I was asked to participate in an Alberta Agriculture meeting yesterday in Leduc. Several different departments gathered farmers, producers, food writers, chefs, and industry leaders to discuss the direction of alternative agriculture. This is a term I had not heard yet. After a little discussion I came to understand that alternative agriculture refers to organics, farm gate sales, farmers markets, agritourism, and anything else that is not the commodity driven approach to food. This means the small scale family farms that are trying to compete with a quantity over quality world. The producers we use at Forage and Infuse are all part of alternative agriculture.
The moral of the story was that in order to survive, these small scale farms have to be diversified. They need to look at other creative ways to increase their bottom line because consumers want to have great experiences that will shape their relationships with farmers. They are also so out of touch with where their food comes from that farmers need to be educators and promoters of healthier, local eating. This puts an incredible importance on what they are all doing and yet the support is difficult to find on many levels.
The encouraging thing about yesterday was that the front line workers for Alberta Agriculture are starting to see the interwoven nature of the challenge ahead. They see that more departments are going to have to work together in order to create the real change that is urgently needed. They are starting to understand that our health crisis is connected to the food we eat and that we can benefit socially by making local products available to lower income families and individuals. They are breaking down the barriers that exist and are looking for input and direction on how to proceed. They understand that their role is to facilitate change that is driven by alternative agriculture, the food industry, and consumers.
So when they kept on referring to alternative agriculture it made me cringe. There really isn’t any alternative. This is exactly the kind of agriculture we need to support in order to affect change.