then awareness started creeping in. “There was no such thing as PPE [Personal Protective Equipment]. Unless the farmers got sick in the moment from breathing it in, you didn’t take precautions.”

For Amy, awareness started with a friendship. After she had graduated from high school, she moved in with her best friend Theresa and Theresa’s three-year-old son, Matty.

“This is where my fascination with ingredients started,” she says. “Theresa showed me a different way of living; of questioning what we put into our bodies and on our skin. Becoming a mother had changed the way she thought about food and she became curious and objective about what she and Matty ate and how they lived, even down to perfume and deodorant. Consequently, so did I.”

Their mantra became “when you know better, you do better”. But then Theresa was diagnosed with breast cancer and the friends became even more committed to mindful and organic living and fervent label reading. “Theresa was so far ahead of her time, it blows my mind,” Amy says.

Meanwhile, Amy’s career development took the scenic route. She dabbled in floristry, then pressed pause on a veterinary technology degree at The University of Queensland so she could complete a Diploma of Arts majoring in ancient history and soil science at the University of Southern Queensland. Then she finished her vet degree and began studying education.

“I realised I wanted to be a teacher, but not just in agricultural science,” she says.

Despite graduating as a high school teacher, Amy wanted to work with younger children. She flagged her interest with a school deputy principal who conspired with a colleague to have her teach Year 6. Eventually she convinced them to send her to teach Prep at Moranbah East State School in central Queensland.

“I walked out of the office crying. I thought all my Christmases had come at once!”

However, in 2013, her friend Theresa had a relapse of her breast cancer. Amy received a terrifying phone call a few months before her wedding to say “today was the day”. Her fiancé Cameron moved mountains to get Amy on an afternoon flight to Brisbane and she was at the hospital just in time to share her best friend’s last 20 minutes of life.

“There was a period of grief I can liken to no other,” she says. “To have to pick up her unworn maid-of-honour’s dress and deliver her eulogy changed everything for me. It cemented the belief that it’s not good enough to think you know something. It’s when I became a real researcher.

“I threw myself into learning more about organics. I am a devoted label-reader and believe that awareness is everything. Organic is just a pleasure to me,” she says.

“When Theresa and I were getting serious about organics and being aware of ingredients, there weren’t a lot of dedicated brands. Now, there are so many: we’ve come such a long way.”