Alberta’s organic industry is like the tortoise in Aesop’s tortoise and the hare fable – slowly and steadily moving forward.
The number of producers isn’t growing quickly but is holding its own in an industry that hasn’t been kind to organic or traditional farmers.
Alberta Agriculture organic specialist Keri Sharpe said the number of organic producers in the province has remained at 340 over the past two years.
“We lose as many as we gain,” she said.
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Steven Snider, a long-time organic producer, said the number rises and falls with market prices.
It rises when the price of wheat increases and falls when the spread between organic and non-organic wheat is small.
The amount of government funding for agricultural research and work has also remained the same, said Sharpe, who taps into federal and provincial Growing Forward grants to access program and development money.
“My funding has not really changed,” she said.
Snider said the amount of government money available for organics is shrinking, just like other types of funding.
Snider doesn’t feel the shrinking government dollar is aimed at organics but is a sign of tighter budgets.
“The volume of grants is reduced and it’s tougher to get funding, and not just organics,” he said.
Sharpe said provincial and federal organic associations are trying to work more closely together to reduce duplication and waste of the limited available money.
All spending must be closely scrutinized, he added, considering there are only 4,000 organic producers in Canada.
He said more money is always needed in a growing industry to host workshops on how to become an organic grower, develop contacts with consumers and restaurants and help solve problems unique to organics.
One of the biggest issues for Alberta organic producers is how the federally approved organic regulations are enacted within the province.
Sharpe said those hurdles will eventually be surmounted.
The lack of a processing industry in the province will also likely be solved.
She said there are shortages of supply and markets, but the biggest problem is a shortage of processing capacity.
“Across the whole organic sector it falls apart at the middle. We don’t have processing capacity.”
Small fruit, vegetable and meat producers who sell their produce farmers’ markets or directly to consumers are doing reasonably well, but grain producers forced to rely on larger markets are struggling.
“There’s nothing moving and no one can say why,” she said.
“It’s pretty quiet on the grain side. They’re pretty glum.”
