A Doctor acquaintance of mine recently told me...

"I think that NB could be self sufficient for food. We can have a major impact on people's health and offer local produce. 90% of our health is lifestyle and a major component of that is diet."

As much as I believe that, it would also take a revolution in the way people think. Or a disaster.

We are sadly, too used to relying on big pharma, agribiz, and the heavily lobbied government regulatory agencies to take care of our health. When everything is reduced to a cost/benefit equation, a certain percentage of public illness becomes an acceptable risk. Of course, no one asked the people who are sick. The large money making conglomerates have caused us to abdicate our responsibility to take care of ourselves, in order that we may benefit from the sense of stability they provide. Of course, since we depend exclusively on them, we are a never ending source of revenue.

That abdication of responsibility is manifest in every part of our lives, by the fact that we don’t grow our own food, we don’t walk as much as we could, we allow others to entertain us rather than entertaining ourselves and the list goes on. And above it all is the implied threat from the economic think tanks that if people were to start to take responsibility, we would stop feeding the economy and we would be hit with recession, riots, destruction, and the worst case of piles that you have ever seen.

Who knew that responsibility could be so damaging?

The solution is of course, Is to take responsibility. Local organic food, exercise, stress reduction, and healthy relationships. Those are all of the things built into the Halls Creek development, and are the main reasons why I’m interested in helping with the organic component.

The question is; Do people want the solution?

The answer is; More people want it every day.

Despite all of the local organic farms in New Brunswick (There are many) we still import 90% of the organic food we eat from the US. I find that little statistic encouraging, because it does show more people taking responsibility for their health.

I am by no means a radical thinker. I’m not calling for the destruction of the economy or our way of life.

I just want to take responsibility for my life. If others decide to do the same thing, then so be it.

And if so many people start taking responsibility for their health, that the conglomerates start losing money…

I consider that an acceptable risk in the cost/benefit equation.

And So it Begins

Some of you may know that my main means of feeding my bad habits, is teaching Canadian newcomers how to start a business in Canada.
I get a lot of questions about various business ideas etc, but one in particular has been coming up more and more...

"Can I earn a living from a farm?"

I can't even tell you how much up my alley that question is. (For you non canadians, up my alley means perfectly in line with what I like)

It forced me to start researching a little more closely to get the information I need.

In a nutshell, the answer is Duh YES!. Good farmland in my part of Canada is amazingly cheap (often less than 500.00/acre) Organic farming is on the rise, and can't even come close to meeting the local demand (we import 90% of our organic food because there are not enough farmers to meet the need) I have met with many organic farmers who sell as much as $160,000.00 produce per year from two acres (yes TWO)acres of cultivated land.

But here's the really cool part. in my research, I realized that there is a need for a kind of teaching farm in our area, a place where people can learn and practice the skills they need to farm organically. In the course of my research, I've met everyone from farmers, to NGOs to Municipal/Federal/Provincial officials, Land developers, and landscape architects. The result?

I have been given Two acres to start with and potentially ten acres, in order to develop an organic teaching farm in my City.

I don't even know how it all happened. It just kind of snowballed from that question one of my students asked.

How will it all turn out?

I'll keep you posted.