The Sunshine Coast Farmers’ Institute is creating a local farm directory to help meet the growing demand for information that has accompanied a growing interest in food security during the pandemic.
The group is also hoping to see local governments loosen restrictions on backyard chickens and beekeeping.
“We believe two great things are coming out of this crisis,” Institute president Raquel Kolof, who runs Hough Heritage Farm in Elphinstone, told Coast Reporter.
“People are reconnecting with their food, wanting to grow their own food, and people are realizing the critical need for a localized food system because our industrialized, centralized food system has a lot of weaknesses.”
Kolof said the directory would go beyond connecting people with farmers and producers they can buy from. “It’s a directory not just for food, but for families who want to start farming themselves.”
The Institute, she said, has been inundated with questions from people who want to know how to start raising chickens, set up beehives or get into keeping larger livestock such as sheep, cows or pigs.
“The beauty of being on the Sunshine Coast is we have a lot of rural zoned areas where farm animals are allowed and people are interested in raising their own meat and growing their own food.”
Kolof said some of that interest is coming out of concerns with the supply chain, in particular for meat and poultry after COVID outbreaks among major beef and poultry processers that forced temporary shutdowns at some facilities.
“Meat is the new toilet paper,” Kolof joked. “But I don’t think people need to panic, they just need to support their local, small-scale, diversified farmer.”
Kolof said the increase in demand she’s seen for her products, mainly heritage breed pigs, sheep and goats, has been “mindblowing.”
Shannon Vanderwoerd of The Gibsons Butcher said at the retail end they haven’t seen much increased demand for locally raised products, but they are seeing a lot more customers who want to know exactly where the meat they buy is coming from.
“What we’re experiencing more in our shop is people wanting that small intimate relationship where we know and we can tell them specifically where every cut of meat came from.”
Vanderwoerd also said their shop has seen more people placing large orders and bulk buying.
Kolof said the Farmers’ Institute is hoping to turn the interest in buying local or producing your own food into a boom of small-scale and backyard farmers on the Coast, and that’s one of the reasons it’s supporting a petition urging local governments, especially the two municipalities, to loosen restrictions on beekeeping and raising hens.
The petition on change.org had more than 600 signatures as of May 5.
“I just don’t see why it wouldn’t be permitted when Vancouver, Victoria, Squamish, Whister, Surrey – all these other densely populated cities – are allowing it,” Kolof said.
The Farmers’ Institute is prepared to help people learn what they need to know in order to keep chickens and bees safely without disturbing the neighbours and is already pursuing funding to hold future courses.
“It’s no more difficult than having a cat or dog. You just need the right infrastructure,” Kolof said.
The petition also asks that the Sunshine Coast Regional District, Sechelt and Gibsons put all bylaw infractions involving the keeping of backyard hens on hold.
Officials in Sechelt told Coast Reporter that there have been two bylaw complaints involving chickens in the past year and both were “resolved.” Sechelt is also planning to address backyard chickens during upcoming consultations on a planning zoning bylaw review.
In Gibsons there has been just one complaint, resulting in a fine, in the past year.
To find out more about the farm directory project and the resources the institute has available, visit www.sscfi.ca
