OCTOBER 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


Challenging year fails to daunt


new producer Similkameen produce farm aims to set an example


by PETER MITHAM


CAWSTON – A combination of natural and bureaucratic disasters has made for a particular challenging year at Athena Farm in Cawston. This spring’s freshet saw the


Similkameen River burst the dyke in eight places surrounding the 50-acre river- bottom property on Chopaka Road. Water four and a half feet deep flowed across the fields, depositing sediment. When the waters receded three weeks later, it was early June and the planting window for many of the farm’s standard crops had passed. While insurance advised against planting anything, co- founders Krystine McInnes and Jenn Lowther worked with their farm manager and opted to plant chose potatoes and other root crops, including carrots, beets and onions. Meanwhile, the difficulties


sourcing labour that other farms encountered this year were in play. Typically, Athena secures about half of its 25 workers through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). This year, changes to housing inspection requirements caught the farm off guard, while a labour market impact assessment sought in mid-March has yet to be received. This forced the farm to secure workers through a farm labour contractor in the Lower Mainland. Smoke billowing from a


wildfire on the mountain opposite had the farm on evacuation alert in early August, but McInnes was positive as she talked about her decision three years ago to embrace farming after a career in the development industry.


She was 33 at the time, and motivated by an interest sustainable construction and communities. “The natural next


integration point was urban farm communities. So I said if I was going to build communities that were centred around farming, then I should open [a farm].” This led to her purchasing


the property on Chopaka Road and leasing an adjacent 10-acre parcel, which together make Athena the largest vegetable farm in the Similkameen. It’s also certified


Mowers Tedders Wheel Rakes Mower Conditioners


Harvesting high-quality hay and forage is the focus of KUHN's hay tool innovation. Our commitment is to help you gain a maximum return on investment by providing products known for performance, reliability, and longevity.


Matsqui Ag-Repair Abbotsford, BC


604-826-3281


Noble Tractor & Equipment Armstrong, BC


250-546-3141


Kamloops, BC 250-851-3101


Northline Equipment, Ltd. Dawson Creek, BC


250-719-7470 INVEST IN QUALITY® KuhnNorthAmerica.com


Huber Farm Equipment Prince George, BC


250-560-5431 Visit your local KUHN Dealer today!


organic, and works with distributors to sell its produce under the Grown Here brand to retailers across the Lower Mainland. The focus, however, is establishing a farm that can be a model for others. McInnes is aiming for zero net carbon emissions from farm operations. “I don’t think it’s enough for


us to say we’re an organic farm,” she says. “It’s not good if you’re doing something good and then creating a massive fossil-fuel imprint on the way out the door. How do you call that good? How do we justify one right with another wrong? So, is there a way to be fully sustainable and net- zero in our operations from seed to sale?” Perhaps most ambitiously,


she’s targeting full transparency about farm practices with consumers. “People want to know


where their food came from and what’s in it, who produced it, how it was produced,” McInnes says. “We want to connect them with that process, so they could literally take a box of our


21


Krystine McInnes of Athena Farm in Cawston. PETER MITHAM PHOTO


greens and know who harvested it, when it was harvested, what is in that varietal, how far it travelled to get to them in a fun, interactive format.” She’s working on an app


that would facilitate consumer access to the information, with a potential launch date of 2019. The work is the sort of thing that brought her to the attention of Mike Manion, who got her speaking engagements with SRCTec (now XLRator) and the Fraser Valley agri-tech community. This led to speaking engagements at the Forbes Ag Tech Summit and the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit. But the engagements also convinced McInnes that


the future of farming will not be engineered. It requires a connection with the land, something this year’s troubles reinforced. “We had so many


uncertainties this year,” she says. “We’re just basically starting from scratch all over again, trying to figure it out. Learn the rhythm of the land, what the plants are trying to say.”


The farm relocated


greenhouse production from leased space in Abbotsford to the farm in Cawston, and now all shipping occurs out of the Similkameen. The one venture not based on site is a processing division, which markets preserves under the farm’s retail banner. It


launched last year in an effort to reduce food waste by creating shelf-stable products from what other farms can’t sell. “We can use things that


we’re already making to then make more things. So we’re looking at organic juices, we’re looking at preserves, we’re looking at kimchi,” she says. Developing new markets


for the products takes time, but McInnes is up for the challenge, learning as much as she’s hoping to teach others. “Farmers really won’t


respect you as a farmer unless you’ve walked your talk,” she says. “So that’s really what we’re doing here is figuring it all out and then teaching what we’ve learned.”


THE HAY AND FORAGE TOOL SPECIALISTS Rotary Rakes


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44