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| No one said this 100 mile diet was going to be easy............but someone has to do it! | |
New President's Message
By Bill Mitchell
After two terms, Dr. Bill Code has stepped down as President. The IFA saw a revitalization under Bill as it has shifted towards a more consumer and food related perspective and away from its original roots as a commercial farmer-based organization. Traditional, full-scale farm operations have declined on Vancouver Island to the point that they could no longer support a significant farmer only organization. Under Bill, the IFA widened its base so that now one-third of the board members are people who do not farm for a living. There are now publishers, educators, and agricultural administrators on our board as well as farmers such as myself.
I run Sea Bluff Farm just outside Victoria in Metchosin and a substantial part of my income comes from farming. I grow winter vegetables. To sell them, I have started up farmers’ markets and promoted sales to restaurants as well as running a roadside stand.
Things are looking up for small-scale farming on Vancouver Island. The current economic woes can be worked to our advantage. Most people are becoming more concerned about assuring themselves of a reliable, wholesome food supply. The quickest and most direct route to establishing that is to grow your own or barter with your neighbours. Restaurant sales have fallen off as the public seeks to economize in its food budget. According to Herb Barbolet, Co-founder of FarmFolk/City Folk, local cookbook sales have doubled over last year and sales of home canning supplies have increased by fifty percent.
Many problems remain facing farmers here on the Island. The ones I am most familiar with are those posed by our three levels of government, none of which is prepared to whole-heartedly embrace the farming sector. I held elected office in the Capital Region from 1993 to 1999 and did what I could to ease the lot of farmers. But it was an uphill struggle. The prevailing public attitude is that farmers enjoy economic benefits denied to other people and that they are dog-in-the--mangers sitting on valuable land which is economically under-utilized. Very little political recognition is paid to the benefits they generate. Indeed, when farming comes up in local politics, the discussion is usually related to the nuisance bylaws.
As the new IFA president, I intend to draw on my experience with government so as to reduce some of the obstacles that have been placed in the path of those who would have the temerity to perform now such illegal acts as growing a chicken and selling its carcass to their next door neighbour. Over the last generation, government policies have been written to promote multi-national agribusiness and squeeze out small producers. With NAFTA, the number of onion processors in BC dropped from 2000 to 6. The public is left wringing its hands wondering what happened to all its jobs while eating onions bagged in Mexico. Cry me a river.
Under Bill, the IFA has put together an organization that is working to change the direction of agricultural development here on the Island. We are raising our public visibility through our association with the Buy Sell & Trade. We are promoting an adult agricultural program to be delivered through Malaspina College. We are working with the Nanaimo Heritage Food Co-op to provide processing and distribution facilities to Island Farmers. We are lobbying the BC Assessment Authority in regards to revisions to farm taxes and the Department of Lands and Agriculture over health and environmental regulations. We want to see more agricultural programs in the school districts. It is never too early to learn how to make things grow. I see my job as making it happen.