JANUARY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


29 Incubator farm seeks to re-invigorate local seed industry by TAMARA LEIGH


DUNCAN – The Cowichan Valley was once an established seed-producing area on Vancouver Island and now a new incubator farm initiative is trying to revive that tradition. In late October, Cowichan Green Community (CGC) celebrated the official opening of the Cowichan Incubator Seed Farm – the first farm of its kind to focus on seed production training. Incubator farms have been established in a number of BC communities, including Saanich and the Lower Mainland.


“We are taking the incubator farm model and specifically providing training for seed farmers,” says Foster Richardson, the farm manager for CGC. “We set people up with a plot to work with, provide some oversight and training, and try to give them the base that’s needed from both a business perspective and production perspective to succeed.”


Growing crops for seed has some important differences from growing for produce. Harvest methods are different, and there are the additional steps of drying, sorting, cleaning and storing the seeds so they don’t spoil. The seed farm will provide training as well as access to a seed bank on site. It’s all part of a much larger vision for regional food security.


“Seed production is really valuable and valid component of agriculture, and something we are hoping to revive in this region,” says Foster. “People that are already farming or hoping to farm could gain a lot from self-sufficiency with seed. It’s a really important part of a local food system.” In the 1930s and 40s, the Cowichan Valley was home to a handful of seed companies drawn by good growing


conditions. The region’s mild winters mean that seed crops can overwinter outside if they need to and the typically hot, dry weather in July and August provides an important opportunity for seeds to mature. As seed companies consolidated and moved to large-scale production, the industry left the valley. “We’ve been making a lot of progress reinvigorating agriculture in the region but we are still dependent on a seed industry that is not localized,” says Richardson. “We see it as an essential component of a food system to have seeds that are not only produced locally, but are being maintained and selected locally because locally- adapted seeds perform better when they are properly produced.”


Cowichan Green


Community has been trying to get an incubator farm program up and running in the region for several years. They finally secured a 3.5-acre site from the municipality of North Cowichan in early 2016 and have spent the past six months getting it ready. “Our hope is that we will have our first intake of aspiring seed farmers in spring 2017,” says Richardson. “We’ll be running programming of some scale next year, trainees as well as the greater public. We want it to be an education centre for the whole community, including


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workshops for seed-growing beginners.”


In November, the initiative was featured as one of three projects at the Social Enterprise (SE) Catalyst gala, a Dragon’s Den-style event showcasing unique social enterprises from across Vancouver Island. The project walked away with $8,000 in cash and in-kind donations, including marketing support and legal advice.


The Cowichan Incubator Seed Farm has received funding from the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, Island Coastal Economic Trust, the Real Estate Foundation of BC and Coast Community Trust, as well as staff support through a federal-provincial job creation grant.


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