Building sustainability

Charlene is the co-ordinator of the Organic Farm Mentorship
Program in Manitoba.She has studied various forms of alternative
agriculture including Permaculture, organic gardening, heritage seed saving, and biodynamics. Charlene lives, works and farms near the town of Clearwater.

Charlene says:

When I was a little girl I used to think of the 'country' as the wonderful wild forests and fields surrounding my grandparents farm in central Manitoba. I remember all the hours I spent cruising the bumpy gravel roads around Wellwood Manitoba on my rickety old bike. I explored derelict, abandoned farmhouses and imagined the stories and histories made within the peeling walls and sunken floors. Endless freedom and adventure could be found there, and the possibilities for an interesting future in my 'country' seemed limitless.

Now I am a young woman living near the small town of Clearwater, Manitoba located in the southwest region of the province. Along the path between childhood and adulthood, I grew to realize that life on the land meant many challenges, that the rural future had more than its share of dark clouds. Eventually, my grandparents original farm would be sold to people outside our family, and the prairie family farm itself would become a threatened species. Still, my strong desire to live in a rural community has not changed since those early days climbing trees and sneaking into the old abandoned grain elevator. I have managed to carve out one of those interesting futures I dreamed about as a girl, but it did not arrive in quite the way I had imagined. My story is about my experiences and observations while living in rural Manitoba. It is about the economic and philosophical struggles I see facing many farmers, both young and old. Yet it is also about a new generation of farmers who are trying to build a truly sustainable agriculture, one that really will have a limitless future.

In the early days my grandparents farmed using horses and minimal technology or off-farm inputs. However, as they aged and modern systems prevailed, those traditional techniques were given up and by the time my father left the farm they had been replaced by the newer methods.

Like many other third generation farm-kids, I had to go elsewhere for the information I sought. I became a member of the international organic farm work-exchange network called the Willing Workers on Organic Farms and began what they call WWOOF-ing throughout Canada, Mexico & the United States. During those years I learnt all kinds of things including organic horticulture, straw-bale & cob house construction, bio-dynamic farming, seed saving, greywater system design & eventually I took a Permaculture Design Course in Sonoma county, California in 1996. I became very excited about Permaculture & when I returned to the prairies a year later I started teaching little one-day workshops about many of the philosophies and techniques I had learned.

As I traveled around North America volunteering on many different organic farms I became increasingly disturbed by two discoveries: 1: rural communities everywhere are suffering a serious lack of young people interested in, or entering into a career in agriculture. 2: rural communities everywhere are suffering severe economic collapse. This is not true only within the organic sector, but also prevalent in 'conventional' agriculture as well. Another bizarre phenomenon I've observed is the percentage of farmers, again both conventional and organic, who require at least one member of the household to earn an income off the farm. More than often this extra income earner is the farm wife. This puts added stress on her as she strives to continue to provide emotional support for her children as well as do her share of the farm work in addition to maintaining her occupation.

Take a look around rural Manitoba. You'll find many lonely ghost towns, dilapidated abandoned farmyards and numerous senior citizen care homes that dot the lonely prairie highways in between the few small towns that do struggle to survive. What's happening? Why is there this rural decline? And what are the causes of this seemingly endless economic crisis?

I think it boils down to a couple of things. Far too often the towns which still do remain are supported largely by the agri-chemical dealerships which, ironically, are backed by the very multinational corporations which advocate more mechanization in agriculture and less actual people farming the land. At Ag Days 2002 in Brandon, public spokesperson for Monsanto Corporation Patrick Moore said, "Perhaps what we need are fewer farmers and more machines so they don't have to work so hard." Multinational companies such as Monsanto Corp., BASF, and Dupont clearly have no interest in supporting a healthy rural community. When farmers fund these businesses through purchasing herbicides, pesticides, or seed, they are funneling their money out of the community. In essence they are financially supporting an industry that keeps its headquarters, and its profits, in other communities and countries.

Another imbalance in this current economic system is the effect that prolonged use of these products has on the environment. Research has proven that sustained use of herbicide and pesticide applications kills important soil micro-organisms. This is the life of the soil. A life which has taken thousands of years to build, and sadly has been dramatically decreased in less than three generations of industrial farming. The health of the soil is integrally linked to the success of the future generations of farmers. With the increasing amounts of dead and failing farmland combined with the expensive costs of industrial production, young farmers are leaving Manitoba's rural communities in hopes of finding a profitable future elsewhere. "It is estimated that 120,000 Canadian farmers will reach the age of 65 within the coming decade." (Friesen, Ron (2001). Planning Ahead. August 23, 2001 Manitoba Co-operator)

With so many farmers retiring, who will remain to farm the land? In an effort to preserve valuable rural communities in Manitoba and assist the rare few young farmers who are actually trying to start up an ecologically secure farming operation, I began working during the fall of 2000 with a group of dedicated people to develop the Organic Farm Mentorship Program. Following the example of similar agricultural apprenticeship programs, such as the Willing Workers on Organic Farms, we designed the Organic Farm Mentorship Program to facilitate the transfer of knowledge from a successful organic producer to a new farmer thru hands-on or actual work experiences. This has helped to promote organic farming as a long-term career option for rural and urban youth in Manitoba.

The emotion I felt for farming communities as a child has not changed, only grown stronger. It's true my concepts of what the 'country' represents have changed a lot over the last twenty years! I feel lucky to be involved in the rejuvenation of rural communities like the one I grew up around. As a young woman in rural Manitoba I still struggle to maintain financial stability. I fit into the category I spoke of earlier, in that I must work 'off-season' at a local ski hill teaching snowboarding in order to support myself. That's simply the way it is. I feel that we must try as a society to return the word 'economy' to it's original definition: "Economy: matters of the hearth; management of the household." (Webster's Dictionary) Through this goal, and diligent perseverance, I believe we can provide hope and economic stability for future generations of farmers as well as those who depend on them!