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Food, Farms, Fish and Finance Conference held in Toronto, Canada
Sustainable agriculture in Canada was well represented last month in Toronto by representatives from many Canadian provinces and a few US counterparts.
Sustain Ontario

Christie Young of Farmstart Canada organized a two day program to address the growing capital needs of young farmers, fishermen and food producers. 
  Sustain Ontario is working towards a food system that is healthy, ecological, equitable and financially viable.   

I was recently the guest of Sustain Ontario, a non-profit venture based in Toronto that is working to develop solutions to young farmer land access. As geographical background, Toronto lies on Lake Ontario, easternmost and smallest of the five Great Lakes, and the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence River. It is also the home of the Iroquois Nationals, the national lacrosse team of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League. The Iroquois Nationals battled the national Canadian team to overtime in the North American lacrosse finals in 2010. Of course if I were to  talk about lakes and sports for any length of time in Canada, we'd be talking hockey for most of the year. But food and farms were the primary focus of this trip and I was honored to be a guest in a country where national pride and cultural diversity are so strongly rooted.  

Sometimes one must travel to see opportunities common to daily view. It was evident that many Canadian farmers share the same challenges as their U.S. counterparts. While there is also a northern groundswell of local and organic farmers, there is perhaps an even greater issue of affordable land to farm. Canada did not experience the trauma of the U.S. financial crisis so there was not the hiatus of commercial real estate development which painfully relieved development pressure around many US cities. Ontario is Canada's most populous province and much fertile farmland has been permanently lost over the last few years to encroaching development.  

Some of the Canadian provinces have adopted public measures to preserve farmland. For example, Nova Scotia and Quebec have both have initiated programs that utilize provincial tax credits for farmland conservation. There was great interest in our private business model and how it might work in Canada. As we know, government programs can only go so far and private capital is available to further the basic business of growing healthy food on healthy soils. Our corporate structure has proven that individuals and a growing number of impact focused institutions will invest long term funds for this purpose. I saw no reason that this can't work in Canada as well. Hopefully some private capital initiatives will soon be formed to do this.     

My take-away from Toronto is an even more solidified vision that our seven year old company has got it right. We have great opportunities to scale our business, impact more sustainable farmers and grow a greater regional, national and perhaps international presence.


Dave Miller, Co-Founder and CEO, Iroquois Valley Farms LLC

For more information on Iroquois Valley Farms, see our website http://iroquoisvalleyfarms.com/ or email me at [email protected]

 

 

Iroquois Valley Farms LLC
PO Box 267
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
847 736-0076
www.iroquoisvalleyfarms.com