In the spring of 2017, we received an email from a Cowichan Valley student. She was doing a project about the local impacts of climate change, and wanted to ask Brock his thoughts from the perspective of a small-scale organic vegetable farmer. (Those who knew Brock well might already be laughing.) Here are Brock’s answers:
Has anything changed during your experiences at the market? More/less buyers or sellers, costs going up/down? Why have these changes occurred?
Yes, the biggest change has been in the number of farmers selling at the market. There are significantly more sellers now than when we first started farming in 2008, and most farmers are now bringing more produce to market than they did before, meaning there is a lot more competition among farmers than there used to be. This is, in part, because the increase in customers, in which there has been some, has not increased at the same rate as the increase in the amount of produce brought to market by farmers. Supply is greater than demand. This was becoming particularly problematic in the last couple of years we farmed (2014 and 2015). It was not as big of an issue in our first few years. As an example, we were only the second farm in the Valley to offer a weekly subscription vegetable service, or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. When I counted in 2016, there were at least 12 in the Valley. While this is not an example from the market, it nevertheless reflects the huge increase in the number of farmers and what they offer.
Costs have stayed relatively stable, with perhaps a slight increase. But vegetables are already so expensive to buy from local farms that it makes it hard to increase prices without losing customers, especially with the increased competition.
I think these changes have come about because there is increased interest in farming by both young and older people. Young people see it as a way to do something good and meaningful, while older people see it as a good semi-retirement business or hobby. As for customers, there was a real surge in interest in the “100 mile diet” idea around the time we started farming in 2008, which helped increase customer numbers early on. I think this is dwindling today. There is particularly less interest in organic than there used to be. People now only really care about whether something is “local”.
Have you experienced any challenges that you recognize as being related to climate change? Soil quality, drought, producing less..?
I don’t think so. There have been some hot summers with less late spring rainfall, but it is impossible to know whether that is caused by climate change or is just natural variation from year to year. 2016, for example, was much wetter than the previous few years. So which one is climate change?
In any case, extra sun and heat is not really a problem. The problem would be lack of water, but we had wells at both of our properties that never ran dry (one of our wells is in the same aquifer that the Municipality of North Cowichan uses for residential water, which is almost unlimited as it is recharged by the river each year), so we could just irrigate when it wasn’t raining. This is actually quite ideal. Rain in the summer can causes disease and increases weed growth, so I prefer warmer, dryer summers. Not to mention, the crops tend to grow a lot better with the increased sun and heat. For example, 2009 was a hot, dry year and our vegetables grew like bonkers.
In ___ years, what does the future of agriculture look like here in the Cowichan Valley? How do you see climate change further/continuing to impact farmers?
Since the last major ice age, the world has been warming. I expect this to continue. Over the long run, this will mean a change in the mix of crops that farmers are able to grow. For example, with increased temperatures and sun, tomatoes, peppers, melons and corn will likely be easier to grow, while lettuce and spinach may become more difficult to grow. I don’t expect this change to happen very quickly. Farmers can adapt by planting different crops each year and different varieties of those crops (for example, there are hundreds of different varieties of lettuce, some of which prefer warmer growing conditions and others that prefer colder conditions), so there is a lot of flexibility to adapt to any changes in climate, regardless of what is causing that change.
You will also likely see more and more wineries and they will be able to grow better quality wines with the extra heat and sunshine. Agri-tourism is a growing industry and I expect that trends in demand from customers will have a greater impact on what you see growing in the Valley than trends in the climate. Considering that a great diversity of foods can be grown in all the various climate regions in North America, there is no reason to believe that there will be a massive change in what agriculture looks like in the Valley just because our climate changes a bit.
How would a loss of locally grown food impact the community and the farmers?
I’m not sure I understand this question. Why would there be a loss of locally grown food? If I were to speculate, I suppose one reason is if customers no longer cared about buying locally grown food. So in that case, it wouldn’t really have that much of an impact on the community, as they would be the ones voting with their wallets not to support local agriculture anymore. It would be bad for the farmers, of course, but many farmers would likely try to export their food outside the Valley if the locals were no longer buying. That is certainly what we would have tried to do. It wouldn’t be as easy, but the serious farmers would try to make a go of it.
How do you think that locally grown food can help prevent climate change?
I’m not sure locally grown food can help prevent climate change. In fact, the opposite is likely true. Producing food locally is generally less efficient and, therefore, more expensive than producing food where it is best suited to the soils and climatic conditions, among other things. It likely takes more fossil fuels to produce food locally because local food is produced on a smaller scale, and smaller machines burn more fuel per area covered. Small engines, like walk-behind rototillers, which are a staple on small-scale farms, are particularly inefficient.
It is also much more efficient for people to go to the grocery store and buy everything they need at once, making only one trip with their fossil fuel vehicle. When they come to the farmer’s market in addition to going to the grocery store (because you still have to go to the grocery store for toilet paper and other stuff you can’t get at the market), they are making two trips. Of course, people could walk, take transit or use an electric car, but in reality, most people just drive.
There are other reasons too. I certainly wouldn’t rest any climate change saving goals on increasing the amount of locally grown food. The advantages of local food are more about freshness, quality, supporting your friend/neighbour, social interaction, etc., not environmental, which may surprise people. This is particularly true when the locally grown food is conventionally grown, rather than organically grown. Many customers don’t realize that there are several farmers at the farmer’s market that grow with pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers.
How can people help local farmers?
The biggest and most important thing people can to do help local farmers is to buy from local farmers. It doesn’t have to be all your food budget. Even buying $10 worth of produce or meat a week from the farmer’s market makes a huge impact. Most farmers in the Valley are very small. It doesn’t take much extra income to make a big difference in the viability of these farmers’ operations.
Besides that, ask your politicians, if they insist on helping farmers, to stick to helping farmers by increasing demand, such as buy local campaigns, rather than increasing supply, such as starting incubator farms or helping people buy or get land. Supply already is greater than demand.
What are the best crops to grow in a smaller garden? At home? Is it effective?
There are a few factors to consider. One of the most important is whether or not you like to eat that crop. Don’t grow stuff you don’t like eating as it will likely just go to waste. Also avoid growing too much of one thing. If you can’t eat 12 heads of lettuce per week, don’t plant 12 heads of lettuce on the same day. Another important consideration is how much space the crop will take up. Some crops, such as winter squash, take up a lot of room, but don’t produce that much, whereas a crop like spinach yields a lot of leaves in a small space, plus it grows so quickly you can plant and harvest multiple crops per year. I also like to consider flavour. I find certain vegetables just taste way better when you harvest them fresh from your own garden, such as peas, beans, corn and, especially, carrots. Make sure to read the variety descriptions and choose ones that specify that they taste good. If they say they “store well” or “keep well” that is generally a sign that they don’t taste as good as other varieties.
As for effectiveness, it depends what you mean by effective. It definitely takes commitment to have a successful garden, even a small one. You need to water, weed and harvest regularly in order to maintain your garden in good shape. If you can’t do that throughout the season, you usually end up with an overgrown bed of weeds and vegetables that have “bolted” or “gone to seed”, which means they no longer taste good or are unharvestable.
If by effectiveness you mean “efficient”, I’d say no, gardening is not very efficient. Most seed packets you buy have way too many seeds for your garden, meaning you are wasting lots of seeds, or worse, you plant them all and then your garden is overrun by poorly spaced plants that you won’t end up eating. Buying fertilizers or soil mixes and planting trays, etc. is also much more expensive when done on a small scale than when a farmer buys them. That said, you can save money growing your own vegetables, but do it more for the pleasure of working in the garden, eating excellent quality food and feeling proud eating something you’ve grown yourself than for any other reason, such as saving money or the planet.
How do you think people can help prevent climate change or to make the impacts less severe?
Tough question. The climate has been changing for thousands of years. It may be speeding up now due to human intervention, but by how much nobody really knows. Nor do we really know whether it is too late to slow or stop it or to what degree it will negatively or, in some cases, positively impact our lives. Complicating that, there is no reliable timeline over how fast this may or may not occur. Right now, I’d say they pace of change is very slow and farmers and regular people are quite capable of adapting to it as it comes about, so the impacts won’t be very severe regardless of what we do or don’t do.
If you want to err on the side of caution and take action, I think minimizing the use of fossil fuels is the best thing we can do. I hope Tesla is successful in creating electric cars that are affordable and practical enough for regular people to purchase. That will make an enormous difference in the release of carbon dioxide. So buy a Tesla or buy Tesla stock, or another electric vehicle, when you can, I’d say. I wanted to eventually convert my tractor fleet to electric power and think we will see more of that sort of thing on farms in the future. Of course, you can also take the bus, especially if it is an electric or natural gas bus, which are better than the diesel ones. Or walk or ride your bike, etc. Given that BC has excellent hydro-electricity, there is not much point in buying solar panels (so I don’t understand why our politicians spend so much money on that) or reducing your electrical consumption (though there are other good reasons to reduce electrical consumption) in order to prevent climate change.
