Network backs local farmers
There are significant challenges to food production in the capital region, including the fact that most local farmers are 65 or over, says Linda Geggie of the Good Food Network.
“They’re going to be retiring,” Geggie said. “In the next 10 years, we’ll lose half of our farmers.”
She said that reinforces the need to get more people into farming, despite issues such as the cost of land. That’s where the Good Food Network comes in.
“The kind of support that farmers need is to be able to get on the land,” said Geggie, who also serves as executive director of the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable. “So we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in terms of trying to promote land accessibility. There are a number of strategies, one of them being the promotion of farmland trusts for the region so that land would be held publicly but would be provided in longterm leases.”
Geggie said that in some instances, farmers lease land but have no security.
“They can’t put investment into that land in terms of fencing and water and greenhouses and all of the kinds of things that are quite capital-intensive.”
A long-term lease through a farmland trust can provide the security to change all that, Geggie said.
The network, with more than 100 members, has been operating for about 20 years and has become more of a formalized unit in the past three, Geggie said.
“It’s a broad range of groups, organizations and individuals who are all working to support healthy, sustainable food systems,” she said. “Good food is defined as good for the planet, good for the provider and good for the health and well-being of all.”
The network enjoys Victoria Foundation funding in the form of a collaboration grant, which is geared toward encouraging agencies and others to come together to solve issues.
Promoting the availability of local food is a mainstay of the network, Geggie said.
“It’s in your grocery store, there’s farmers’ markets, you can get it at the farm gate.”
At present, people in the region generally get less than five per cent of their food from local sources, Geggie said.
The target is to increase that to 25 per cent by 2025, she said, through things such as “buy local” initiatives, support for farmers and getting small farms working together.
Geggie said there are a lot of small farms that could aggregate their products for wholesale and retail markets.
Large retailers realize the appeal of local food and are doing their best to keep it in stock, she said.
Another area of concern is the many people who rely on food banks — a significant number of them children. In response, the network is involved in initiatives such as Farm to School, which supports the development of school gardens, school salad-bar programs and farm tours.
The network also hosts the annual Good Food Summit, a conference to bring people together for workshops, networking and other activities. This year’s event is being held Nov. 22-23 at the University of Victoria.