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Our Nature is Organic
Winter 2014 – 1
2 – Winter 2014
The Canadian Organic Grower
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The
Canadian Organic Grower
Departments
Features
Editor’s Corner................................... 4 A note from Lily
Four-Season Growing in the Yukon................................................6
COG Donation Form......................21
How our food biodiversity is being threatened and what is being done about it.
Classifieds..........................................29 The Last Word..................................30 For Some, Barriers to Certification are Legitimate Contributors: Erin Orsztynowicz, Geneviève Grossenbacher, Lucia Stephen, Shannon Jones, Greta Landis, Peggy Carswell, Claudine Furnion and Av Singh
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The Seed Map...................................................................................... 11
Grow A Farmer Apprenticeship Program..................13 Offering a comprehensive approach to farmer training
Buying Broadfork Farm..............................................17 Fertile Ground in Assam, India..................................18 Cultivating a new generation of leaders
Creating the Optimal Potting Mix................................................ 23
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Winter 2014 – 3
Canadian Organic Grower The
Co-Editors Beth McMahon / Lily Pepper editor@cog.ca Advisory Committee Roxanne Beavers, Matthew Holmes, Anne Macey, Stuart McMillan, Gwen O’Reilly, Av Singh, Elizabeth White Special Thanks Eleanor Heise Judy Delorme Advertising contact COG office (see address below) or ads@cog.ca Subscriptions / COG Membership www.cog.ca Production Irene Victoria Design Toronto, Ontario The Canadian Organic Grower is published by: Canadian Organic Growers (COG) 1145 Carling Ave, Suite 7519, Ottawa ON K1Z 7K4 T: 613-216-0741 1-888-375-7383 F: 613-236-0743 office@cog.ca www.cog.ca COG Board of Directors: Daniel Brisebois, Sarah Dobec, Rochelle Eisen, Janine Gibson, Sheila Hamilton, Jordan Marr, Tony Marshall, Beth McMahon, Elizabeth Nelson, Tegan Renner, Vlad Skotar The editor cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of COG. Editor ial content may not be reproduced without permission.
EDITOR’S CORNER A note from Lily
It’s a bad time to be a pollinator. In November, the New York Times repor ted that monarch butterfly populations may be near collapse. Where migrations of around 350 million had recently been the norm, a record low of 60 million butterflies arrived in Central Mexico in 2012, and in 2013, fewer than three million straggled in this year. The well-reported but poorly understood travails of both wild and managed bees have also continued in 2013. And as readers of this magazine will be well aware, what affects pollinators affects the rest of us as well, by endangering growers’ ability to produce food. New research is increasingly pointing to neonicotinoids, the most widely used class of insecticides, as a crucial scourge of bees. Neonicotinoids are neurotoxins that cause paralysis and death at higher doses. At sub-lethal doses, they have been shown to impair bees’ development and affect their behaviour, reduce the number of queens produced in a colony, and impede the colony’s growth. They have also been found to reduce bees’ immune defenses and
promote the replication of the deformed wing virus, another factor contributing to colony collapse. The effects of neonicotinoids extend beyond the immediate time and place of their application. They can persist and accumulate in soils: the half-life of most neonicotinoids is around 34 days when they are exposed to sunlight, but in the absence of sunlight and micro-organism activity, it can take up to 3.8 years for them to break down. Being water soluble, neonicotinoids are taken up by plants and are expressed in their pollen, creating a particular danger for bees and other pollinators. Given these properties, neonicotinoids are prone to leaching into and persisting in waterways. In southern England in July 2013, a small amount of the neonicotinoid chlorpyrifos, equivalent to about two teaspoon’s worth in pure form, was flushed down a sink and entered the River Kennet through the sewage system. The result was the devastation of the crustacean and invertebrate population along 15km of this protected habitat, leaving the river stinking with rotting shrimps and insects,
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and the fish and birds of the area without a source of food. Chlorpyrifos is used widely in both home and commercial applications. Though the dangers of these substances, not only to pollinators, are only beginning to be understood, neonicotinoids represent 24% of the global market for insecticides. In 2004, France banned neonicotinoids, at the same time as the United States decided to allow the use of numerous previously banned pesticides, including some neonicotinoids. In April 2013, the European Union opted to restrict for two years the use of three neonicotinoids on crops that are attractive to bees. In Canada, the estimated bee population has fallen by 35% over the past three years, according to the Canadian
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Honey Council, and for the past two years, Health Canada studies have linked neonicotinoids with bee deaths. A growing movement is pushing for neonicotinoids’ use to be restricted in Canada, but change must come quickly. Regrettably, by pushing bees to the brink of collapse, industrial producers have inadvertently created a strong case for the management practices favoured by many small producers and often promoted within these pages, such as integrated pest control techniques, avoidance of monoculture, and the integration of fallow areas that support a variety of wild plant life. While this is surely a Pyrrhic victory for conscientious growers, we can hope that these lessons will be learned before it is too late.
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HOW YOU CAN HELP CO G i s d e e p l y c o n c e r n e d about pollinator health and is involved in a Bee Health Coalition to raise awareness about neonicotinoids and the impacts these pesticides are having on our environment. For more information about COG’s effor ts and how you can help support pollinators keep an eye on our monthly e - n e ws, l i s t s e r v, f a ce b o o k page, and twitter. Please consider making a charitable donation to COG, or becoming a monthly donor, so we can stay involved in this critical issue.
Winter 2014 – 5
FOUR-SEASON GROWING IN THE YUKON By Erin Orsztynowicz
I
n the northern climes of the Yukon, a wide range of factors may not only limit access to good fresh produce, but also render the task of growing food a discouraging prospect. The short growing season, lack of daylight, and cost of heating a greenhouse in the cold weather may greatly discourage gardeners and farmers from attempting season extension, let alone year-round growing. An experimental, four-season greenhouse in the Yukon, built in 2011 by Yukon College students and instructors, may hold inspiring solutions for northern residents who’d like to gain more control over their food supply. When the Yukon Research Centre at Yukon College acquired a small Stirling engine – a high-efficiency heater and regenerator – they wanted to test its effectiveness and put it to good use by having it heat a small building. As such, the Yukon Research Centre’s Cold Climate Innovation teamed up with a small group of Skills for Employment students at Yukon College to build the Northern Research Greenhouse, the very first four-season greenhouse in the territory. There are numerous features that make this greenhouse fit for the Yukon winters. First, there is an arctic entry, also known as an “airlock entry” or “mudroom,” which prevents the cold from entering the main part of the greenhouse and shocking the 6 – Winter 2014
plants. It also provides a dry space for coats, boots, and equipment. The greenhouse is very well insulated. Rigid, four-inch polyisocyanurate insulation, which is less likely to be damaged by water and provides a higher R-value per inch than batts, is cut to fit the three back walls and ceiling and is foamed around the edges to minimize heat leakage.
“Since plants need at least ten hours of daylight to grow, supplemental lighting must also be used during the very short days of winter.”
Polycarbonate glazing makes up the south-facing wall. This material was chosen for its effectiveness at transmitting light. Its triple glazing provides insulation from the heat and cold. A giant exterior shutter, made of insulation panels and plywood, runs on a track; it can be closed to cover the polycarbonate glazing on extremely cold days, at night to prevent heat loss, and even on hot summer days to prevent overheating.
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There is heat storage under the planting beds in the form of bottles and cans of water, as well as large barrels of water placed along the back side of the greenhouse. These store excess daytime heat and then release it at night, reducing heating costs and preventing overheating on hot days. A small fan pushes the warm air that rises to the top of the greenhouse down below the beds where the heat is absorbed by the water containers. Since plants need at least ten hours of daylight to grow, supplemental lighting must also be used during the very short days of winter. The greenhouse is equipped with 9W LED lights over one bed and 150W LED lights over another. The inside of the greenhouse is stained white to maximize light reflection. While the initial idea for the greenhouse was to have the Stirling engine heat it in the winter, the building’s construction made it so efficient that the engine was too powerful for the space, and caused overheating. After initial testing, the engine was removed. The greenhouse now runs without it. The greenhouse is ‘experimental’ for two main reasons: researchers wanted to test supplemental light and heat management. Simone Rudge, instructor at Yukon College and project coordinator for the Northern Research Greenhouse, states that many greenhouses use 150W LEDs for supplemental light. These lights use very little energy but require fans to manage the heat they produce. There are also 9W LED lights on the market that use even less energy. The greenhouse is equipped with both.
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When LED lights were used in conjunction with natural light, the team found no significant difference in plants grown under
“Produce that is grown in the greenhouse supplies food for the students in the Yukon College Culinary Arts program during the fall and winter semesters. In the summer, the harvest goes to the Whitehorse Food Bank.”
150W LEDs and 9W LEDs. When the LEDs were used exclusively as a light source, however, the results were different: plants grown under 9W LEDs were significantly smaller than those grown under 150W LEDs. So when natural light is let in through the polycarbonate glazing during the day, the wattage difference in the LEDs has little to
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no effect on plant growth. The water containers under the beds were also a significant experimental aspect of the greenhouse. As Rudge states, “What we wanted to test out was having heat storage underneath the beds and having heating pipes actually run through the soil; if you had warm soil you could drop the temperature in the greenhouse and still have plants do okay.” The Northern Research Greenhouse is now maintained by Growers of Organic Food Yukon (GoOFY). Produce that is grown in the greenhouse supplies food for the students in the Yukon College Culinary Arts program during the fall and winter semesters. In the summer, the harvest goes to the Whitehorse Food Bank. It’s been in full-time production since January 2012. The success of this project raises some questions: will we see more such greenhouses in other northern communities, and would they
Winter 2014 – 7
be worth it? Rudge states, “I’m not sure that the lights are worth it. In terms of the expense of running LED lights is certainly low, the initial cost of purchasing LED lights is pretty high. And it’s the ten hours of daylight that’s key… from the fourth of November to the twenty-fourth of February, we have less than ten hours of daylight.” While the cost of building and maintaining a four-season greenhouse seems like the biggest obstacle, an even bigger obstacle, in Rudge’s opinion, is labour. According to Rudge, “Labour is the most expensive part of running the greenhouse, although it’s a lot less labour intensive than a standard greenhouse. We have a couple of people who trade off maintaining the greenhouse all year round. It takes a few more visits in the summer, just because the plants are growing so much faster – they need a bit more watering and occasional venting – but during the rest of the year it’s about five hours a week. You don’t need to go in every day, which really surprised a commercial greenhouse grower, who was part of the project – she was shocked that we didn’t have to go there every day.” While there are some factors that discourage 8 – Winter 2014
the attempt at four-season growing, there are some positive factors highlighted by this project. First, a well-built, insulated greenhouse with heat storage can be maintained with relatively little work and low energy costs year-round. Second, students at Yukon College were very eager to learn how to build and maintain a four-season greenhouse, which may reflect a more widespread desire of youth in the Yukon to grow their own food. And while this four-season greenhouse is the first of its kind in the Yukon, there are similar projects underway in Canada, such as an indoor growing space to produce food for the cafeteria at McMaster University, as well as many insulated greenhouses in other places in the country and around the world, such as China. “When we were doing the research to design the greenhouse, there was a project in China that [became] our model: the design of the greenhouse had a really tall and slightly curved front wall on it. Basically, take a gothic-arched greenhouse, build the back wall with a solid roof going halfway to the centre, and then build the gothic-arched greenhouse just on the front side of it, with some kind of rolling shutters on the inside for closing up at night.” Whether we see more four-season greenhouses in the future in Canada, there are some awesome tips to take away from the construction of this experimental greenhouse for anyone who wishes to build for season extension. Heat storage under the planting beds, along with “insulating the majority of the greenhouse, and having polycarbonate glazing only on the south face – I would highly recommend to putting all of those things in any kind of northern greenhouse. It’ll stretch your season to quite a large extent,” says Rudge. “The key is that insulation on three sides.”
Erin Orsztynowicz is a freelance editor and writer. She currently lives in Toronto, ON.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO COG’S PRESIDENT, ROCHELLE EISEN!
In the fall, Rochelle Eisen – COG’s President – was awarded CHFA’s 2013 Organics Achievement Award. Rochelle, partner of Resilient Solutions Consulting, was recognized for her 26 years of contributing to the
development, growth and promotion of the organics industry. She is a long-time inspector member of IOIA, sits on the board of her local farmers market, the Penticton Farmers’ Market, and the Organic Farming Institute of British Columbia, is a member of the Standards Interpretation Committee and Organic Value Chain Roundtable, and is also a contributor to and reviewer for many ecological and agricultural standards, in Canada and internationally. “I am humbled to be the recipient of CHFA’s prestigious Organic Achievement Award, and hope I can do even more to serve and strengthen Canada’s organic community,” Rochelle stated. On behalf of COG’s Board of Directors, congratulations to a most deserving recipient!
Submitted by Beth McMahon, COG Board Director
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