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Farming in the North - Different Methods, Same Goal: Sustainability for Tomorrow

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Farming in the North - Different Methods, Same Goal: Sustainability for Tomorrow

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Individual Farmer Practices to Ensure a Future

Throughout our experiential learning trip in Yukon, it was constantly demonstrated to us the movement that these farmers are making toward food security and food sovereignty. Within this movement, another common theme that all of these producers are practicing is sustainability. In general terms, sustainability is such that a person takes no more than they need today, so that there will be resources available for them and everyone else tomorrow. Specifically, this means practicing water conservation to ensure safe water for drinking and irrigation and minimizing or eliminating any practices that could have the potential to damage waterways, wildlife, air or other people through pesticide use/management practices.

As we toured Sheep Mountain, we were shown first-hand the long-term consequences of unsustainable practices. Due to industrial activities in the Southern part of Canada and worldwide, a mountain glacier near Kluane National Park had retreated to the point where it could no longer feed the nearby lake. The glacial water was being diverted through natural, but dramatically different processes to the Alaska river instead. Continued disregard for the negative effects of “developed” activities will only make situations like the one in Kluane National Park worse in the northern climates; where climate change is changing the landscape faster than anywhere else.

Geographical areas north of 60 are witnessing climate change more dramatically than people anywhere else, and this makes them recognize the need to raise their agriculture standards of practice more than anywhere else, even though there are no legislated requirements to do so; as they work toward sustainability. Bart (Elemental Farm), Derek (Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in Farm), Otto (Kokopelli Farms) and Randy Lambe (Downtown Urban Gardeners Society) are some examples of organic farming contributing to environmental and food sustainability; while The Saddlers’ (Klondike Valley Creamery) have found sustainable practices by using organic guidelines on their farm but are maintaining their freedom to use antibiotics on their dairy animals as a last resort.

Changes within the larger ecosystems such as retreating glacial ice and a constant reduction of permafrost should indicate to us that the activities humanity is currently engaged in (both industrial and agricultural) as we strive toward economic development are unsustainable and need to be modified if there is to be a future for humanity.

The different strategies employed by these various farms show some of the diversity that is possible as the farmers of Yukon work toward food security, food sovereignty and food sustainability. It also shows that there is no one right path for the agriculture industry to take.

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Bart Bounds - Improving Accessibility: One Man's Strategy

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Bart Bounds - Improving Accessibility: One Man's Strategy

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Food accessibility is similar to but different from food availability. Accessibility refers to the affordability or financial ability to obtain the desired food to meet the family’s needs. The biggest determinants of accessibility are price of food, level of income, and the price of housing. If one of these variables is disproportionate, the amount a family spends on food will always be compromised. Accessibility is also more complicated than having sustenance in the pantry or on the store shelves. Accessibility is the right of access to healthy food, not just food. In most instances, a family will resort to providing low-quality non-nutritionally complete products for a meal, rather than not eating. Low nutrition food has been linked by experts within the United Nations to poor learning at school and low productivity in the workplace. The Anti Poverty Coalition of Yukon has been instrumental in improving food accessibility programs and initiatives through community-based programs such as the Yukon Food Bank and the Community Garden to aid in combatting these consequences. Another group working on improving food accessibility for the Yukon people is the AICBS (Arctic Institute of Community Based Research). This organization provides financial assistance to an entrepreneur who has an innovative method of improving food security for Northern people’s but lacks the financial means to see their idea to fruition.

Most of the farms that the University of Guelph Yukon experiential learning group visited recognized that accessibility was just as challenging of an issue to low income families as food availability was to Northerner’s. Farms such as Bart Bound’s Elemental Farm are attempting to improve food accessibility by having a self-described sliding scale for food prices. Though not a perfect method, his motivation is pure. If a customer comes to his food booth who he determines to fit into the low-income category, he will reduce his prices for that person; while a person whose visual appearance appears to indicate they have a higher income will be charged higher prices for the same produce. Government agencies refer to Bart’s system as “financial redistribution” where the high-income earner helps with social/financial/food security of the low-income earner.

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Randy Lambe - Food Availability North of 60

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Randy Lambe - Food Availability North of 60

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Whitehorse Food Availability Activity

Yukon College, with assistance from and expertise supplied by the territorial agricultural department, is committed to improving the availability aspect of food security for their residents around the city of Whitehorse by partnering with the Downtown Urban Gardeners Society. This partnership has resulted in multiple urban garden plots available to enable a family to grow their own fresh produce. For only $25 per year, an individual can purchase a raised garden bed that is 13 feet long, 6 feet wide and 2 feet high; and plant any vegetable crops of his/her choice. This allows all families the equal chance to obtain an increase in their food security situation over the short-term. This initiative also allows for greater control over grocery expenses, as the person can grow their own fresh vegetables rather than purchasing these foods at the grocery store; where freshness is not always guaranteed, and the price may make purchasing healthy food unaffordable. In addition to increasing food security by increasing the availability of food for the person/family who purchased the plot, there is the opportunity by the grower of the urban plot to donate some of their excess produce to the local food bank, which will be distributed to those who cannot participate in the production of their own food.

The theoretical implications of their food supply being cut off become all too real when the only road into Whitehorse from the south was washed away approximately five years age. This devastating effect of flooding, which was attributed to climate change demonstrated to the residents of Whitehorse how their very existence can be affected by something they have no control over; and that they must make significant changes to ensure their continued survival. Every food producer we talked to on our experiential learning tour told us how the road washout affected them and their community in drastic ways. The goal of the farmers in Yukon Territory is to ensure that such a dramatic food shortage never occurs again.

I think this was the turning point for the community in terms of food security and food sovereignty. The future of Whitehorse, as well as to the area north of Whitehorse, depends on total food sovereignty. That survival attitude continues even to this day; though the road has been repaired and the immediate threat is minimal. Excess fresh produce by one urban farmer has the potential to impact many citizens within the city of Whitehorse; and further their desire to be self-reliant.