I want to be a farmer. I am in a program with a lot of smart, ambitious young people who also want to become farmers. So I have decided that I’m going to keep exploring some of the barriers that people who are just starting out in the food production industry face.

Farming is all about the bottom line. As my mum said this morning “If you can’t make money, no matter how much you enjoy getting dirty or feeding people or driving around in ever decreasing circles in a combine or whatever it is that inspires you to be a farmer, you can’t do it.” And as usual, she is right. You have to able to pay for your own needs, and that can be a pretty high bill if you are running a farm.

One of the biggest expenses facing farmers, especially new ones, is land. The tricky thing about land is that usually the pieces you want are close to your markets. Markets are generally in population centers, and generally, population centers are where land is the most expensive. You have to compete with all those developers who want to build big expensive houses on it, and make piles and piles of money. In British Columbia in particular, agricultural land is expensive because there isn’t much of it.

Prime beef raising land, Kananaskis. Land prices in southern Alberta are increasing due to the development pressures from Calgary, and the desires of wealthy Calgarians to own fancy country homes.

The problem with having expensive land for farmers is that food is a really low mark-up product. Farmers sell what they produce for only slightly more than what it would cost them to produce it. If a farmer has to pay $300,000 for their farm, they would have to sell every potato they grew for $500 a pound, and we all know that isn’t going to happen. The percentage of people’s income that is spent on food has decreased significantly over the last 70 years, and unfortunately for farmers, consumers just aren’t willing to pay what it costs to produce organic, local and sustainable food.

Of course, the government has stepped in to support farmers and keep food prices low in the past by offering farm subsidies, but that has only contributed to some of the biggest problems within the food system today. Farm subsidies were given to commodity crop producers, which led to the rise of huge agribusinesses who produce and process subsidized crops like corn into the cheap, nutritionally void foods we see on supermarket shelves today. These farm subsidies worked out really well for a few major corporations, but they hurt everyone else. Farmers lost money because the market kept getting flooded with cheap commodity crops, small-scale farmers were priced out of business by economies of scale, and consumers started living off of cheap, processed food that has caused countless health problems in our society. Farm subsidies are why you can buy Vector in every supermarket in Canada, but finding locally grown oats and hemp hearts for your porridge will be extremely difficult. This is a grossly simplified version of what has happened, but the fact is that while we insist on paying practically nothing for the food we eat, farmers will not be able to farm. Why? Because they can’t actually afford to. Even if they really, really want to. Which is bad news for people like me.

Me, working on a farm in Italy.

Of course, there are a couple ways around owning your own land. I’m going to take a little break from the gloom and doom posts next, and explore some nifty alternatives.

When I tell people I want to be a farmer, most of them give me the same slightly confused, somewhat sympathetic look I assume you’d get if you told someone you were planning on swimming across Greenland. Most people seem to think that being a farmer is a bad idea, for a whole variety of reasons.

I’ve always been drawn to food production though, and despite the fact that I am currently dabbling in ideas of food policy, food security issues, and hunger solutions, I do want to run a farm at some point in my life. I want a small scale farm, and I want to run it the way I think food should be produced.

Lately however, I’ve been hearing some pretty discouraging stories involving some barriers small scale farmers face. I really want to address some of what I view as systemic problems facing small-scale and/or innovative farmers, who are choosing to grow food outside of the factory farm production model. So I have decided to write a few blog posts about some of the problems that I see facing these fine folks, and exploring some ways we can address them, at the policy level or elsewhere. I am studying because I want to be able to change our food system for the better, and I think that in order to do that, we should probably take a look at some of the problems facing people who are out there doing things a little differently. So, the next post will be about a farmer very close to home.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve been having a little trouble lately in the inspiration department. Ever since finals ended, I have been doing things that have been bringing it back. And it is soo nice. It feels great to be free to spend my time doing things I love. The trick, of course, is to find inspiration on those rainy, dark Vancouver days when you have 4 papers due, a class at 7 am, and it’ll be at least three months til it’s warm enough for anything edible to sprout.

One place I can always count on for a little boost is the Perennial Plate. The Perennial Plate: Adventures in Sustainable Eating is a website run by Chef/Activist Daniel Klein, and his lovely now fiancee Mirra Fine, who happens to be a kick-ass film maker. Together, they started a little cooking show, and the season 1 webisodes are all focused on local eating in Minnesota. Lately, the little movies they make and post on their website have taken off, and so have Mirra and Daniel…all the latest webisodes are international adventures. Definitely check them out. Their videos are beautiful, hilarious, and make me want to cook, hunt, travel, grow veggies, and share meals.

Home

Spring has sprung. And with it came indecision. This time, it is about whether or not I should take a long, lovely year off to travel the world and surf, or stay put and keep plugging away at this degree.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the program. GRS has been wonderful to me. Still, I can’t help feeling a little uninspired. It is academics, I think, that leaves me cold. We sit in lecture halls, and listen to people talk about their research. We read text books. We write exams. Once this year, I got my hands dirty and planted some greens. But other then that, I felt pretty far removed from what it is I want to spend my time doing.

It is a tricky position to be in. We are often told what our degrees are supposed to mean to us, without actually considering it on our own. I should finish with a Bachelor of Science in Global Resource Systems. Sounds important. Maybe. But what will that really mean? Does it make me more likely to get a job? A job doing what? Do I want the kind of jobs where people look at a piece of paper to see what letters you have before/after your name? Am I being a giant hipster snob?

The truth is, this year was tough. Academically, somewhat, but mostly just those out-of-your-control things that drive you to distraction. I have spent a lot of this year questioning why I spend SO MUCH MONEY taking classes that I do not want to take for a degree that promises…what? We deal with professors who are incompetent, fellow students who make our lives…ahem..difficult, and administrators and staff that, when you come forward with a serious problem, dismiss you completely. We have very little control. I have spent more of this year frustrated then any other year of my life. In the scope of things, of course, I am really, really, really lucky.. but I’m feeling a touch ungrateful. And as a result, perhaps, very uninspired.

And that is what brings me to today..sitting here, wondering if I just need to get away from it all for a while. I’m not in a hurry. I don’t have a 5 year plan. I don’t have a dog that needs my love and attention. I could go to California, and live on the beach. I could go to Switzerland, see my sister. I’ve always wanted to go learn to cook in Vietnam. I could go to India, and volunteer and work on seed saving projects. I could go to Detroit, and work on the amazing urban farm programs that are springing up in the somewhat dead inner city. I’m feeling inspired already.

Or I could stay in the city. I could come back after working for the summer, find a new apartment somewhere, and write papers, finish lab reports, go to class.

I haven’t figured out what a degree would mean to me yet. I’m working on it. I do know that despite all the incredibly stupid things that happen at school (and considering there are supposed to be plenty of intelligent people here, it’s a freaking boatload), there have been a few experiences that have completely made all the utter ridiculousness worthwhile. And that’s why I’m still here today, anyway. I haven’t made up my mind about next year, but I will be keeping in mind all the things I am so grateful for while I make my decision. Here is the beginning of the list. Maybe it’ll help other students who feel similarly.

1. Jeffrey Steeves. I know, technically he is at the U of S, but the man is a hero. For every cent I have spent on my post-secondary education, and for every second I’ve spent wondering why I’m not in Nepal, the experience I had in my first ever political studies class makes it all worth while. Good professors make all the difference in the world. There have been good profs at UBC as well, and they really do make up for all the..erm..other ones.

2. The GRSers. All my fellow students are awesome. They create amazing projects, they go on fantastic trips and exchanges, and they make the worst classes manageable. I’ve never met a more awesome group of students. Definitely a source of inspiration! Even if we spend most of our time talking about how we can get credit for not going to classes (lots of ways, it turns out…another reason GRS is awesome).

3. Roxana and Brent. They run the program, and the GRS class itself. They are constantly helping us out, and always seem to do it with a smile. Gentle words of encouragement go a long way, and Roxana and Brent are the best source. We’d be so lost without them.

A few years back, I went to Europe to volunteer on organic farms. I worked on farms in Italy and France, through the WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) program. It was my first real taste of farm work. I’d spent lots of time in the garden before then, but had never been a part of any kind of commercial food production system. I was 17, and so excited to try something new.

I would recommend WWOOFing to anyone who wants to go abroad, learn about organic farms, and not spend a ton of money doing it. The WWOOF program is designed to help connect farmers who need a few helping hands with workers from around the world who wish to learn more about organic farming. In exchange for their labour, WWOOFers get a place to stay and their meals taken care of by the farmers, and they get to experience life on an organic farm. The WWOOF program has national chapters all over the world, and memberships are really cheap. Once you buy a membership, you can scroll through lists of farmers in the country you have chosen, and then contact farms that sound interesting to you. We ended up contacting several farms, and arranged to go stay on three..one in the south of France, and two in Italy.

The first farm we stayed at was quite disappointing, and not a very good experience over all. The farmers were looking for free labour, and were not interested in teaching us about the farm at all. We stayed two weeks. We mostly picked almonds, although towards the end of our stay we also got to participate in the wine grape harvest. I realized that when we first contacted the farm, we were so excited that someone wanted us to come work with them that we didn’t ask enough questions. I would recommend asking lots of questions. Also, if the farmers ask you lots of questions, it’s a good sign. You want farmers who are interested in you, why you are coming, and what you actually want to get out of the experience.

The almond orchard in southern France where we spent two weeks picking almonds.

Harvesting wine grapes in France.

A trailer full of wine grapes in southern France.

The second farm we stayed at was just outside of Alba in the Piemonte region of northern Italy. And it was fantastic. It was a beautiful little farm, tucked away in the hills outside of Alba. The farm house was 400 years old, and the lovely couple that lived there were welcoming and kind. We learned so much from them. We got to do lots of different jobs around the farm, including working with the honey bees, picking pears and apples, making jams, filling and labeling honey jars, gathering wild herbs and chestnuts, and even making Grappa, a kind of pomace brandy made from pressed grapes. It was heaven. We spent a very happy two weeks there.

The view from the farm house near Alba, Italy.

Leaning about the bee hives in Italy.

Pressing grape skins to make Grappa.

Making grappa at the Italian farm.

The third farm we were supposed to visit was an olive orchard in central Italy. However, due to a later harvest than usual, we had to move on to Portugal before the olives were ready to be picked, so we never made it to that farm.

WWOOFing was a great experience. It’s a good way to get some hands-on farm experience under your belt without much too much commitment or responsibility. It’s also a great way to travel, because you get to settle in to one place for a little while, and really get to know the people and the area. We made really good friends while we WWOOFed, learned lots, and had a really wonderful time while doing it.

My one top tip for potential WWOOFers: Ask SO MANY questions. Find out what the farm is all about. Why are they organic? Why did they become WWOOF hosts? Anything, really. Our biggest mistake was not asking enough questions, and it led to one bad experience. I would also be slightly suspicious of farmers who don’t ask you questions back, because you want someone who is interested in you, too. Not every farm is interested in teaching. Spare yourself the trouble. Be clear about what you want, and find out what they want.