The Family Farm

The cold spell has snapped, hopefully for good. A heavy and welcome snow is falling. If this keeps up for another few hours, I am not going to worry about a drought. At least not for now, we have reached a point where we need to take water seriously but this snow, falling right now, has eased the concern for the moment.

So I'm turning my attention back to food, a subject that is never to far from my heart, or is that my stomach? First a plug. I am reading an excellent book, A Patch of Eden, by H. Patricia Hynes, published by Chelesa Green Publishing. This book examines, America's inner-city gardens and gardeners and can open your eyes to the possibilities. A review will be forthcoming in a few weeks.

This week we continue our look at where our food comes from and how it gets from the field where it is grown to your table. Our focus is the family farm, the cornerstone of a sustainable community food system. The following definition of family farming, comes from an article, "The Hog wars, The destruction of a subculture, published, in the March 2003, issue of Rural Delivery magazine. The article by Maurice Telleen quotes Harold Breimyer who wrote:

"An agriculture in which farmers and their families are owner-operators who buy and sell in the market, make the managerial decisions and take the associated risks. They are both laborer and boss and they own some land. We do not require that they own all the land they farm but lifetime tenancy is not family farming. Farming families provide at least half the labor, the rest can be hired..." p.21

All across North America, family farms are disappearing. They are being swallowed up by expanding cities and ever growing agribusinesses. Here in Thunder Bay, we have organized a committee in an effort to determine if it is possible to increase the market for locally produced food and if the family owned and independent farms in the region can meet that need. To this end we are distributing a survey to answer these question, if the market for your food grows can you meet it. The answers will help us define the next stage of our campaign to encourage people to purchase food that is grown and produced locally.

This is the first step in developing a strong support base for local family farms which are integral to an understanding and definition of this region and our community.

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