Elizabeth May and the “Growing-Young-Farmers” Program call for Support of Family Farms, Organic Agriculture, and Hands-On Food-Growing Educational Programs

Today at noon at the Mount Douglas Park summit overlooking local Saanich farmlands, Canada’s Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Dave Friend, public speaker, educator and a consultant on food security issues, held a media conference in support of family farms, organic agriculture, and school education programs to create a generation of informed and enthusiastic young farmers. The two were joined by high school students from Claremont Secondary School who currently take part in growing food on local Saanich farms through the “Growing-Young-Farmers” program created by Dave Friend.

Dave Friend aka Mr. Organic, is the creator of the Growing-Young-Farmers program in which school-age students from elementary to university are taught how to grow health-friendly ‘organic’ food, predominantly via a hands-on learning experience. The weekly curriculum-linked program sees students directly involved in producing food on a substantial scale and on pesticide-free land

“We really do need more people growing more food in our region – ‘in the community for the community’. There are many thousands of school-age students who are able and capable of growing that food,” stated Friend. “Students have to do math, English, geography et cetera. Now I am proposing that they have to grow food!”

“Increasing our local food security is particularly important in the face of ever-rising food prices, particularly with imports, and in light of the risks posed by disasters and emergencies such as the tragedy we’re seeing in Japan right now,” stated Elizabeth May, leader of Canada’s Green Party. “Many people don’t realize that the riding of Saanich-Gulf islands is one of BC’s major agricultural regions, with some of the most productive farmlands and the longest growing season in Canada. The Greens believe that support for family farms, local farmers’ markets, and organic agriculture are vital for a healthy, resilient society and planet.”

There are about 700 farms in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, with over 3000 hectares of farmland, according to 2006 Statistics Canada figures. Almost one-fifth of the municipality of Saanich is within the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Over the last five decades, federal policies, subsidies and changing technologies have shifted food production from small, ecologically-sustainable family farms to giant agribusinesses. This shift has given multinational corporations control over our food supply. Meanwhile, farmers increasingly rely on off-farm income to survive.  The Greens believe we must restructure our agricultural markets to sustain local family farmers  and to provide farm families with a fair share of the consumer food dollar.

“To support local farms and organic agriculture, you need the awareness in the local population to help sustain the local market and, ultimately, you need a generation of young people interested in farming. The Growing-Young-Farmers Program is helping to foster the needed awareness, skills and interest to make this happen,” stated Ms. May.

Background Info

Why we need a Growing Young Farmers program:

- We have become dependent on imported food
- If (when?) the transportation bringing our imported food came to a grinding halt (for whatever reason) then we have only 72 hours of food supply in our supermarkets, restaurants and fast food outlets
- 98% of us source our food in supermarkets, restaurants and fast food outlets
- We need more people growing more food – ‘in the community for the community’
- Across Canada, millions of school age-students – from Elementary to University – are able and capable of growing that food

Growing Young Farmers program – a basic overview:

- Available for Elementary to University students – including those who are home schooled – the program is curriculum-linked
- Each week the students visit chemical-free food-producing land where they are taught, in predominantly a hands-on and skill-building manner, how to produce health-friendly ‘organic’ food
- Students are directly involved in producing food on a substantial scale
- Where students are producing food on an existing farm, the farmer gets paid for the food the students have helped to produce e.g. famers need to make a living
- The students are offered a realistic opportunity to eat the food they have produced e.g. their parents buy the food and/or (where applicable) the school cafeteria buys the food
- The students ( teachers and volunteers) become educated in the Principles, Practices and Procedures duly required to produce health-friendly ‘organic’ food
- To make life easy for the teachers and the farmers, the Growing Young Farmers program is fully coordinated, supervised and professionally managed by Dave Friend and his hands-on Advisory Team

Dave Friend aka Mr. Organic is an international educator, public speaker and consultant Food Security related issues and is a past certified organic grower

*****The Saanich Peninsula, and The Gulf Islands, is an ideal area in which to start (and expand) the GYF program. There are a number of chemical-free food-growing areas where students can actually grow health-friendly ‘organic’ food, without the threat of becoming ill from artificial chemicals that are still being used today to produce our food

Background Info on the Green Party of Canada’s Agriculture and Farming Platform

The Greens would support smaller and family farms and organic agriculture by:

- Providing $50 million for local farmers markets. This would help to develop agricultural production for local consumption, thus enhancing local food security while supporting family farms.
- Reforming agriculture regulations to challenge corporate concentration.
- Ensuring that farm support payments are farm-based (not production-based) to encourage more farms and more farmers.
- Enabling local areas without industrial-scale agriculture to develop area-specific food safety regulations meeting national standards without placing undue financial burdens on local farmers and food processors.
- Ensuring that supply management systems provide stable domestic markets; provide viable farm income and permit unregulated production by smaller and family farms that sell to local markets.
- Providing assistance to family farms so they can supply supermarket chains by supporting companies or co-operatives which will offer warehousing, refrigeration, packaging, marketing and selling to enable small farms to compete with large farms.
- Supporting the “200 kilometre diet” and locally grown food through expansion of farmers’ markets and local culinary tourism activities.
- Provide $500 million in a fund to farmers to transition to organic agriculture (funded through eliminated the GST exemption for agricultural pesticides)
- Protecting the right of farmers to save their own seed.
- Introducing cost-shared programs to help farmers protect wildlife habitat areas and marginal lands, maintain water quality in streams, lakes and aquifers, and retain and improve soil quality.