Fred Fleming and Karl Kupers wanted more out of their crops.
They also wanted their farms to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.
Farming in the rain shadow of Washington’s Cascade Mountains, where rainfall averages about 300 millimetres a year, they were early adopters of no-till systems to prevent soil erosion.
Fleming told the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association annual conference they decided to market that sustainability, with the idea that customers would pay more for crops grown a specific way and for a specific use.
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“Wheat is about the most unsexy product in the world,” Fleming said.
It’s also generally marketed as a commodity.
Fleming and Kupers believed they could market sustainability by taking their product directly to consumers. In May 2002, they formed Shepherd’s Grain.
The company now involves 18 farmers who all practise direct seeding on about 90,000 acres.
They allow consumers to come to their fields and walk the farm.
“You have to be authentic, completely open to your customer base,” Fleming said.
The company has a milling partner in Spokane, Washington, and markets its products to bakeries, restaurants and food service companies in several western states. It markets high and low gluten flour, whole wheat flour, lentils, garbanzo beans and red beans.
Fleming said consumers who know exactly where their food has come from become food activists and promote a system of farming that can change the world.
In turn, the producers hope it will save their family farms.
Shepherd’s Grain was set up with the idea of covering cost of production and obtaining a reasonable rate of return through the premiums growers can earn because their products are identity preserved.
Fleming said it took a few years to determine what consumers wanted in terms of varieties. For example, some customers are using specific flours for pizza dough, cookies and artisan breads.
In 2004, the company had 2,000 bushels of wheat and it took a whole year to sell it. In 2009, it will have 800,000 bu. produced through its direct seeding marketing tool.
“We are trying to decommodify the system that we live in today,” Fleming said.
