JUNE 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


39 Garden City project breaks sustainable ground


Organic farmers must adapt to realities of climate change


by PETER MITHAM


RICHMOND – Organic farmers pride themselves on doing what’s right for the planet and being the politically correct choice for consumers. The standards governing


organic practices prohibit the use of synthetic fertilizers and the burning of crop residues, reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The integration of livestock and crop production keeps farming systems in balance, enhancing efforts to control emissions. But in the Lower Mainland,


organic growers need to pay attention to the ground beneath their feet, according to Mike Bomford, a professor in sustainable agriculture and food systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in Richmond and fellow with the Post Carbon Institute in Corvallis, Oregon. Speaking to the annual


conference of the Certified Organic Associations of BC in Abbotsford earlier this year, Bomford said farming systems need to be regionally appropriate.


While farms in Canada have become net absorbers of carbon dioxide over the past 35 years, this has been due largely to shifts in how the big Prairie farming operations manage soil. A shift to no-till seeding and perennial crops on fallow fields means farms in Canada now sequester an average of 12 tonnes of


carbon annually. “The bad news, though, is


that nitrous oxide and methane emissions make Canadian farms net greenhouse emitters. We’re still contributing more to climate change on our farms than we’re counteracting,” he said.


While agriculture uses a


tiny portion of the BC landbase and represents an even smaller portion of the economy, many farms in the Lower Mainland sit atop peat bogs. Working these properties can trigger significant releases of methane and nitrous oxide, not to mention carbon. The facts put KPU in a


compromising position as it proceeds with development of an organic farm on 40 acres of the 136.5-acre property known as the Garden City lands in Richmond. “It’s right on the edge of an old peat bog,” Bomford said. “So if we’re going to walk the talk at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, we’re going to have some challenges associated with farming peatland. How can we do this in a way that isn’t going to be releasing greenhouses gases into the atmosphere?” Norwegian farms effectively flipped boglands to bury the peat layer, preventing carbon from escaping. A runway extension at


Vancouver International Airport last summer meant large quantities of topsoil


Mike Bomford hopes to preserve the peat bog under the Garden City lands in Richmond. SEAN HITREC PHOTO


were looking for a home, so last summer 100 loads arrived each day for a month and buried the bog. “We added about a 70cm


layer of mineral soil – sort of a sandy loam – that sits on top of that peat land,” Bomford explained. Water will drain through


the soil, keeping the peat damp, and the hope is that farming will boost the organic content of the soil over time from approximately 1% today. This will sequester carbon, too.


To get the soil ready for farming – and ultimately, organic certification – KPU is also recovering peat from properties where Richmond’s notorious monster homes are being developed. This spring, manure from certified organic chicken farms is being applied to portions of the property. The project excites


Bomford, both because it’s a chance to do farm development right and also research how it could be done better. “This presents a lot of great


research opportunities for us, that we can measure the greenhouse emissions and carbon sequestration from farming on mineral soils that’s layered over peatland,” he explained. “We can


manipulate the mineral soil depth as an independent variable to try and figure out how deep the soil needs to be to try and protect that carbon that’s stored down beneath.” There’s also the potential to experiment with different soil amendments to boost organic matter.


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