ASAAP in the media
Here is some coverage of ASAAP and its interns in the news (see full articles below)
Western Producer
September 24, 2009 - Apprentices Learn to Grow Food
September 22, 2009 - Back to Farm Country
September 15, 2009 - Alternative Agriculture
Sunny 94 (Radio)
September 2009
Week of September 3, 2009 - Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program
September 2009 - New Program Offers Youth a Taste of Farm Life
The Edmonton Journal and The Calgary Herald
August 26, 2009 - Young People Eager to Dig into Farming
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Western Producer
Apprentices Learn to Grow Food
Mary MacArthur
CARVEL, Alta. - Michael Hunter could have taken a more financially rewarding job but instead the Edmonton man chose to spend the summer as a market garden apprentice learning to grow and sell food.
“It was more important for me to think about long term and where food will come from in the next 50 years than money,” said Hunter, pausing while cleaning out lettuce beds at Inspired Market Gardens west of Edmonton.
“It was a priority for my wife and I. It was a real concern how to get young people farming.”
Hunter has spent the summer learning how to grow, harvest and sell flowers and vegetables.
He said everyone once knew how to grow food and live off the land, but it’s an almost lost art, especially in the city.
“It’s a real eye opener,” said Hunter, who knew little about gardening before joining owner Gwen Simpson and horticulturist Tara Hartwig in the gardens.
Two days a week Hunter planted and worked in the garden. Every Saturday, he helped Simpson sell, market and visit with customers at her farmers’ market booth at Edmonton’s City Centre market.
“It’s a real eye opener to see how versatile you have to be and to be a part of how Gwen gets her produce to market,” he said.
Becky Lipton, co-ordinator for the Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program, approached Simpson to take on an apprentice.
Lipton said each apprentice and farmer are encouraged to make their own financial arrangements.
For Simpson, Hunter has brought a fresh perspective to the operation, always asking why something is done a certain way.
“He brings an urban perspective and it has been marvelous,” said Simpson, who grew up on a B.C. farm. “When he asks why, we check ourselves and our methods.”
Simpson felt there was a need for the apprenticeship to educate consumers.
“I realized we need Growing 101. Some people don’t know how to put a seed in the ground. Some very urban people have a desire to grow food, but have no idea where to start and have no access to farms.”
Peter Lundgard of Nature’s Way Farm in Grimshaw, Alta., has had apprentice workers on his organic farm for several years through different agriculture programs. Interest in sustainable agriculture practices is growing.
“There are not very many places they can get that kind of knowledge. There’s not very many schools of sustainable agricultural practices,” he said.
“It’s a good way to teach people about what we’re doing. We’re getting to the point where we’re starting to look at retirement and realize it’s important to pass some of this on to the new generation.”
It was the same need Lipton saw when she designed the apprenticeship program. She saw people with an interest in farming, but with no experience or skill, or way to gain the knowledge.
“There’s a real need for experience in this type of agriculture,” said Lipton, of Edmonton.
This summer’s eight apprentices paired with farmers fall into two groups. One group is young people who have just graduated from university and want to “explore” the possibility of agriculture, local food politics or learn more about local food systems. The other group is older and looking for a career change into agriculture, but needs some education.
Lipton said farmers love the idea of passing on their skills and knowledge to new farmers and have more farmers interested in the program than apprentices available.
“I continue to be amazed at the farmers in Alberta. They want to grow new farmers.”
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Sunny 94
Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program
A new program in our province is helping potential young farmers, get a taste of the industry. The Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program is in a pilot year with 10 farms and 8 apprentices participating. Program founder and coordinator Becky Lipton tells us what sparked the idea for the program.
Lipton says the hands on experience is the true way to gain industry knowledge and it paints a clear picture of the work involved. To find out more about the program head online to startfarming.ca.
With less than 10 per cent of all farmers in our province under the age of 35, a new program is working to help show potential new farmers the way. In a pilot stage right now, the Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program Boast 8 apprentices learning the ropes on 10 participating farms. Program founder and coordinator Becky Lipton says this program fills a need for support and infrastructure to help those with little or no farming experience to explore farming as a career option.
Lipton says she has already received plenty of positive feedback from the apprentices out on the farms right now. For more information, head online to startfarming.ca.
It’s essentially impossible to learn how to farm from a text-book. So in an effort to encourage and support potential new farmers, there’s a new program out, the Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program. Currently in a pilot stage the program has 8 apprentices working and learning on 10 participating farms. Program founder and coordinator Becky Lipton says there is no better way to get a taste of reality than hands on experience.
In addition to learning on the farm, Lipton says the apprentices are supported with farm tours and workshop opportunities. For more information on the program head online to startfarming.ca.
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Vue Weekly
Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program
Meanwhile, back at the ranch … : New apprenticeship program gives city slickers first-hand experience of the farming lifestyle
Scott Harris / scott@vueweekly.com
Alberta farms have for decades witnessed a seemingly inexorable drain of people-especially their youth-out of rural areas and into the province’s larger urban centres. Compelled by the economics of an increasingly globalized food system which has gobbled up and consolidated small family farms, and drawn by the lure of greater educational and career opportunities and a more cosmopolitan lifestyle, generations of Albertans have left behind life on the farm and headed to the bright lights of the city.
Of the province’s 3.3 million people more than 82 percent now live in cities, according to 2006 Statistics Canada numbers. Of the remaining rural population fewer than 25 percent-just over 155 000 Albertans-now live on farms, representing less than five percent of the total provincial population. It’s a far cry from the heyday of the farming-dominated provincial economy which existed before oil was struck at Leduc No. 1 in 1947. In 1931 more than half the province belonged to farming families, meaning that in a single lifetime the province has shifted from one in two Albertans living on farms to less than one in 20. Around half of those remaining no longer make their living producing food, choosing instead to work off-farm.
But with increasing awareness about a range of pressing issues, from climate change to peak oil, pesticides to food safety, more and more Albertans are beginning to ask themselves where their food comes from, how it is produced and are taking an interest in growing more of it themselves. Community gardens, farmers’ markets, community-supported agriculture programs and organic foods are all soaring in popularity. Some young people are even starting to go against this decades-long trend of the grain drain by trading in their urban lifestyles and heading back to rural Alberta to make their living producing food.
It’s an choice that appeals to Michael Hunter. After moving to Edmonton four years ago, doing what he calls “typical living-in-the-city activities,” the 36-year-old and his wife, Beth, began making an effort to learn more about the food they were eating.
“Beth and I were both getting increasingly concerned with issues of food security, reading and watching documentary films about food security,” he explains. “We were also making long-term plans for having a family and were realizing that the path we were on was not going to be a sustainable one to leave to the next generation. So we decided to start looking into changing our lifestyle.”
That exploration led the couple to discover a new pilot program in the province-the Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program (ASAAP)-that aims to connect young people like Hunter who are interested in sustainable agriculture with farms and farmers who are willing to offer them seasonal apprenticeship positions to help them learn the ropes.
“The underlying goal of the program, really, is to provide people with the hands-on experiential knowledge that they need in order to make an educated decision as to whether they want to go into a form of sustainable agriculture as a career choice,” explains Becky Lipton, the program’s coordinator. “It got started last winter because I saw that there was a lack of infrastructural support for people who were interested in getting into sustainable agriculture, whether it’s someone who doesn’t come from a farming background or someone who is interested in transitioning over from some type of conventional agriculture who didn’t have a background in organics or the high-value niche products.”
Lipton’s perceived need led to conversations with some farmers she knew in the Edmonton and Peace regions who were focused on sustainable practices-organic growing, free-range and grass fed livestock, niche products, direct-to-market selling-and were willing to share their knowledge with a new generation of potential farmers.
In the pilot season 10 farms signed up to take on apprentices for full-season placements-which Lipton stresses is necessary to really get a sense of the true experience of running a farm-and pay them a combination of a stipend and room and board in exchange for their labour. In the end five apprentices were placed in the Peace region and three near Edmonton, including Hunter.
“I was making plans about what I was going to do with my summer and this came up,” he says. “We decided that it was important enough that I’d make less money, but get some important experience in learning how to grow food, essentially.”
Beginning in May Hunter started spending three days a week at the Inspired Market Gardens, a small operation based on a 160-acre family farm near Carvel, just outside Stony Plain, which focuses on growing and marketing herbs and edible flowers. It has been, Hunter says, an eye-opening experience.
“I was very overwhelmed when I first started. It was a very steep learning curve for me just in terms of plant identification, never mind learning anything about how to grow them,” he laughs. “Things just seem to progress very, very quickly; I take a couple of days off and come back out here and see how fast things are growing, so just becoming more aware very quickly of how much of an ongoing effort it is to run an operation. Someone has to be here all the time, there’s always things that have to be observed and maintained.
“I had an appreciation already, sort of conceptually, how hard it is to make a living growing food,” he continues, “but to actually have a hands-on experience of how quickly things change and how you have to be able to adapt to those changes really brought it home and made me realize why farmers are so tied to their land.”
Despite the challenges of absorbing as much knowledge as he can and working long hours, Hunter says there are many upsides, too.
“I’ve never felt more comfortable in any working environment,” he says. “The sounds, the smells, the sights-you just feel better about your place in the world, I think, when you’re surrounded by a more natural surrounding and not having to breathe in fumes all day. So it’s done very good things for my mental and physical health; I feel a lot more at peace with myself.”
It’s a sentiment that’s echoed by 26-year-old Jordan Wilson, a self-confessed city boy who has been apprenticing on Sunworks Farm, a certified organic poultry and livestock farm north of Camrose, since mid-May in preparation to move with his fiancée Megan to her family’s farm near Ardrossan.
“None of it has been particularly easy,” he admits. “It’s been a huge shift for me because I grew up in Edmonton; for 25 years I’ve been living there and suddenly moving out to a farm an hour away from a major city was a major change for me, but I’ve learned so much and grown so much that it’s been fabulous.”
But, he admits, it’s not easy.
“The work is never done. There’s always more to do out there. More than anything it’s getting the stuff done in a day you have to do, and then once you’ve got that stuff done it’s a matter of seeing what is the other stuff, the other projects that we’re working on and how much of that can I get done before I’m at a place where I can’t work anymore,” he laughs. “But the work that you’re doing out here is way more important than anything else that’s going on, so you’re focusing on the work and you want to be out there, because that’s what’s important. I didn’t have that before I went out to the farm.”
That appreciation of the intangibles that come from the hard but rewarding work of making a living off the land-especially coming from urban-raised youth-thrills Gwen Simpson, who grew up on her family farm in BC and now owns Inspired Market Gardens with her sister and their spouses.
“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” she enthuses. “In our community most of the farmers are the typical age, they’re well over 55, there’s not that many young folks around, they farm pretty conventionally.
“I have a line taken from Wendell Berry: ‘Who will love the land in the way it deserves and needs to be loved?’ I really believe that unless people live on the land, unless there are young people who live on the land, how will they understand how important it is? In my generation everybody I knew either grew up on a farm or they knew someone who farmed, had relatives who farmed. And that’s not the case anymore. Our generation, the boomer generation, is the last generation like that. If we don’t get some young people and their children to have a way of coming onto the farm then we’re going to lose that.”
And while Simpson is happy to share her lifetime of knowledge, and is glad the program is looking to learn from the experience of the first season and hopefully expand next year, she says it’s been far from a one-way experience.
“It has to be an exchange where they feel that they’re not just going out to be a labourer on the farm, that they’re going to actually learn how they can raise crops and the economics and the market and the soil prep and all of the things that go into it being a viable industry,” she says. “And Michael brings an urban perspective and a young perspective. He’ll say, ‘Why do you do that?’ and he makes us think more carefully about what it is we’re doing and why. So it’s been a really good program.”
For Hunter, the experience with ASAAP and Simpson has just reinforced that the path he and his wife are on-to move to a rural eco-village where they can focus much of their time on food production-is the right one for them.
“It hasn’t made me feel any less apprehensive about the workload,” he laughs, “but I’m more convinced than ever that there’s a strong movement growing not just within agricultural communities, but across the province, across the country. People are starting to realize that we can’t depend on our industrial food system to continue to supply us with safe food in the abundance that we’re going to need it.
“I often say to people that I’m not an alarmist, but there are water issues, climate issues, fossil fuel issues, that all will start to change how we view our food systems and our supply of food, and will, whether we like it or not, force more of us to learn how to work within the field of agriculture and grow more food more locally. So I want to be on the forefront of that, I want to be prepared.” V
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Peace Country Sun
New program offers youth a taste of farm life
The closest some people come to a farming experience is barbecuing a steak or making a fresh salad. Thanks to a new program in Alberta, young adults are making the leap from just eating steak and tossing salad to implementing rotational cattle grazing systems and harvesting vegetables from fields and greenhouses.
The Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program (ASAAP) makes this connection possible by pairing potential farmers with local farms in the Edmonton and Peace regions. Each member farm offers a different learning experience, work environment and time commitment. Most apprenticeships run from spring to fall, although several farms are currently looking for apprentices to start this fall. A list of all participating farms can be found at www.startfarming.ca
One thing each participating farm has in common is a desire to share their rural lifestyle and agricultural knowledge with people who want to become farmers, but do not necessarily come from a farming background. Peter Lundgard, owner of Nature’s Way Farm in Grimshaw near Peace River, believes that, “we have to support sustainable agriculture and teach the new generation of farmers.” Lundgard has two apprentices on his farm learning all aspects of his operation.
On the farm, every apprentice learns quickly. Collecting organic eggs, delivering calves in spring, maintaining a herd of bison, beekeeping, harvesting vine ripe tomatoes, edible flowers and digging carrots, and selling at farmers’ markets are just a few of the activities apprentices can participate in.
One of the most rewarding experiences for apprentices is sitting down to a family meal on the farm, reflecting on the day and eating a well deserved meal they helped grow, raise and harvest. Food doesn’t get more local than this.
“I have been wanting to learn more about how food is produced in Alberta so that I can grow more of my own food and potentially provide for others in my community. There aren’t enough people producing food locally and we are going to need all the farmers we can get in the future,” says Michael Hunter, an apprentice at Inspired Market Gardens near Stony Plain since April.
“I’m getting hands-on experience in every practical aspect of running a market garden, from seeding to sales at the farmers’ market and everything in between. I get lots of one-on-one discussions with an experienced owner and a horticulturalist. Basically, I get to see what I’d be getting into.”
In addition to learning on their host farms, the apprentices also attend farm tours and workshops provided by other farmers in the program. “Meeting experienced farmers and getting connected with other apprentices is a big part of what this program is about,” says Becky Lipton, ASAAP coordinator. “These networks are really important when it comes to successfully transitioning from learning to farm start-up.”
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Edmonton Journal
Young people eager to dig into farming
Alberta apprenticeship program booming
By Sneh Duggal
Jordan Wilson grew up as a city boy.
He lived in Edmonton and did not experience much country life, except when he visited his grandparents’ farm.
“I used to think, ‘I am sure glad that I am not working on a farm,’ ” the 26-year-old said.
But after learning about farming and spending more than three months looking after chickens, cows and steers, Wilson changed his mind.
“I’ve come to realize that food is really important to me. It’s a passion,” said Wilson, who has been doing an apprenticeship at Sunworks organic poultry farm since mid-May.
Wilson and about eight others spent their summer at different farms in the Edmonton or Peace River regions through the new Alberta Sustainable Agriculture Apprenticeship Program.
Program co-ordinator Becky Lipton said she found there was a lack of help for people who did not come from a farming background, but were considering a career in farming.
“I’d like them to walk away with a real understanding of what it takes to be a farmer,” Lipton said.
“From that, they can make an educated decision on whether it’s a career they want to pursue or not.”
Statistics Canada says about 8.8 per cent of Alberta farm operators were under the age of 35 in 2006.
Lipton said while there are few young people working on farms, she thinks those who don’t have a farming background are gaining more interest in sustainable agriculture, which involves growing organic foods or high-value crops through a system that is not heavily reliant on outside sources.
Wilson said he would like to use the knowledge he has gained through the program to develop a permaculture demonstration farm.
“It would involve designing a food production system that would suit our climate, so people can see what we’re doing, what we’ve got growing, how the different plants are working together.” He said people are too dependent on oil and, in turn, food that is imported.
“If you can grow your lettuce and tomatoes here, why wouldn’t you do that rather than shipping it from California?”
Kate Haddow, 24, who spent her summer at Sparrow’s Nest Organics, shared his sentiment.
While Haddow realized that she did not want to become a farmer after her apprenticeship, she said she would like to educate people about sustainable agriculture.
“It’s about creating sustainable systems so we can feed ourselves and making sure everyone has access to healthy, nutritious food.”
She said after growing her own food and learning about farming hardships, she can now talk to people about the struggles and the benefits of being a farmer.
For Michael Hunter, 36, being involved in all aspects of Gwen Simpson’s Inspired Market Gardens was what he enjoyed about his apprenticeship. He would like to continue with a career in farming.
Simpson said, “I think our food system and our usage of land is absolutely critical to the world that we’re going to create.”
Maintaining land and growing food on it is important and should be valued more than it currently is, she added. ~
