Feeling the Squeeze!

We live in a strange place and sometimes it seems like it is getting stranger all the time. The first time I saw this happening I couldn’t believe my eyes but I’m getting used to it now. It’s a helicopter hovering over one of the large greenhouse operations in our area, with a special jet spraying system used to whitewash the glass. This is done in the Spring of every year to cut down on the intensity of the sun so the plants are not burnt. A different “farming technique” for sure!  Makes me wish we could have something similar to paint the barn!

Where we live, our “agricultural space” is increasingly taken up by large corporately-owned greenhouse operations and large corporately-owned wineries, sometimes owned by or associated with famous people. Farming is getting more technically advanced, larger in size, and increasingly competitive.

Which leads to my big question of the day;  Is there still room for the small family farm?

We’re feeling the squeeze! But we believe there is room for all types of farms, for wineries that produce award-winning vintages and have powerful corporate owners who lobby on behalf of the agricultural sector, for vast greenhouse operations that grow produce and flowers year-round, providing significant numbers of jobs and boosting our local economy. And yes, we believe there is still room for the small family farm as well! There is room for us all! One of the beautiful wineries in our area, Peninsula Ridge Estates Winery is well-known for philanthropic fundraising projects for our local hospital and hospice.

But honestly, the small family farm is feeling the pinch here in Ontario! It’s not the pressure from other types of farms that is putting the squeeze on us though. Large chains of food suppliers, both American-owned, and home-grown right here in Canada, are really trying to push the small farmer out of the picture. They don’t want to just succeed in the retail space themselves, they want to drive out any competition so they own the whole space! One large retail conglomerate is doing it’s best to put farmers markets right out of business, claiming they are unhygienic and unsafe to the public. We have no problem with them existing in the retail sector, even dominating the retail sector, but we’d like it if they left us alone to hold on to our small sliver of the pie!

There is growing conflict between rural and urban space that is making things increasingly difficult for small family farms to retail their product.  Recently we had a personal experience with this.  For over 30 years a local and well-known service club has run a farmers market out of a large shopping mall parking lot. Suddenly, the mall has pulled the plug! Why? We’re not exactly sure. Parking space has definitely become a premium in cities. And a large American-owned chain-store retailing in fresh, wholesome foods has recently moved into the mall, so perhaps there are no longer any perceived benefits to mall management for allowing a farmers market to utilize their space.  I can’t really blame the mall owners, their goal is obviously to run as profitable a business as possible and while the market was a huge fund-raiser for local charities, it probably wasn’t contributing to the mall’s bottom line. But are we ever feeling the squeeze!

The service club volunteers have scrambled around, and with the wonderful support of one of the local city councillors, found a new location for the market. It’s not ideal. It’s off the beaten-path for sure. And in addition, we are having difficulty getting approval to post signs indicating the new location of the market, so people are having problems finding our new location. It’s painful to drive by the mall on the way to our new location and see the empty parking spots where we use to have an extremely vibrant, busy farmers market that was so well-received by the community.

Signage isn’t a problem in this incident alone, but is becoming a larger problem even here in our local township.  Bylaws prevent farmers from putting up any signs off of their own property that would help to indicate to visitors where they can find us.  A number of the local farmers here in the Town of Lincoln have become frustrated over the last few years as they have no way of directing traffic to their out-of-the-way rural side-street locations.  How can we participate in the economy if there are so many restrictions to having a viable retail operation?  The town has to concern itself with an ever-growing urban focus even though its roots and many of its members remain rural.

I came across this article recently and felt so badly for the farmer.  It’s dated 2007 and I have to wonder if this man is still operating his farm. (http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2007/07/01/the_hopeless_blight_on_our_strawberries.html)

But I don’t want to be as unhopeful as he sounds.  I don’t want to see big California farms or big box retail stores as the enemy.  I want to believe there is space for all of us to co-exist, that there is still a niche for high-quality, locally-grown agricultural products. There is no question that once a consumer tastes a ripe, fresh-from-the-farm strawberry, peach, or cherry, they can’t resist coming back for more!  I’ve heard some customers say with astonishment, “I didn’t know they were supposed to taste like this!”  If we can get our fruit into the hands of the public, I know they will pursue us wherever we are able to sell.  Now we just hope we won’t be squeezed out of the retail space entirely.