“Garlic, potatoes, onions, carrots, beets.” Geordie
Ouchterlony lists the organic vegetables he can’t get locally:
“Turnips. Squash, beans…I mean beans, it’s something that’s really
easy to grow here. There were no more in November.”
Ouchterlony owns Home Grown Organic Foods, a home-delivery food
service which does its best to sell local organic produce. Right now,
most of the organic produce he sells and delivers in his boxes is
imported. His dogma box, which features only locally grown organic
produce, “would contain apples and carrots at this point.”
“The things I’ve mentioned are staple crops that are typically in
good supply.” He says demand is up so much that, combined with some
crop failures, there’s almost no local vegetables left. This year,
vegetables that usually run out just before spring have been gone for
months. “This is the first year we’ve seen it so bad,” he says.
It’s not just Ouchterlony who’s seeing a short supply. Sean
Gallagher, who runs Local Source Market, says local organic produce has
gone from a “fringe thing to the mainstream. People want better food
and a better connection to the land.”
At least a few conventional farmers agree. Last year, Patricia
Bishop, whose family has run Noggins Corner Farm non-organically since
Bishops first settled there in 1760, bought a 20-acre certified organic
farm in the Annapolis Valley with her husband Josh.
As president of the Kings County Federation of Agriculture, she’s
excited to see consumers move towards organic consumption. “It’s really
great that there is a demand for products. There are lots of
opportunities for farmers to diversify into organic and to communicate
they’re paying close attention.”
However, what retailers might not understand, Bishop says, is that
along with the organic lifestyle comes a more community-based marketing
system. Many small farmers sell their produce on their own, bypass ing
retailers like Gallagher or Ouchterlony.
“I do think there are farmers that have stock, but they’re saving it
for farmers’ markets. They’ll opt to hang on to them throughout the
winter and get a higher price.”
When Bishop’s organic crop comes in, she won’t sell to local
retailers. She’ll hand-deliver 100 “shares” of her harvest to customers
in the Valley and in Halifax. She’s already signed 25 customers to her
community-supported agriculture (CSA) program.
Jamie Coughlan, a business development specialist with the
province’s Department of Agriculture, expects the number of CSAs in the
province to double. He hosted a CSA workshop at last week’s Atlantic
Canadian Organic Regional Network conference expecting 50 participants;
100 showed up.
“We’re in the midst of a transition,” he says. “Right now, we have a
shortage of new, sustainable farmers. But the CSA route isn’t an easy
route for new farmers, because you take people’s money up front” as a
pre-paid share of the harvest. “You have to know what you’re
doing.”
Lydia Pedri is a new farmer. “There are not that many kids raised
on farms who are taking on farms any more,” says Pedri. “People like
me are just interested in it, but we have to start from the ground up.”
The 25-year-old farms organically on borrowed space, recently bought
12.5 acres of her own and works at Local Source. She’ll sell part of
her produce to Local Source and market the rest through a food-box
system, using her produce exclusively.
That’s why self-marketing by farmers doesn’t concern Gallagher. He’s
already planning two years ahead with small farmers who don’t have the
time or inclination to sell their own produce.
“Hopefully (small farmers) get better at their jobs and I’ll just
take whatever is extra from the big farmers,” he says. “I’m happy to
cultivate relationships on both levels.”
How do you buy local? Tell thecoast.ca.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
garlic is the easiest thing to grow in the world yet it all comes from china.. wtf?
Soo does organic mean pesticide free or just covered with only non synthetic poisons? I’ll stick to plain local at the best price/quality and my own garden.
Back when birds had scales, we didn’t really know the difference between organic and regular…when I was in my 80s, those newfangled steam machines came together to harvest the fields. All you had to do was keep feedin’ them tree after tree. Luckily, trees were like bugs back then. We had so many, we cut’em down just so that they couldn’t take over.
When we moved into town, I’d spread the old motor oil in the garden to keep the birds off the zucchinis. Biggest zucchinis you’d ever seen. And they’d deep-fry themselves right in the garden on a sunny day. Darn-tootin’, they were good.
It isn’t always about getting a higher price. It is about getting a fair return. When you sell directly you get a better return and are able to reinvest more in your farm. Farmers are not out to get people with ‘higher prices’ – I think we are all yearning for a system that provides equity for all parties.
For such an incredibly good story, this article seems negative. The point is, demand is up for organic and local products. We need more farmers, and there are some potentially great opportunities in the sector. CSAs are a fantastic way for customers and farmers to develop mutually beneficial relationships. Did you see Patricia’s website at http://www.taprootfarms.ca?? This is a vision for a better future. I wish her and Josh every success. And Noggins Farm too. They are doing great work.
Do you remember what those first strawberries of the season tasted like right out of the garden? The peach you picked that dripped juice down your chin? The corn you picked and immediately cooked that tasted so good that you ate three cobs? But, hold on – where’d that taste go? For the last 20 odd years we’ve been seduced by advertising promising quick and easy and tasty – but they left out the tasty. And through those years, while we allowed our food to be “manufactured”, the farmers who were “growing” food got left behind. Many couldn’t compete with factory food, sold their land, and went elsewhere to work. Those who refused to give up saw their income fall, their kids leave, and their communities diminished. But a revolution is beginning, starting with the young people who have, of course, the most to gain because it is about the quality and quantity of food for the future. It’s not surprising that there’s a shortage of good food – organic and local – because the growing demand exceeds the capacity of existing local farmers. And for new farmers – finding land and money to get started is a huge challenge. And by the way, it’s not surprising that some farmers choose to retain produce for regular customers – because they’ve become more than customers, they’ve become friends. So if you’re interested in good, healthy local and organic food get to know a farmer. And if you’d like to go a bit further, help persuade government leaders to change the regulations that make it easier for you to buy manufactured and long-distance food than local. Can’t wait for those fresh strawberries …..
People will not buy local until it’s completely mainstream. We (I’m talking the general public, not the people who frequent the Farmer’s Markets) need to force the the grocery stores to carry more local produce, for them to carry something as ubiquitous and as simple as lettuce and celery that has to travel all the way from California because it’s cheaper to produce on a corporate farms, is bleedin’ ridiculous. Not everyone can visit the markets to buy local, so having the grocers on board is absolutely necessary. The solution to the space/funding problem? Let’s embrace simple technologies like hydroponic growing, or other, less resource intensive farming methods. There are plenty of new technologies out there that are completely viable and cost thousands less than starting a farm.
Organic really is tastier, and somehow more satisfying knowing your purchase has recycled cash into the land.
There’s an organic garlic farm in Kings County, so it doesn’t all come from China.