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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • JUNE 2018


Co-ops offer values-based alternatives Could help with land acquisitions


by PETER MITHAM SAANICH – With many


young farmers seeking alternatives to traditional business models, co-operatives are enjoying a new-found popularity. How a co-operative model


can serve new entrants and support a more sustainable food system was the focus of a workshop Joy Emmanuel of Turning Times Research and Consulting in Duncan delivered at Farmer 2 Farmer, a conference the Capital Regional Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR) hosted at Saanich Fairgrounds on March 1.


The appeal of co-ops lie in what she called a “values- based” approach that emphasizes the community


over the individual. However, there are many options for how producers come together to meet their common needs, whether to access land, purchase supplies or reach markets. “There’s not an easily


replicable model,” she said. Emmanuel described the


various forms of co-ops possible to support local food systems.


While consumers may be familiar with food co-ops, such as the well-established East End Food Co-op on Commercial Drive, farmers have often banded together to form supply co-ops to provide seed, grain and other inputs.


But this isn’t the dominant model in BC. Rather, the single biggest


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type is the market co-op, which sees farmers band together to sell produce locally and often allows for community membership, similar to a food co-op. BC is home to 27. The model is “an emerging


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area that’s really taking off,” Emmanuel said. “What I find interesting is that people are using the non-profit model.” Market co-ops such as the


Cariboo Growers’ Cooperative can expand opportunities for farmers and facilitate reinvestment in communities, she said. Producer co-ops, of which 25 exist in the province, are another variation that allow groups of producers to access a market larger than what any one of them could alone. This was the model for several producer groups in the Lower Mainland to market


everything from cut flowers to vegetables. With the challenges of accessing land, farmland co-ops are coming into their own. These co-ops allow groups of farmers to purchase land together. The farm owners may be different from the farmers actually working the property. Glen Valley Organic Farm


Cooperative, for example, set up in 1998 when Amy and Gregor Robertson – founder of Happy Planet Ltd. and now mayor of Vancouver – sold to a group that didn’t want to see it converted to other uses. Purchasers paid $5,000 for a share. It is now home to three farm businesses, with four people living on site. An alternative is farmland


trusts, something being explored by Haliburton Community Organic Farm.


Originally a not-for-profit society, the 10-acre property is leased from Saanich municipality but discussions are underway to transform its ownership. Yet another variation is a farmship co-op, where land is privately owned then leased to a worker’s co-op. Emmanuel said co-ops


must have a minimum of three people, and attend to what she termed “associative life.” It’s important to determine how consensus will be achieved and also how governance and


communications among members will be handled to ensure transparency and also build consensus. She noted that direct democracy sounds great, but it isn’t always easy. It becomes more difficult once the co-op has more than 10 members.


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