Canada Outstanding Young Farmers 2011 Annemarie and Kevin Klippenstein from Cawston BC

This fall I went on a farm tour of BC with a group of international farm writers and fellow agrologists. A variety of farms were visited, including some operated by young farmers. One couple, Annemarie and Kevin Klippenstein, were recent winners of the BC Young Farmers award and they spoke with our group about how they got into farming, and how their operation has evolved in their ten years of farming. Just this month they received the Canadian Outstanding Young Farmers’ Award along with a dairy farming couple from Eastern Canada. Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers’ program is to recognize farmers 18 to 39 that exemplify excellence in their profession and promote the tremendous contribution of agriculture.

      The Klippensteins were raised on the coast and both worked in the hospitality industry, but after they married they started their plans to become organic farmers. Fraser Valley land was too expensive, so the Klippensteins looked for an area with affordable land. They bought a five acre farm in the Okanagan community of Cawston in 2001 and started Klipper's Organic Acres, direct marketing certified organic produce. One of their goals was to farm full time, so it was important to find a market for their organic produce that paid well. They found this market in six Vancouver-area farmers markets, and several Vancouver restaurants. By listening to their customers they evolved their farm operation to include what customers want, and they soon expanded from orchard fruits to include heirloom vegetables. By growing hothouse crops they expanded and extended their season, and by growing storage crops like garlic, squash, onions, carrots and beets they have increased off-season sales through Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) boxes. Preserves and dried fruits and vegetables have helped with the farm’s cash flow.

      The Klippensteins have not worked off the farm since 2002, believing in good honest work and the value in producing good organic food. Diversity is important in their business model, and has allowed them to expand into the winter season with the help of a cold storage facility that they installed. They are still harvesting carrots in February, even in Cawston. 

    Ever evolving and improving, they have added an additional goal of getting more people into farming.

To do this, the Klippensteins are involved in the Organic Farming Institute where Kevin is the Chair. It helps that Cawston has the reputation and title of “The Organic Capital of Canada”. The Klippensteins take five to ten students from March to October and teach them everything they know. They provide a five bedroom apprenticeship suite and a four bedroom mobile home to house their students, stating that it is important that they live on the farm. Finding good farm labour is an issue for most farms, and it is an advantage to have trained labour, especially for organic farms that are more labour intensive.

      Klipper’s Organic Acres has now grown to 40 acres of organic production. Along with organic methods such as cover crops to prevent soil erosion and build soil structure, and predator bugs to provide pest management, solar panels are used for heating water and for the drying facility. The only downside to their success has been that some local farmers markets won’t allow them in because they are viewed as “too big”. As a result, they focus on taking their products to the Vancouver market twice a week. That amounts to a lot of miles driven each year, and a lot of hours away from the farm and family. Annemarie insists on being there to talk to customers, instead of sending employees. This dedication and direct involvement in every aspect of their operation has been a key part of their success. Another key part has been their years in the restaurant industry, which has given them contacts and insights into their customers’ needs and wants. It would be ideal if they could market closer to home, and as the population grows in the Okanagan that may be more feasible – as long as the farmer’s markets let them in.

     The Klipperstein's future goals are to continue to improve organic practices, to continue to educate consumers and to continue to train the next generation of organic farmers.

     On the farm tour, the younger farmers that we met wanted to infuse something new and experiential to farming. Although they knew it was a business, they wanted more than a business. They wanted a good lifestyle and a healthy place to raise their families. Half of the younger farmers had no prior farm experience, yet they were able to succeed by finding mentors, learning through formal education and self-study, and through trial, error and working hard.

Is it Organic? - Cornucopia threatens legal action - Mischa Popoff

Is it Organic? - Cornucopia threatens legal action
Click to read the post - I have also pasted it below. It presents an intuitive, and I believe correct, view of what is happening in the organic world. Food security money from the government is funneled through organizations that haven't a clue about the realities of farming. These organizations are urban based and always speak of our broken food system - which, warts and all, is pretty successful at supplying healthy food to all.
Yes, it needs tweaking. But more than a few of these food activists need to spend some time on the real farms that feed real people.

Mischa Popoff, IOIA Advanced Organic Farm and Process Inspector, Author of "Is it Organic?" The inside story of the organic industry
gives his perspective below and I have linked to the posting on his site above:


"No one epitomizes the huge difference between rural organic-farming and urban organic-activism better than George Soros.

With the openly stated goal of undermining the American economy, Soros supports organizations that are devoted to undermining the North-American food economy, the most efficient food delivery system the world has ever known.

Sure, the North-American food economy is far from perfect. But as I traveled across North America inspecting family-run organic farms, I learned pretty quickly what most honest organic farmers seem to know intuitively: there’s no way we’re going to ever replace conventional farming. Improve upon it? You betcha’! But replace it? Never.

The very idea that we could, as Michael Pollan suggests, easily choose between different food systems is an example of what happens when people who’ve never worked a day on a farm receive more money than they know what to do with in the form of tax-exempt donations from rich benefactors who want to change the way you and your family live our lives.*

Chapter 2 of my book, Is It Organic? outlines the many organizations funded by Soros which claim to stand up for small, family organic farmers but which all stand idly by while over 80% of the certified organic food sold in the United States and Canada is imported from places like China, Mexico and Brazil.

The worst scam is when farmers are subsidized for converting to organic production, but every last cent they receive from your tax dollars passes through their hands and goes right into the coffers of urban organic activists whose only goal is to destroy the existing system, not foster the gradual growth of a healthy, domestic alternative system.

A few weeks ago I called out Mark Kastel and his Cornucopia Institute, along with George Siemon and his Organic Valley Family of Farms Brand, for pretending to stand up for family organic farmers. They both attack large players in the organic food chain for no other reason than that they’re large, but they do nothing to actually help organic farmers.

Do they support the replacement of all the useless paperwork with a single annual field test? Nope.

Do they support the reduction of certification fees and onerous Royalty fees that organic farmers are forced to pay year after year to their urban masters? Nope.

People like Kastel, Siemon and Soros won’t ever support such commonsense notions because, at the end of the day, keeping such inequities built into the system are what keep them in business. And it doesn’t bother activists like Kastel, Siemon and Soros that domestic organic farm revenues have basically flat-lined over the last decade while organic retail sales have soared by an average of 20-%-per-annum.

Lastly, and most important of all, it’s quite telling that instead of responding to any of the points I made (which are posted on this website), Kastel and some of Siemon’s supporters chose instead to threaten a lawsuit.

Nice work Kastel, Siemon and Soros. You have managed to take something that is good, honest and wholesome and build your own personal empires upon it. And, at the end of the day, you don’t even care if the food consumers pay a premium for is really organic or not, do you? All you care about is that your political messages sell. And that hurts domestic farmers."

US Ag Secretary Tom Vilasack says Organic can help "rebuild rural America"

News in brief
Agriculture secretary says organic can help ‘rebuild rural America’: OTA

08-Apr-2011

Related topics: Financial & Industry

Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack told the Organic Trade Association’s (OTA) 2011 Policy Conference that organic farming is an important part of the US agricultural landscape and a good strategy in rural America, the OTA reports.

“Organic producers are very entrepreneurial in nature. They’re in a position to create value-added products that provide a wealth of opportunities in rural America,” secretary Vilsack was quoted as saying.

The OTA also released data from its latest survey on the state of the organic market at the conference, claiming that 78 percent of organic farmers intend to maintain or increase organic production levels in the next five years. In addition, the OTA said that 46 percent of organic operations are planning to increase employment over this period – three times the average for businesses as a whole.

“The USDA is creating financial assistance for organic because we recognize organic as a part of the strategy to rebuild rural America,” Vilsack said. “A lot of folks in rural America need help. One very good strategy is organic.”

Excellent discussion on Genetic Engineering and agriculture by Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak: The Food of the Future

FORA.tv - Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak: The Food of the Future 
(click on the link for the seminar and discussion)

Two revolutions - Genetic Engineering and Organic Farming are often seen in opposition, but this couple are a marriage of the two disciplines, and also married to each other.
This seminar is presented by both Pamela And Raoul, she is a plant scientist, and he is an organic farmer.  They are both at the University of California at Davis.
Worth listening to, if you are interested in the current debate around GMO foods.

The book, Tomorrow's Table, is a must read.  It is co-authored by Pamela and Raoul.

Natural Farming, beyond organic and beyond local

“The happiest moments for my family occur when we encounter lots of wildlife in the middle of farm work. The field appears to be alive as if it is one organism in nature, and we’re delighted to find ourselves being part of it. “ - Arthur Kikuchi, Kenta Farm

Children planting at Kenta Farm

    Arthur Kikuchi is a Pender Island certified organic farmer who has taken organic farming to the next level, beyond organic, and beyond local. Natural farming, an organic style of farming that embraces the natural world, can be done by anyone who wants to do it. No fancy tractors, no large acreage is needed. The following is Arthur's view from Kenta Farm.

   “Kenta is a Japanese name meaning “a healthy child”. We call our garden “Kenta Farm”, wishing the well-being of our next generation to come. In the summer of 2000, I was driven by an impulse to start Natural Farming on Pender Island because we thought we would be able to raise our children with healthy minds as well as sound bodies through working with nature.

Big cedar at Kikuchi Memorial - Singing Frog Covenant

    Paying our respect to Mother Earth, we try to restore biological diversity of the agro-ecosystem as much as possible by applying zero-tillage, multiple inter-cropping system which enable non-crop species to coexist. Native plants or insects, for example, are considered by many conventional farmers to be “unwelcome guests” because they are just “weeds” or “pests” which disturb the growth of crops. However, there must be some significant reason why Mother Nature fosters various kinds of plant and animal species, giving them the means to proliferate in this world. Learning from the natural ecosystems we've found that so many kinds of plants and animals co-prospering on Earth indicate that billions of micro flora and fauna also cohabit the soil, playing the vital role of maintaining balance of the entire ecosystem. We believe diverse life forms can live in diverse ecosystems, and our culture can then become diverse and harmonious. Ultimately, respect for biological diversity will be deemed as essential as respect for the diversity of he human cultures. Natural Farming with diverse species will enable people to become aware that all people and species have an inherent value and equal right to live and blossom on Earth. Caring for the happiness and well-being of all forms of life on this planet is at the heart of our desire to practice Natural Farming.
    The happiest moments for my family occur when we encounter lots of wildlife in the middle of farm work. The field appears to be alive as if it is one organism in nature, and we’re delighted to find ourselves being part of it. Through Natural Farming, we'd like to keep pursuing the question: How do we ensure that we bequeath our beautiful planet to future generations.” - Arthur Kikuchi

   Arthur and his family recently purchased an undeveloped forested property on Hoosen Road and placed a conservation covenant on it in honour of his parents who have passed away. He was assisted with the help of the Islands Trust Fund, the Pender Islands Conservancy Association, and the Nancy Waxler Morrison Biodiversity Protection Fund. The property is known as the Kikuchi Memorial – Frog Song Forest Covenant. Arthur and his wife Sanae, and their children Kenta, Yoko, Shinta and Kota are regulars at the Pender Island Farmer's Market and they farm on a different property on Port Washington Road. I have been inspired and encouraged by his perspective on how we should farm with a minimum footprint and leave a lasting legacy for our children and future generations. Years ago I learned to “make peace with the weeds” and I am amazed at their tenacity. By allowing weeds to live with the grasses, our animals are healthier. The weeds have long tap roots, pulling up micronutrients to the plant, which is either eaten or allowed to die, releasing the nutrients to the soil. Weeds are also the first to arrive at newly disturbed and exposed soil, and their benefit is to quickly establish themselves, grow extensively and plunk down roots, so to speak. All of this has the effect of stabilizing the soil and preventing erosion. Over time the grasses will catch up to the weeds, but you have to be patient. I have wondered if my secret admiration for the weeds was unnatural, but evidently it is an important part of Natural Farming.

Is it Organic? - Liberals destroy agriculture in B.C.-by Mischa Popoff - Opionion Piece

http://www.isitorganic.ca/liberals_destroy_agriculture_in_bc

Thanks to the B.C. Liberals, this province is now the only jurisdiction in North America that squeezes local meat production right out of business. We now import almost all our meat in B.C.  With no evidence whatsoever that meat from provincial facilities was unsafe, Don Davidson, the point man on the Liberal’s Meat Industry “Enhancement” Strategy, accused B.C. farmers of hauling sick and dead animals to local abattoirs to be processed for human consumption. Instead of sending out inspectors on surprise inspections to see whether this was true, an expensive provincial inspection regime was forced onto the backs of B.C. meat-processors. It mirrors the top-heavy system used in huge, federally inspected facilities. You know… the same system that let the 2008 listeriosis outbreak at Maple Leaf slip by that resulted in 23 deaths. Yeah, that one!
  The Liberals picked a few winners and gave them grants and low-interest loans so they could purchase new computers, renovate their facilities by adding offices and showers for their new federal-provincial inspectors, and hire staff to keep up with all the new “safety” bureaucracy. Feel better yet?
  In spite of this generosity with your tax money, the Minister of Agriculture at the time, Pat Bell, and Premier Campbell still found they faced a backlash as provincial meat processors closed down in droves. So they decided to launch workshops through the Ministry of Health to promote local food!
  This was a brilliant political move since Health had nothing to do with the destruction of local food production that was being carried out simultaneously over in the Ministry of Agriculture. Ironically though, local meat production used to be the jurisdiction of provincial health authorities. But, citing cost-overruns, health authorities claimed they could no longer inspect the handful of meat processors in this province, even though they manage to keep a MUCH larger number of restaurants safe, along with daycares, swimming pools and drinking water systems. No matter. To save money, meat production was shifted from Health to Agriculture. And yet, miraculously, Health bureaucrats somehow managed to find money in their budgets to run the local food workshops that Bell and Campbell ordered.
  If you’re wondering how Health authorities know the food they’re promoting is actually local, safe and (the big money-maker) certified organic, well… it turns out there would be no surprise inspections, no tests, just piles of paperwork! While the Liberals cracked down on local meat, they were completely lackadaisical on all other forms of local food production. Gross negligence or fraud, it’s all perfectly acceptable as long as the appearance of “local food security” is upheld.
  Restaurants are inspected on a surprise basis with routine testing; why not farms? Didn’t this all start because local farmers were allegedly feeding carrion to the public? No matter…just fill out the paperwork, pay your damn fees and everything will be fine! Imagine if daycares, swimming pools and drinking water systems were overseen so carelessly.
  After a couple years of this duplicity the NDP finally decided local food was something they should get behind and launched a private member’s bill which, instead of challenging any of the Liberals’ bureaucratic stratagem, proposes to work within it. Great…
  Steve Thomson, Bell’s replacement as Minister of Agriculture, responds to such lighthearted criticism from the NDP on local food by pointing to all the money his party has thrown into B.C. AgriTourism! Right… like tourism is going to save farming in this province. What a crock…
  Thomson runs a ministry that’s supposed to help farmers, and yet he can’t bring himself to do the one thing that would actually help farmers in this province: repeal his party’s punitive Meat Industry “Enhancement” Strategy. And apparently the NDP can’t be bothered to suggest this either.
  We’re left with one gang of bureaucrats bashing local farmers while another pretends to prop them up. After thousands of farmers stopped raising livestock in this province because there’s nowhere to process it, the Opposition decided to support what remains of local food production because it makes them look good. And the deception is being carried out to the tune of hundreds of millions of your tax dollars.
  I hope you’re not eating while you read this because no matter how this plays out you can rest assured the only winner in the end will be the government. It’s enough to make you puke.

Portions of this column are republished with permission from Field to Plate magazine, Spring/Summer Edition.
Mischa Popoff

is a freelance political writer with a degree in history. He can be heard on Kelowna’s AM 1150 on Friday mornings between 9 and 10.