An Ecological Partnership in Biological Control Marjorie Harris, BSC, P.Ag. A magical event takes place each spring in Walter Harvey’s orchard. As the sun warms and thaws the landscape into frost free days, the Ladybugs that spent the winter huddled together in the cracks and crevices of Snowy Mountain’s rocky faced peak emerge in the… Keep Reading
Gabe Cipes Editor’s note: Aquaponics is a hotly debated topic in the organic sector. As the BC Organic Grower strives to make space for open discussion on all things organic, these pages provide an excellent forum to examine aquaponics in an organic context. The fate and state of the world now depends on innovation in… Keep Reading
Blain Hjertaas Holistic Management is a decision making system that helps us make better decisions. It teaches us to make decisions that are simultaneously sociologically, environmentally, and economically sound. The end result is happy people, healthy profits, and regenerating soils. Holistic Management emphasizes principles of regenerating the soil. Our modern industrial approach to agriculture has… Keep Reading
Editor’s note: We’re taking a detour from the usual Organic Standards focus of Footnotes to explore the inspiration that can strike while working in the field. A farmer’s life is more than physical labour and paperwork—spending so much time in the natural world opens a window into art for many, including Cathie Allen, who wrote… Keep Reading
Rebecca Kneen Most of us in BC live on unceded territory—territory that was appropriated by settlers from Indigenous peoples without treaty. We are beginning, finally, to explore the implications of this condition on our relationship with the land and our Indigenous neighbours. We are learning that we live within a great contradiction: we want to… Keep Reading
Michael Ekers and Charles Levkoe Originally published by Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario in Ecological Farming in Ontario, Volume 36, Issue 5. While the research was conducted with farms in Ontario, much of the findings likely carry over to BC. There are increasing numbers of interns, apprentices, and volunteers working on small- and medium sized… Keep Reading
Devon Kirchner Times change, and trends come and go. However, there are certain things that, try as we might, we can’t quite change so quickly. Human beings have always needed to eat—and that’s where the farmer comes in!As consumers seek out a deeper connection with their food, new markets emerge. In the last 20 years,… Keep Reading
Robyn Bunn, Elise Hjalmarson and Christine Mettler, collective members of Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (RAMA) Okanagan. RAMA is a volunteer, grassroots collective of community organizers that work to address the disenfranchisement and injustices faced by seasonal agricultural workers in the Okanagan. The Invisible ‘Foreign’ Labour in ‘Local’ Food [the boss] only sees [us]… Keep Reading
Rob Borsato with thanks to Marjorie Harris Growing a Local Food Movement in the Cariboo It was the “back to the land” movement of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s that nudged, on separate paths, Cathie Allen and Rob Borsato to the Cariboo. Together, in 1985 they purchased 105 acres of mostly timbered bench land above… Keep Reading
Keeley Nixon Seeds ordered? Check. Planting calendar set? Check. Staff hired? Check. Conflict resolution preparedness in place? Wait, what?! Though it’s often overlooked in the sheer onslaught of too-much-to-do-not-enough-time of daily farm life, collaborative communication practice can be one of our strongest tools,.Think you’ve got this covered? Remember back to the hardest moments of last… Keep Reading
