This is part 2 of a series of articles penned by Jonathan Wright, a Calgary area farmer and co-founder of one of the city’s first community supported agriculture programs. Jon operates a zero-emission farm called Thompson Small Farm near Carbon, Alberta with his partner Andrea.
Thompson Small Farm has different ideas about “sustainable” from those of even some “organic” growers. For instance, we believe that just because a farm is considered, or even certified organic, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is sustainable. We argue that if a given farm uses tractors and heated greenhouses and outsourced fertilizers, it is neither sustainable nor to our way of seeing things, truly organic.
To be truly organic to us, a farm must first be “biodynamic” – getting inputs from the farm itself – a closed-loop ecosystem to the greatest degree possible. Unless you have a coal mine and/or an oil well on site (or a biodiesel facility which takes growing area out of production the same as horses do, but unlike horses, still ties you to the industrial economy that has rendered so many farms economically unsustainable via tractors and other machines), that means passive solar and animal power and fertilizer from animal and plant wastes produced on-site.
We cannot claim ourselves to be entirely biodynamic in this sense, nor even truly organic, but we are incorporating significant elements that others consider “impractical.” We’re working towards it, in other words. We necessarily grow what works best in Alberta using natural and passive solar enhancement methods. We’ll never compete with California, but hey, California is in its death throes right now. It will more than likely be followed in relatively short order by industrial farming in general (and who knows what all else), as it is teetering on a similar razor’s edge.
Sometimes this approach can lead to what one prospective member of the CSA called “veggie disappointment.” Southern Alberta is, to say the least, a marginal place for growing vegetables. Northern climes are always more rewarding for the carnivore! Our personal belief is that we must get up to speed with producing local food nonetheless, including vegetables, because this is the only eventual option. Meaning that soon enough we will have no choice of food beyond what we can get locally. We have grown some pretty good stuff here, and we’ve learned plenty that will help us grow even more.
Our goal is not to “get big”. Rather, we wish to grow only large enough to do something positive for others and for the planet while sustaining ourselves in autonomous, modest comfort. In other words, to engage in “right livelihood,” and – very important to us – to hopefully be able to one day serve as an example to others of an alternative way to live, a way that sustains the global community as well as it does the family unit.
Our land base is twenty acres, with another twenty or so rented for additional pasture. The land is at the head of a coulee system that channels runoff down to Kneehills Creek, and then to the Red Deer River. Because of this situation, the place is undulating, a mosaic of little uplands and lowlands, quite varied for a small patch. The uplands are clad in the now rare native grasses typical of such Northern Fescue Prairie remnants, while the low areas have been taken over by invasive Smooth Brome grass.
This layout works well for us so far. We have reserved the native grasses – the most nutritious of all – for rotational grazing by our livestock – yaks, working horses, and a team of water buffalo (more on them to follow!) The rotational grazing allows some of the grass to go to seed before it is eaten. Selected plots in the low areas (about 4 acres) have been cultivated for the growing of human food. This is plenty for growing vegetables, and not only is the virgin soil richer down low, we are not destroying native growth this way. Crops are planted in rows of different, complimentary varieties, not as mono-crop stands. This provides a natural form of pest control. Crop rotation and enrichment of resting plots with composted manures from our own animals nurtures existing soil structure and builds fertility.
Our pond, fenced off from the animals, provides water for irrigation when needed and important habitat for wildlife. Last year several clutches of three different species of duck were successfully produced on our pond. There are other water-birds such as rails breeding around our pond as well. It is a breeding area for chorus frogs and tiger salamanders, producing hundreds, if not thousands of these amphibians annually. We stock it with local minnows for mosquito control, and these in turn attract and support certain predatory birds and animals. It’s a great place to cool off on a hot day, too! We have just dug a second pond this year along the same drainage, and lo-and-behold hit some small springs that are quietly filling the basin ahead of the spring runoff. Tonight I cupped my hand and drank from the filling pool, and it was cool and good. May these springs run forever!
Jonathan Wright has been a fur-trapper, a farm laborer, a fitness instructor, a songwriter under Nashville contract, a working falconer, and mostly a conservationist. As the Canadian authority on the bullsnake, he has published scientific papers on snakes as well as wolverines, based on his life-long field experience. He believes the future of humanity depends on a return to simpler, less technologically and industrially dense models, and of course local sufficiency. At the root of this is the mixed family farm. “We will not be saved by more research.”
To be continued…
