EVENT RECAP: Merville, BC – Production, Policy and Community Mixer for Market Gardeners

On February 22, 53 people gathered in the Merville Community Hall on Vancouver Island to share stories, build community and brainstorm future farming policies for vegetable farmers in BC. Co-hosted with the National Farmers Union (NFU), attendees also included folks from LUSH Valley Food Action Society, the Mid-Island Farmers Institute and the South Island Farmers Institute in addition to the North Island regional agrologist, a representative from the Agricultural Land Commission and a collection of enthusiastic farmers, researchers and farmer allies from all over the Lower Mainland. 

Over the day, we shared laughter, tears and discussions about the future of vegetable farming in BC that were soulful, serious and passionate in equal measure.

We started by contextualizing ourselves in space and time, considering the intersections of our work with the food sovereignty and food futures outlined by the K’omoks First Nation, on whose territory we had come together. Followed by a poetic mistica (a ceremony or performance meant to build cross-cultural solidarity) led by the NFU, we connected our work for the day to struggles for food sovereignty and agrarian justice worldwide.

After introducing Young Agrarians and the NFU’s goals for the day, we hopped onto our feet for an introduction circle to get to know each other. During the introduction circle, we heard about farmers’ needs and dreams for their farms – what would make farming more viable and sustainable for their livelihoods? Over and over again, “community” and “partnerships” stood out in people’s responses, setting the tone for the day as one of collaboration building community.

After getting to know each other a bit, we settled in for a presentation from Jaclyn Kirby, the farmer at Yellow Boot Farm. Jaclyn shared the ins and outs of her farm startup journey, beginning with her experience working with education gardens, then working for Cropthorne Farm and Earth Apple Farm before finally starting her own farm business. Jaclyn highlighted some of the supports that were essential in getting her business off the ground, including the Young Agrarians Business Bootcamp, BC Land Matching Program, Business Mentorship Network and networking and educational events. Jaclyn also emphasized the importance of mentorship and farmer-to-farmer education with other farmers on the island. 

Jaclyn walked us through the before and after of her farm planning over the first few years, from business modeling to crop selection. She named some of the challenges she has faced as a new farmer: moving to a new city to access land, working with acidic soil, knowledge gaps, navigating inflation, the physical toil of farming increasing with age and having to contend with social media to market her business. In the face of these struggles, Jaclyn shared some of the tips and tricks for success that she learned through a few seasons of trial and error: leaning on community and friends, strengthening accounting and business management knowledge, online and in person classes, making use of podcasts and farming apps and industry tools (e.g. the BC Ag Nutrient Calculator). She also shared the benefits of keeping things simple (especially when it comes to crop planning), setting realistic goals and planning ahead for labour, equipment and insurance. 

After walking through some suggestions for developing a farm marketing strategy, Jaclyn dove into a water case study of the land she leases, explaining the impacts of the Water Sustainability Act on her farm. Without access to licensed water, Jaclyn turned to perennials and dry farming, and during her presentation she shared some of the beautiful and bountiful results of her (many) experiments! Jaclyn’s primer on water licensing wrapped up her presentation and led to a lively discussion about the history and implications of water licensing for BC farmers, where audience members from a variety of backgrounds shared their experiences with access to water.

After a coffee and snack break, we gathered together once more to hear from Natasha Anderson-Brass of Minwaadizi Farm. Focused on farming in community, Natasha shared the beautiful, spirit-centred story of her intertwined journey of reconnecting with identity and family as a Saulteaux woman and developing her relationship to land through farming. Natasha situated her family’s story within the Sixties Scoop and shared the joy of connecting with her aunt, Sharon Brass, who has become a key figure in Natasha’s life, work and spirituality as she relearns her cultural traditions and explores what it means to be an Indigenous farmer.

Drawing the parallel between disconnection from her own family and the disruption of traditional food systems on Turtle Island through processes of colonialism, Natasha shared examples of the thriving Indigenous agriculture that preceded European colonization. Pointing to the extermination of the buffalo, a key food source across Turtle Island (and for the Key First Nation, of which Natasha is a member), she made the connection between our food systems, cultures, communities and spirits, outlining the systematic killing of the buffalo as a mechanism of cultural genocide and systemic racism. More broadly, she pointed to traditional peasant farmers across the globe as examples of sustainable and successful agriculture rooted in community and intimate knowledge of the land. These systems, she explained, have been disturbed by greed, capitalism and private property ownership not just on Turtle Island but also in Europe – as she shared, we all come from farming cultures that once thrived in community.

In the context of the colonial legacy of our food system, Natasha went on to share her journey of starting her own farm, Minwaadizi Farm, on leased land and sowing the seeds of previous generations of her family. Rooted in community with friends, neighbours and relatives, Natasha highlighted her collaboration with Good Earth Farms and Amara Farm through ceremony, cooperative marketing and most of all, deep friendship. Natasha closed her presentation with hope and appreciation for Indigenous food sovereignty work across Turtle Island, sharing her experience creating a deer hide protocol with the NFU’s Indigenous Solidarity Working Group and leaving us with the beautiful footage of buffalo being returned to her family in the Key First Nation.

After digesting two thought-provoking presentations, we sat down for a delicious meal catered by James McKerricher from the LUSH Valley Food Action Society featuring a variety of local farm products.

After lunch, we had the pleasure to hear from Jan Slomp, a farmer with decades of experience, former NFU president, current ALC commissioner and Comox Valley Farmers’ Institute president. Jan detailed his journey as a conventional farmer over the years, watching the transition from small-scale, community-based farming towards large-scale industrialized agriculture. He highlighted the power of farmer organizing for countering corporate consolidation in the food system, emphasizing historical examples within Canada, the Netherlands and across the world. Visioning a future for our current food system, Jan emphasized the importance of collaboration and community, and pointed to Farmers’ Institutes as a key hub for farmers organizing for change.

Galvanized by Jan’s historical perspective and extensive knowledge of community organizing and policy change in BC and Canada, we transitioned into our afternoon policy workshop. Focused on five key areas for policy change – access to land, access to knowledge and training, access to capital, access to wraparound supports and favourable regulations – we moved around the room and shared our ideas. Within each area, discussion groups analyzed existing resources, then shared their experience of the “fruits” (resources and assets that support new farmers, born from the work of farmers and changemakers before us), “rocks” (barriers and challenges that new farmers face in our current policy climate) and “seeds” (opportunities, dreams, strategies and policy proposals for a future that supports new farmers). 

Some of the key points that emerged from these conversations included:

Access to land: 

• Successful farming cooperatives and farmland trusts, farmer-to-farmer mentorship and land leasing through Young Agrarians and local municipalities facilitated access to land. 
• Poor farmland quality, prohibitive cost of farmland, BC land assessments, colonial land ownership structures, speculation pressure, barriers to newcomers, lease insecurity, relationship conflict and lack of water and/or inaccessible water licensing are all barriers to land access. 
• A better policy landscape for land access would look like longer-term lease and incubator programs, facilitating creative succession planning (subsidized land transition from retiring to new farmers, community land trusts facilitating succession), taxation of non-farmed farmland to subsidize land access for new farmers, incentivizing and investing in cooperatives (including regulatory changes for dwellings within the ALR) and returning land to management by Indigenous peoples. 

Access to knowledge and training: 

• Farmers Institutes, Young Agrarians programs, Environment Farm Plan programs, Ministry of Agriculture resources including regional agrologists, BC Farm Organizations, farm schools and degree programs, the NFU, informal mentorships, on-the-job training as farmworkers, farm tours and workshops by community groups and books, podcasts and online resources from out-of-province extension services facilitated access to knowledge and training. 
• Non-regionalized information, lack of funding for training, lack of exposure to farming for youth and overwhelm about how to navigate available information are barriers to access to knowledge and training. 
• More (or any) extension programs, access to resources from Washington and Oregon extension programs and universities, revitalizing agricultural courses in high schools including trips to farms, increasing the number of in-person, community-specific workshops, funding for training especially on-farm training, paid and better paid internships, more specialized mentorships and regional funding for community development including farmer-to-farmer extension could be part of a better policy landscape for access to knowledge and training.

Access to capital: 

• The BC Agribusiness Planning Program, the New Farm Business Accelerator Program, IAFBC Programs including Environmental Farm Plan, wage subsidies, SPEC funding, Youth Employment and Skills Programs Funding, credit unions, credit cards and intergenerational funding from relatives facilitated access to capital for farmers. 
• Eligibility criteria (e.g. farm size) for funding programs, short grant funding windows during peak farming periods, lack of grant writing expertise, lack of information about available grant funding, too much paperwork to access capital temporary immigration status limiting access to loans and impacting credit score, rise of input costs, insufficient insurance programs, high interest rates and losses from making capital improvements to leased land were listed as barriers to access to capital. 
• Grants for infrastructure including wash/packs, irrigation, and tunnels, grants for season extension, long-term lease opportunities, loans to purchase a business, capital access for older new farmers, higher cost-share percentages for grant funding, programs like the New Entrant Farm Business Accelerator Program for mid-career farmers and cooperative or accessible grant writing services would facilitate access to capital. 

Access to wraparound supports: 

• AgSafe and mental health programs for farmers, Farmers Institutes, Young Agrarians, community and farmer-to-farmer support, Solid State Co-Op support, crop consultants, podcasts, regional agrologists, social media groups (e.g. buy/sell groups), farmers markets, family support and mutual aid through community work parties and sliding scale CSA models served as effective wraparound supports. 
• Lack of time to access wraparound supports and need for off-farm jobs, bureaucracy and paperwork to access support, lack of year-round farmers markets, lack of wellness events for farmers, lack of visibility and community for BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ farmers and lack of support from government groups were all barriers to access to wraparound supports. 
• Farmer-specific extended health care covered by the government, seasonal, farm-based celebration and rituals (e.g. mango festivals in India), farming partners and collaborators, better public support and perception of farming, farm labour salary subsidies (with fewer restrictions), tax breaks and student loan forgiveness for food producers, universal basic income for farmers, direct support with paperwork (grants, insurance, etc) and free counselling for farmers were listed as potential wraparound supports for farmers.

Favorable regulations: 

• Farm classification through BC Assessment, supply management and the Agricultural Land Reserve (when enforced properly) were listed as favorable regulations for farmers. 
• Discrepancies between ALR regulations and local bylaws, complaint-based ALR enforcement, unfavorable municipal bylaws for on-farm structures, power imbalance in leasing relationships due to private property regulations, the Water Sustainability Act and water license processing delays, employment, funding and capital restrictions on temporary residents, greenhouse building fees, quota for root vegetables incentivizing underproduction and on-farm housing restrictions favouring migrant labour rather than domestic farmworkers living on the land were cited as unfavorable regulations. 
• Revising ALC regulations to better support farmers, establishing clear hierarchies of overlapping regulations (between regional districts and municipalities, the provincial Land Title Act, ALC land use regulations and the Fire Protection and Prevention Act), more holistic systems of measurement for policy success (e.g. farm incomes, debt ratios, land prices – rather than export values), more local involvement in developing regulations and serving on committees, a more formalized leasing system similar to residential tenancy, support accessing GAP certification, legislated local food purchasing and restrictions on foreign ownership of agricultural land were listed as ideas for favorable regulations. 
• Quebec’s Bill 86, the SAFER model in France and Japanese regulations for farmland preservation and access were listed as potential models for regulatory change.

After our deep-dive into policy brainstorming, we gathered all together once more for a closing circle, where participants shared their key takeaways and dreams for the future sprouting out of our conversations from the event. It was a special day full of collaboration, connection, vulnerability and inspiration!

To get involved with Young Agrarians’ policy work, head to our Policy Hub, where you can learn about resources, upcoming events and ongoing projects to develop policies that support the next generation of farmers: https://youngagrarians.org/policy/

The Breaking Barriers: Growing Future Farmers National Policy Jam and associated work is supported by the Government of Canada through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s AgriDiversity Program, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.