Annual fund-raiser highlights need for local agricultural land protection

Reporting and Article by Beth Stupple
Videography by Andrew Ainsley and Brianna Chatwin
Video editing by Andrew Ainsley

November 16, 2009

Quality chefs understand the importance of local organic farms, and realize that the caliber of their cuisine is dependent upon the freshness of their vegetables. That’s what motivated 13 chefs to participate in “Chef Survival”; a fundraiser at Madrona Farm on October 4th.

The chefs partook in an obstacle course that had them jumping over compost piles of squash, crawling under irrigation pipes, through a corn field to search for their treasure maps, into shoddy dingies with makeshift paddles to fish out condiments from a pond, and then on a mad hunt around the farm to harvest their bounty. Once they found all their enticing ingredients they fired up their small camping stoves and began to create gourmet meals to be auctioned off to on-looking Madrona supporters that waited with mouths watering. All the proceeds of this auction were added to the funds raised for the Land Conservancy in hopes that they will be able purchase Madrona Farm.

Madrona, an organic vegetable farm located in the Blenkinsop Valley, produced over 128,000 lbs of produce last year. Of the 27 acres, 16 are farmed. The land also features Douglas fir and Garry Oak ecosystems, four natural ponds,and diverse native tree species that farmers Nathalie & Dave began planting in 2004. More than 130 fruit trees now stabilize the farm’s southwest facing slope. Madrona is home to many species of birds, including great horned and screech owls, eagles, red-tailed hawks and herons.

David Chambers and his wife Nathalie now live with their family on the land; which is currently owned by David’s Father and 2 uncles. These gentlemen are getting older and are ready to sell the farm that once belonged to their mother. David had first dibs on purchasing it, but David and Nathalie decided to put their efforts into raising money so that the land could be purchased on behalf of the The Land Conservancy of BC instead. They believe this is a more sustainable solution. Nathalie explains;“Farmland on the island is in trouble and there are a few obstacles to farming; one of those obstacles is that the price of farmland far exceeds what any farmer could pay. Second of all, the generational land transfers that have been going on for hundreds of years have kind of ended ‘cause a lot of kids don’t wanna farm . We gotta change that! And there are not a lot of teachers of organic methods.”

David added the reasons for choosing TLC; “They’ll protect not only the ecological values of the farm but also the agricultural integrity, and what we’re really doing is setting the precedent to remove farmland from private ownership and have it held in trust so that communities will always have access to the food that’s produced on these lands.” Also The Land Conservancy’s history is one of preservation of ecologically valuable areas.

Cheryl Bryce, former land manager for the Songhees Nation, sits on TLC’s board of directors. She told us that agriculture was ironically one of the things that took over the harvesting sites of indigenous peoples’ traditional foods. “However; Today, I feel the importance of agricultural lands is to support the need for local food.
We have very few places we can go and get our own traditional foods, as well as non-traditional foods such as what agricultural lands such as Madrona farm offer. And I think it’s important to protect our local foods, so that we are more self-sustaining.”

Dave, Nathalie, the TLC, and countless volunteers and community members have worked to raise $856,000 as of November 4 (which does not include the generous amount donated by the owners) and have $844,000 to go within the next 3 months. Living on an island that imports 90% of their food, some members of the local community have fully supported this project as they recognize the value of local food sources and our responsibility to preserve such land for future generations.

Bill Turner; Co-founder and Executive director of the land conservancy, didn’t seem too worried about the approaching deadline.

“You know, the momentum is growing and I’m sure we’ll succeed. You never fail until you stop, until you give up, so we’re not going to give up; we’re just going to keep working at this, and what I don’t know is whether it will be two or three big gifts or a thousand more small gifts, but some how we’ll make up the money we need to make it happen.”

“Protecting our local organic food is absolutely critical. We’re losing farmland to development and not only that, but we’re reliant on this oil economy moving food around the world, and even if that was sustainable, which of course it isn’t, but even if that was sustainable the other problem is climate change is impacting places that we’re getting our food from like California, Australia, and New Zealand. The places that have been shipping food to BC are having their own problems and when they run out of water as they’re doing in Australia and California for example; then, the last place they’re going to send food is here.
They’re going to keep it for themselves when they need it. So for many, many reasons Canada has to get it’s act together and protect its farmland.”

When asked how the general public can help; David said “Support. Help us finish this off. So many people have helped in so many ways.” He continues to list off the wide range of creative supporters within the community; from children selling lemonade, to artists selling art, to local businesses donating percentages of sales, to people actually organizing their own fund-raising events.

“The health of the community really lies at the health of the food that we’re producing.”

Related News Links

Chefs on the Run
Times Colonist – October 11, 2009

Chefs take to the wilds in foodie survival test
Times Colonist – October 2, 2009

Madrona Farm clears another funding hurdle in bid for TLC status
CHEK/CanWest – July 29, 2009

Madrona Farm Needs Your Help
July 23, 2009

Saving the Madrona Farm
Pacific Free Press – May 30, 2009

South Saanich MLA Donates $10,000 to Help Buy Organic Farm
CFAX 1070 – October 18, 2008

Related Links

Madrona Farm

Madrona Farm TLC Blog