written by Nature’s Path
Talking Dirt
When Nature’s Path bought our first acres of Saskatchewan farmland back in 2008, we had no idea what it would mean for us, or where it w
ould take us. Sure, we’re passionate about organic agriculture – there’s nothing that gets us more fired up – but we make organic food. We’re not farmers.
Or are we? At heart, yes: our founder, Arran Stephens, comes from hardy farmer stock, and he carries on his father’s mission to “always leave the earth better than he found it.” That dedication is what always keeps us coming back to the land. Arran likes doing what he can to remake our food system in a sustainable way, so there’ll be organic food on your table, on your children’s table, on your grandchildren’s tables – for generations to come. That’s how we ended up in the world’s breadbasket, digging our boots into fertile soil and talking dirt.
What would you do with 3,000 acres?
This past Spring, we purchased 2,769 acres in Northern Montana, land planted with native grasses and untouched by human hands – or by chemicals – for 20 years. Pretty awesome, right? But what’s an organic food maker to do with a few thousand acres of prairie? While we love getting our hands dirty with the best of them, we know how important our partnerships with farmers are. We found ours in Doug Crabtree and Anna Jones-Crabtree, owners of nearby Vilicus Farms and true stewards of the land.
Doug and Anna are leading the way in innovative farm practices in the region. In a sea of conventional wheat fields marked by the evidence of glyphosate treatments, Vilicus farms, with its healthy natural ecosystems and diverse crops (21 crops in all, from lentils to blue-flowering flax), stands out.
Stands out, you say – how?
Doug and Anna produce as much on 80% of their land as most farmers do on 100%. Think that sounds hard to believe? These two farmers extraordinaire work with nature, by making space for bees, butterflies, and birds in that 20% of unplanted land, which helps them build a healthy, natural ecosystem that’s just thrilled to give them all the organic grains and legumes they can handle in exchange. (Doug keeps blowing us away – this year, the Organic Trade Association named him 2014’s Farmer of the Year, an honour we think he definitely deserves.)
Want to be a Farmer?
We’re taking the plunge, so to speak, and we’re hoping lots of other folk will want to get their hands dirty, too. That’s why we’re so exciting about Doug and Anna’s one-of-a-kind training institute where beginning grain farmers (with, or without, previous farming experience) try their hand at tilling the earth. The future of food depends not just on attracting and training new farmers to the land, but in setting them up with their own acreage, sustainable business plans, and financing at the ready – which is what Doug and Anna are poised to do.
They did tell us they have a slightly selfish motivation for training new farmers – it can get lonely out on the prairies, where even the distant horizon doesn’t reveal your closest neighbor. Doug and Anna hope to populate their neighbourhood with a network of like-minded farmers with collective buying power and a communal voice: farmers and friends who will be able to shift agriculture in the region to a sustainable, organic model. (We think they’d be pretty great neighbors, and we’re sure you’ll agree!)
The Future is Organic
This year’s purchase brings our total organic land up to 5,640 acres. A small drop in the bucket when it comes to the millions of fertile acres in North America, but as far as we’re concerned, every drop counts. As we dig deeper into Nature’s Path’s future, all we see is organic – organic food, organic farms, and organic farmers. We see you there, too.