GUELPH, Ont. – The owner of a modest organic feed mill in eastern Ontario hopes to change the face of agriculture in his region.
Tom Manley, working with an Ottawa investment firm, plans to open Organic Central in a former textile plant near Cornwall, Ont.
The 19,000 metre building would become the new home for his family’s business, Homestead Organics, but he is looking for other organic businesses to join him.
“I believe we have to scale up to bring organic food to everyone,” he told the Guelph Organic Conference Jan. 29.
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“One day we’d like organics to be most of agriculture.”
The building requires a new roof and extensive renovations, and the family hopes for government help.
“We already have the names of people who are considering joining us,” said Yannick Manley, Tom’s son.
“By co-locating with these businesses, we could be at $60 million in (combined) sales and that could double in another two years.”
Interested companies include the Ontario Natural Food Co-op, Nature Path Foods, a seed cleaning business, a vegetable operation and an organic baker.
The goal is to share costs such as information technology, distribution and office staff, which should help smaller organic companies compete with bigger players.
“Our plan is to beat them,” Tom said.
“They have achieved economies of scale. We have to achieve ecologies of scale through collaboration.”
If it goes well, Organic Central will become a reality by next winter.
Homestead Organics was started by Tom’s father, Murray, who switched to organic production in the mid-1980s in response to economic pressure linked to high interest rates and environmental concerns.
The fourth generation farmer blamed commercial fertilizers and pesticides for the deterioration of his soil.
There were substantial challenges, especially in weed control, but Murray said he successfully made the transition by drawing on the expertise of the few organic pioneers in the province.
Meanwhile, Tom decided to pursue a career outside of agriculture.
“As a teenager I had no interest in organic agriculture or farming at all. I just wanted out of the boonies,” he said.
He had a career in the Canadian military and worked extensively in business management and marketing. He played a key role in launching Bell Canada’s Sympatico internet service in 1995.
In 1997, Tom and his wife, Isabelle, took over the feed processing side of his father’s business. He secured a government-backed loan after failing to find funding through the private sector.
Homestead Organics now has 12 employees, processes 6,000 tonnes of feed annually, supplies organic agricultural products and has launched an agronomic service. The company works with distributors in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and New York state.
Yannick studied aerospace engineering, served as an army reservist and worked for Atomic Energy of Canada before returning to Ontario two years ago. His wife, Angie, is a chef.
