Locally-grown produce is very popular in Powell River, selling quickly at both the winter market and Open Air Market as consumers meet growers.
“Powell River is insatiable,” said Paul Schachter. “As much as is produced is being consumed.” Schachter is one of 10 board members of Society for the Advancement of Local Sustainable Agriculture (SALSA). He and others have devoted energy and time to starting the non-profit society, which aims to increase the capacity of local farmers to produce and market their farm goods.
Powell River farmers produce and sell between two and three per cent of the food consumed in the region, but this could approach 24 per cent self-sufficiency in the future, according to a 2009 report prepared for Powell River Regional Economic Development Society (PRREDS). The community’s isolation works against small-scale farmers, who pay small-scale prices for feed, processing and sales.
About five years ago a committee of Powell River Farmers’ Institute started planning to overcome those limits. The committee became known as SALSA and hatched an ambitious plan which includes compost and food processing facilities, an educational facility for small-scale farming courses, and a retail outlet for all farmers, potentially situated on a parcel of land on the outskirts of Wildwood. SALSA also envisions Full Circle Farm, a separate company which will rent land from SALSA and host the community aspects of the project. SALSA hopes to create a critical mass of farming activity that will benefit all farmers, attract more farmers, and improve food security.
But not all local farmers are behind the project, according to Alan Rebane, newly elected president of the farmers’ institute. “When I bring it up, I stir up a hornet’s nest,” said Rebane. SALSA began as a part of the organization but became a separate society in 2009. The two organizations share similar goals but their present relationship is ambiguous.
Last year SALSA invited the famers’ institute to become a stakeholder in SALSA. At a small meeting the members voted on the option, but Rebane wants to revisit that vote. He wants his membership to have time to think about the implications of SALSA.
Rebane says there is a perception that Full Circle Farm will not have the same market pressures as small farmers do, and will compete against them. This Schachter strongly refutes. “We want to produce organic food using good methodology and the lowest cost, but not at the expense of undermining local farmers.”
Helena Bird, president of SALSA, said, “This is a succession plan for agriculture in Powell River. I want to keep eating local food when I stop producing.”
The proposed year-round retail outlet will enable consumers to depend on local food and promote buying local, said Bird. “I have noticed it myself at the outdoor market. I have a big pile of onions and my neighbour has a small pile of onions. It’s not that mine are better or cheaper, but at the end, people have bought all of my onions, and not my neighbour’s. People like to see lots of goods. That’s why the grocery store shelves are always kept full. It is a marketing strategy.”
Melissa Call of Sunshine Organics would like to be part of SALSA’s marketing strategy for local produce although to date she has not been consulted. Her business is one of several that retail produce from local farms year round. “More available produce is a good thing, and I hope they will sell [SALSA’s] produce through [Ecossentials],” Call said. “If they open a store, then that’s another competitor, but competition is good.”
Call is in favour of many of SALSA’s proposals, but has concerns about others. “If there is an egg grader in town, and a central place to do it, the government might regulate that everyone has to use it.” Likewise, the hard fought exemptions from category A abattoir might be changed. “I know it is not the intention,” said Call, “but it might be the result.”
Another aspect that arouses concern is that SALSA membership is limited to the 10 board members. “We have been working hard on a viable economic plan, but not on publicity,” admitted Bird. Membership is not open to the public at this stage. Instead, SALSA received feedback from stakeholders and partners including Vancouver Island University, PRREDS, Powell River Community Futures and Career Link. SALSA considers the farmers’ institute to be an official stakeholder in Full Circle Farm, based on its vote in 2013.
That may change as members of the farmers’ institute will be voting about their support for SALSA and Full Circle Farm at their next meeting, May 8.
