Photo by Megan Grittani-Livingston/The Question

Brent Warner of Farmers Markets Canada addresses attendees at last Thursday’s (June 18) agricultural planning event at the Pemberton Community Centre.

Farming and market opportunities, food safety and biosecurity were the hot topics of the evening at an agricultural forum last Thursday (June 18), marking the kickoff of the planning process for the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District’s (SLRD) Pemberton Valley Agricultural Area Plan.

Four speakers and the consultants chosen to draw up the plan led an evening of agricultural discussions for a packed room in the new Pemberton Community Centre, as the event drew more than 45 local farmers and interested attendees.

Agro-environmental consultant Darrell Zbeetnoff said the consultants will be actively seeking input from local farmers about the issues in the area and how to solve them.

He said an agricultural profile for the area will be drawn up in about a month, and will be used in workshop discussions with local farmers to inform a draft plan that will be brought back to the community for further comment. An advisory committee is also being formed.

The surging demand for local food, the opportunities in producing for niche markets, and the importance of connecting local agricultural production with values of health and food safety were among the themes stressed by Thursday’s speakers.

Brent Warner, the interim executive director of Farmers Markets Canada, urged the attendees to think local and capitalize on the skyrocketing demand for local food. He repeated a mantra that people are willing to pay for “real products from genuine people – that’s you.”

Warner, who has 30 years of experience working with smaller producers and farm families, dangled some big numbers derived from a national study Farmers Markets Canada commissioned in 2008 and released in February 2008, which reported that the impact of farmers’ markets on the Canadian economy last year clocked in at $3.09 billion.

The study also found that 92 per cent of consumers think it’s important, and 62 per cent “extremely important,” to buy food directly from an actual producer.

Warner emphasized the importance of tying agricultural products into principles of health, on which shoppers are willing to spend.

“You need to start getting more money than the basic product is worth,” Warner said.

The economic climate has scared consumers into turning back to their roots, Warner added, predicting the biggest year ever for local foods based on statistics showing booming purchases of flour, freezers, cookbooks and canning and freezing supplies.

“Our public is starting to get interested in food again,” which is good for local producers, Warner said.

But he warned the attendees not to lose Canadians’ high trust in farmers by making a food safety mistake, since that is such a huge issue right now due to recent scandals.

Two of the evening’s speakers covered issues and processes relating to food safety and biosecurity that local farmers must consider. Phil Watney, manager for the Food Safety Systems Implementation program at the Small Scale Food Processor Association, talked the attendees through the detailed language of food safety.

He pitched food safety procedures as both necessary steps and a good way to show consumers that the producers care, adding value to their goods.

Asked by an attendee to encourage Pemberton farmers in processing, after going through a lot of the rules and principles, Watney pointed to the controlled nature of processing and the freedom it offers to be creative and develop products to supply niches.

Watney also stressed the importance of the area agricultural plan as a way to solicit support from the powers that be, by showing a united community desire and expressing how the agricultural initiatives would be good for the health of the community. He said the future of government budgets is overwhelmingly geared toward education and health.

Dr. Dan Schwartz, from the Office of Animal Biosecurity at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, echoed that call, encouraging valley farmers to brand their products as healthy, safe and local.

“If you can show that you’re doing it well, people will buy it,” he said.

Schwartz covered important aspects of biosecurity, encouraging local farmers to take home “some appreciation of where in the continuum you can have an impact” to protect themselves and their industry.

Harvie Snow, president of the Snow Farms Ltd. organic farming operation, opened the evening by saying there are many opportunities open to small farms willing to pursue niches. He encouraged local producers to have plans and research in place before starting new ventures.

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