Return to organic, local food | Small farmers can capitalize on the trend, says the co-ordinator of a farm mentorship program
Interest in sustainable, organic and small-scale farming is growing, says Sharon Taylor, co-ordinator of the Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program.
However, she admits that progress can be difficult to gauge.
Her program, a product of the Organic Food Council of Manitoba, offers training and networking opportunities for new and aspiring farmers, many of whom don’t come from an agricultural background.
Wes Huyghe met that description when he started farming two years ago. The beginnings of his two-acre vegetable farm in that province are shown in the documentary film To Make a Farm.
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“There’s a renaissance for the small farmer movement,” Huyghe said.
Taylor agreed. While the numbers are small, she said the Manitoba mentorship program has seen an increase in participants each year since its inception in 2009.
Eight participants from another of its programs have started farms, she added.
She said her program is one of several available to sustainable and organic farmers, who make up two percent of all operators in Statistics Canada’s 2011 Census of Agriculture.
Tim Shultz, who has a seven-acre market garden in Osage, Sask., said he’s seen three new community supported agriculture farms this season in the Regina-Moose Jaw area.
“I see a lot of opportunity for it. There’s a real turn to local foods and natural and organic foods,” he said. “The small farmer has the most to gain on that.”
The recently released census data shows a continued trend: Canadian farms are getting bigger and farmers are getting older.
While total greenhouse area in the country has expanded, Statistics Canada reports a decrease in the total area of field vegetables in every province except Nova Scotia, including an 18.8 percent decrease in Alberta to 10,716 acres.
Total vegetable area in Manitoba fell 8.4 percent to 5,169 acres and in Saskatchewan it fell 5.9 percent to 765 acres.
“It does clash with what we’re experiencing in terms of the interest and the numbers of people wanting to get started into farming,” said Taylor.
Statistics Canada cites the strong Canadian dollar, increasing imports and the closure of processing plants as factors in these declines.
Taylor said many new small-scale farmers might not be included in the census because they don’t yet gross the $10,000 required to file a farm tax return.
While gross farm receipts have grown since 2006, the census data also shows significant declines in the number of farms reporting incomes in every bracket below $100,000.
Taylor said the efforts of groups such as Food Security Canada, which has developed its own sustainable local food strategy and made a presentation to the House of Commons agriculture committee in February, are a source of optimism for the sector.
“That wave of interest in improving the situation in Canada and improving the supports and services that are available for new farmers … is more an indication to me that there is a renaissance and that there is an increasing interest in farming and doing things on a smaller scale than those numbers sort of indicate to me,” said Taylor.
