There was just one problem: Lewis and Barker could not afford to buy the farm or the land on which it sits—that is, until they worked with an agricultural land trust.

What is a land trust?

Land trusts can be non-profit conservation organizations or, in some instances, government bodies that work to conserve agricultural land in perpetuity.

Without farmland to grow crops or ranchland for livestock, we don’t eat. Conserving farmland underpins a stable local food supply. Without agriculture, jobs are lost; 22.1 million full- and part-time jobs were related to the agricultural and food sectors in 2022, which equals 10.4 percent of the total US employment. Keeping farmland in farming is crucial for our food supply and food security, and it’s why the American Farmland Trust (AFT), a national conservation organization, advocates for keeping farmers and farmland together. 

The ATF predicts that more than 300 million acres of farmland and ranch land could change ownership within the next two decades, with some of it transitioning out of agriculture use permanently. As retiring farmers exit the field, they are looking to the equity they’ve built up in their land on which to retire. That can be a significant sum, something that young or new farmers may not be able to afford. (According to the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture, farmers under the age of 35 account for only nine percent of all producers.) But real estate developers can afford it. 

“Between 2001 and 2021, the country lost 11 million acres of agricultural land,” says Jen Dempsey, director of the Farmland Information Center and senior advisor for the AFT. “Development,” she says, “remains the most significant and direct threat to farmland.” 

Ben Miles, is the Southeast Program manager for Land Trust Alliance (LTA), a member organization with 950 land trusts nationwide. “Most farmers and ranchers could find a buyer willing to purchase their property and develop it, whether into 10-acre ranchettes or 1/8-acre lots,” he says. 

A land trust is able to purchase land outright, remove the development potential and then lease or sell the land back to a farmer. It is also able to help a beginning farmer if the selling price being asked by an existing farmer is too high. 

Community land trusts retain ownership of the property while the farmer pays a tenancy back to the trust to farm the land. But this can be a mixed bag. The farmer owns the buildings and the equipment, but not the land. 

[RELATED: Q&A: How Community Land Trusts Help to Preserve Farmland]

“Farmers look at their property values going up to retire,” says Lewis. Without value in the land, it becomes difficult for the farmer to gain equity or retirement savings. 

How do land trusts work?

By far the most popular way a land trust works is through the purchase of a conservation easement: a legally binding agreement between a land trust and a property owner, designed to keep farms and ranches conserved for agricultural use in perpetuity. 

The land is first appraised without any conservation restrictions placed on it. This is generally the higher value of the land with zoning and development potential attached to it. It is then appraised with conservation restrictions placed on it. The difference between the two values represents the “easement” value of the property. In 2022, the AFT and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service sent out a survey to land trusts across the US. The majority of respondents to the survey, 88 percent, reported conserving 5.9 million acres of farmland and ranchland through conservation easements. 

In the case of Oyster Bay, the former owners sold the easement value of the property to Community Farmland Trust. They were then able to retire, having leveraged the equity in their property. Lewis and Barker were able to buy the more affordable property without the development rights attached. Since 2018, they have been producing and selling free-range chicken eggs and meat on the farm’s idyllic 40 acres.

“The fee interests—the dirt, the soil, the property—are in our names,” says Lewis, while the conservation easement is in the land trust’s name. The property owner, in this case Lewis and Barker, retains ownership and usage of the land—such as the right to continue farming or to raise livestock. The legal agreements governing an easement are extremely comprehensive including the buying and selling of the farm property. “Easements can be amended and altered slightly, but it can be a very challenging process,” says Lewis. As a general rule, once the land is conserved and the easement filed with the land records office, it is binding and travels with the property for all current and future owners. Even if Lewis and Barker sell the property, the conditions and restrictions on the easement remain in place forever. 

But nothing is perfect. “The easement in our situation reduced the overall cost of the initial purchase in 2018, but now, as property values overall have risen, the land is worth almost the same as before the purchase,” says Lewis.

This is a concern for Lewis and Barker, as they wonder what will happen when it’s their turn to retire and pay the land forward. Their daughter currently does not want to farm. So, will the property again become unaffordable?

Lewis also cautions that land trusts can be complicated legal quagmires and that those entering into a trust should have tempered expectations. Lease agreements, inheritance regulations and the shared responsibility of land stewardship between the trust that owns the land and the farmer can take time to work out. It took Lewis and Barker more than three years to finally have everything in place. All three parties involved (the sellers, the land trust and Lewis and Barker) needed to work out the details of the sale and conservation restrictions being placed on the land. The land trust had to do land surveys and environmental assessments to obtain a grant that let them purchase the easement. “It all takes time,” says Lewis.

How can farmers get started with land trusts?

For farmers looking to conserve their land in a trust and for young agrarians interested in acquiring farmland, the AFT’s Land Transfer Navigators program in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service is a good place to start.

“Some land trusts,” says Miles, “also have programs connecting new farmers with retiring farmers, through Farm Link programs, or run incubator or community farms, so they may be able to directly help new farmers get access to land and to get their business started.”

Land access and the ability of young farmers to be able to purchase land is a pressing problem that could be addressed in the upcoming Farm Bill. The Increasing Land Access, Security and Opportunities Act is one of several bipartisan bills addressing the issue. Led in the House of Representatives by Joe Courtney (D) from Connecticut, Zach Nunn (R) from Iowa and Nikki Budzinski (D) from Illinois, it hopes to prioritize projects that give direct financial assistance to farmers, involve collaborative partnerships and transition farmland from existing producers to the next generation.

“We are in a land access crisis,” says Lewis. “As farmers get older and look at how they can retire, we need all the options on the table.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that land trusts are legal agreements administered by non-profit conservation organizations. The conservation easement is the legal agreement, while the land trust is the organization that holds or owns the easement. 

The post Holding onto Farmland, One Conservation Easement at a Time appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Plastic may have made farm life easier, but it’s also caused the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to raise alarm bells about its impact on the environment. Globally, 12.5 million tons of agricultural plastic is used annually. Everything from silage wraps, tote drums, containers, plastic mulch, greenhouse sheeting and row covers have a use in modern-day agriculture, although much of it is single-use and not recyclable. 

The Rodale Institute, proponents of regenerative organic farming, estimate that, for every acre of land farmed using plastic mulch, between 100 and 120 pounds of plastic ends up in the landfill or breaks down into a farmer’s field. As the plastic decomposes, a process that takes up to 1,000 years to complete, it releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere or breaks down into tiny microplastics that attach themselves to root vegetables and enter the food system. 

In 2021, the FAO called for a more sustainable use of agricultural plastics and promoted a net zero plastic waste for agriculture. That’s where companies such as Cleanfarms, where Friesen is the executive director, come in. 

Cleanfarms is a Canadian stewardship organization that recycles agricultural plastic. It works with manufacturers and producers of agricultural plastic to recycle products on its behalf. Partnering with local collection services and municipalities, Cleanfarms is the only stewardship organization in Canada working to clean up agricultural plastic.

Baling hay using plastic sheeting. (Photo courtesy of Cleanfarms)

In 2022, Cleanfarms reported collecting and recycling 5,000 tons of crop input and agricultural film plastic, 5.2 million empty pesticide and fertilizer containers and nearly 300,000 empty seed and pesticide bags. But despite these figures, Friesen admits that Cleanfarms is only collecting 10 percent of the agricultural plastic used on Canadian farms.

The story is not much different in the United States, where 816 million pounds of agricultural plastic is used annually. The Agricultural Container Research Council operates in 46 states collecting and recycling agricultural crop protection, animal health, fertilizer and pest control containers such as jugs and drums. Since its conception in 1992, more than 240 million tons of agricultural plastic container waste has been recycled. There are other recycling programs throughout the US, but what they collect varies from state to state. 

David McDaniel is co-founder of Maine’s Greenhouse Plastic Recycling Program. He used to encourage farmers to recycle their plastic greenhouse sheeting. However, McDaniel is no longer a recycling enthusiast. “Agriculture plastic is not a cradle-to-grave product and is not easily recyclable, but instead is a mostly disposable throw-away cradle-to-landfill enabler,” he says.

[RELATED: Plastic Mulch is Problematic—and Everywhere. Can We Do Better?]

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), each time plastic is recycled, the quality of the material degrades. Because of this, most plastics are recycled only once or twice before ultimately being disposed of in landfills or incinerators. 

McDaniel also questions why the onus to recycle is on the grower and not the company that manufactures the product. 

“Companies are creating all sorts of new plastic products, but they have no responsibility for where that plastic goes at the end of its useful life,” he says. Cleanfarms wondered if Canadian farmers were asking similar questions, and if those concerns impeded their recycling efforts. In 2020 and early 2021, Cleanfarms conducted grower surveys in Saskatchewan, Ontario, British Columbia and the Maritimes. Farmers were asked to participate in pilot projects and recycle items such as containers, twine, grain bags and baler wrap. In British Columbia, 98 per cent of those surveyed supported a recycling program for plastic twine and 100 per cent expressed support for establishing recycling programs for silage plastics.

The survey also showed that, across all regions, farmers, almost unanimously, were opposed to covering the costs of recycling themselves. 

The answer: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Shifting the responsibility for managing materials at the end of life away from consumers and onto producers, EPRs are government regulations imposed on products that are intended to make it easier for the consumer to recycle. It’s not uncommon for manufacturers of computers or tires to ask consumers to pay an extra fee at the time of purchase for the cost of collecting and recycling the product. It’s now becoming normal for agricultural plastic. 

Hay bales wrapped in plastic. (Photo courtesy of Cleanfarms)

Having encountered resistance in the past from waste management and recycling companies that perceived EPRs as giving the packaging industry control over recyclables, EPRs are now seen as business opportunities to improve and expand recycling services and facilities. 

In Canada, many provinces have legislated EPRs on agricultural plastic, making it illegal not to recycle plastic at the end of its useful life. Saskatchewan was the first province to establish an EPR on grain bags. From 2016 to 2020, recycling of the bags doubled from 1,257 tons a year to 2,536 tons. 

In Maine, McDaniel’s solution to recycling has been to stop using plastic, as much as he is able, on his own Earth Dharma Farm. Instead of using black plastic mulch, he plants his crops closer together.

“After about four to six weeks, the canopy completely closes and little sunlight reaches the soil. Weeds can’t compete and soil moisture is conserved due to the cool understory microclimate.”

Instead of seed trays, he uses soil blocks that compress soil into uniform bricks that hold their shape without the need for plastic cell moulds. He refuses to use spun polypropylene row cover until manufacturers create a product that can be recycled. 

Bioplastics may be McDaniel’s wish come true. Made from renewable organic material rather than petroleum or natural gas, they are supposed to be less harmful to the environment. Many are made to naturally biodegrade without harm to soil or crops. In 2023, global bioplastics production reached 1.79 million tons, but more research is needed. In 2021, the Canadian government earmarked $4.5 million to improve not just plastic waste management and on-farm sustainability but to advance bioplastic research.

Part of the impetus for Cleanfarms’ conception in 2010 was a recognition that farmers, consumers and governments would no longer accept plastic’s environmental impacts and demand alternatives.

“Before Cleanfarms programs,” says Friesen, “farmers had limited options to manage the types of packaging and products they used on [the] farm. To ensure farmers can operate sustainably, one solution is to continue to provide opportunities to include these materials, through recycling in a circular economy.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that 816 million tons of agricultural plastic are used annually in the US. That number is reflected in pounds, not tons. 

The post A Plastic Tsunami is Taking Over Farms. What Will Stop Plasticulture?  appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“Not all farmland is created equal,” says Jesse Womack, a conservation policy specialist with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). “Some acreages are inherently less productive than others.” The soil quality may not support crops or the land may not have appropriate water drainage. The cost of trying to create viable conditions for growing can be enormous and may not be worth the expense or the crop it might produce. 

For many farmers, the answer is to enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Created by Congress in 1985, the CRP asks agricultural producers to voluntarily take environmentally sensitive land out of active production and conserve it. In return, they are paid a yearly rental rate per acre of land enrolled in CRP programs.  

 In 2023, he USDA Farm Service Agency made more than $1.77 billion in payments to agricultural producers and landowners enrolled in all CRP programs, and more than 23 million acres of private land in the US was being conserved.

Photography submitted by Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust.

Pros and Cons

Advocates of the CRP hail the program as protecting water quality, improving soil health and creating a refuge for wildlife and pollinators.

But not everyone agrees. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit organization focused on public and environmental health, is advocating for a change to the CRP.

“Our biggest criticism of CRP,” says Anne Schechinger, mid-west director for EWG, “is that, as it is currently set up, it is not doing enough to store carbon in soil or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” Agriculture is responsible for 10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. She also questions the long-term environmental benefits of the program if the reserved land is pressed back into service. All the carbon sequestered in the soil, she notes, gets released back into the atmosphere once the land is re-cropped.  

“At least half of CRP acres go back into production after the end of the farmer’s contract, and most contracts only last for 10 years,” she says . “In general, permanently retiring farmland has much better benefits for the climate than even working lands with conservation.” 

Short term versus long term

In southern British Columbia, the Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust (DFWT) Grassland Set-Aside Stewardship Program (GLSA) also asks farmers to uncrop their fields and plant them with wildflowers, perennial grasses and broad-leafed plants. They’d argue that there are benefits even after a short period of uncropping (up to six years).  

The GLSAs provide vegetative cover for foraging, roosting and nesting wildlife including raptors, wading birds, songbirds, pollinating insects and small mammals such as moles and mice. “We are ensuring farmland remains viable by balancing the needs of both the natural systems and the farmer,” says Christine Schmalz, executive director of DFWT. In this way, the program provides an opportunity to rejuvenate soil while supporting local wildlife.

A 2020-21 survey conducted by DFWT recorded greater use of the uncropped fields for habitat and hunting by raptors and the endangered Great Blue Pacific Heron, compared to cultivated fields. As the deep roots of the grasses and wildflowers permeate the soil, drainage is improved and the nitrogen levels in the soil increase, a key for building healthy root structures and plants. Research conducted by the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia further discovered that when GLSA fields are returned to agricultural use, the increased nitrogen levels lessen the need for fertilizers and the naturally enriched soil often produces increased crop yields compared to before the set-aside.

“One farmer noted to me recently that the potato crop is grown after a GLSA always has a substantial increase in yield for his fields,” says Schmalz.

But, despite these benefits, both Womack and Schmalz concede that farmers are finding it harder to take large areas of land out of productive use even for short periods. The annual rental rate paid to them often isn’t equal to what the farmer could make if they kept up production on the land. 

In 2023, farmers enrolled with the DFWT were paid $500 (CDN) per acre. If that same land was producing a harvest of potatoes, a typical crop for the area, farmers could expect, based on 2020 prices, to have received approximately $736.56 (CDN) per metric ton from their harvests.

The Wetland Reserve Easement program administered by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) pays 100 percent of the easement value for the purchase of land and 75 to 100 percent of its restoration costs. This makes setting land aside lucrative and appealing.

 “Way more farmers want to return land permanently into that program than there is funding for,” says Schechinger. “It is always overdrawn.”

Photography submitted by Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust.

Balance on the range

 Farmland is not the only agricultural land that requires conservation. There are  770 million acres of rangeland in the United States. Areas of grasses, forbs, shrubs and dispersed trees are used for grazing cattle and other ruminants. CRP Grasslands works with producers to support grazing operations, plant and animal biodiversity. Conservation of this land requires a balanced approach.

The Society for Range Management (SRM) is a membership organization that provides educational resources for landowners, conservationists and producers. Julie Elliot is a director on SRM’s board. “Obviously, farming crops and rangelands are not compatible,” she says. “Removing livestock for even 10 years from this land can cause an ecological disaster in grassland communities.” Grassland foliage relies on the grazing and trampling of livestock to keep the soil aerated and the plant community growing. But when livestock graze on the same pasture repeatedly, plants don’t have the opportunity to recover and will die.

“It’s the combination of disturbance [grazing] and recovery that yields a healthy rangeland,” says Elliot.

In New York State, Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture strives to increase the production of the soil as well as ensure there is wildlife habitat, specifically for ground-nesting birds. By moving livestock daily, the land is not overgrazed and undisturbed areas for ground-nesting birds, such as the threatened Bobolink, have been established. This type of land management has also increased the water filtration capabilities of the soil. 

“We had fields that two decades ago wouldn’t hold more than an inch of rain an hour; the rest would run off. Now, they absorb up to 16 inches of rain per hour,” says Jack Algiere, director of agroecology at Stone Barn. He credits this with the deep-rooted grasses aerating the soil and the added nutrients deposited from the manure of the grazing animals. 

Initially, this type of land conservation can be expensive. Fencing, for example, may be needed to protect water systems from livestock. In the long run, though, costs are reduced. The need for fertilizer is lessened as the livestock service the soil through their manure. Herds are healthier, because of the biodiversity of the natural foliage they consume, which can reduce disease and veterinary costs.

Photography submitted by Delta Farmland & Wildlife Trust.

Looking ahead

Incentives have been added to the draft of the upcoming Farm Bill that would allow farmers to enroll land into CRP programs for longer periods of time.

Congressman Jim Costa (D) from California has introduced the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Improvement Act of 2023. He is suggesting reforming the CRP to provide cost-share for the establishment of grazing infrastructure on all CRP practices and contracts, including interior cross fencing, perimeter fencing and water infrastructure.

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have introduced the bi-partisan Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Reform Act. They are proposing financial incentives for enrolling marginal land into CRP continuous categories, including providing the first five years of annual payments upfront and extending current contract lengths in the CRP Continuous and Grassland programs to 30 years.

Back in Canada, a raptor is hunting over a set-aside field. It’s a sign of success for the DFWT. “We are ensuring farmland remains viable by balancing the needs of both the natural systems and the farmer,” says Schmalz.

The post When Not Farming is the Best Use of Land appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“We lost 10 percent of our saleable Christmas trees that year,” says Leanna Anderson, owner of Aldor Acres Family Farm in Langley, British Columbia and treasurer of the BC Christmas Tree Association. “The needles burnt from the heat, and we had to trim them back.” 

Photo courtesy of Aldor Acres Farm.

Across North America, heat waves and average increases in temperatures are affecting Christmas tree growers. Without a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, average temperatures in Oregon, the largest producer of Christmas trees in the United States, will increase 8.2 degrees Fahrenheit by 2080. Warmer and drier conditions could alter the composition of Oregon’s forests and reduce productivity of evergreen species such as the Douglas fir, a popular Christmas tree choice.

But increasingly longer and hotter summers are already having a detrimental effect on Christmas trees. Evolved to go into dormancy as temperatures drop in the autumn, conifers develop a resin coating that keeps the needles intact and protects them from frost damage. But with longer summers, the trees are harvested while temperatures in November often remain above freezing. Thus, they aren’t getting that cold signal to develop their resin coat, which causes post-harvest needle loss—that pile of shedding needles under the decorated tree.

Dr. Gary Chastagner, a professor of plant pathology at Washington State University, has been studying Christmas trees for more than 40 years. His research has taken him to Turkey and the Republic of Georgia, where evergreen trees such as the Nordmann fir thrive in the area’s milder climate. Trials, which Chastagner has conducted, have shown that Eurasian trees can last up to three months in water as a cut tree and still retain its needles. 

He predicts that, in the future, trees that  thrive in these warmer regions will become popular consumer choices. “By identifying trees that don’t need cold acclimation for good needle retention, it will help mitigate problems of post-harvest needle retention, especially if we have warm falls,” he says.

Photography courtesy of Aldor Acres Farm.

Heat, though, is not the only issue affecting the beloved Christmas tree. 

Climate experts predict that, as the atmosphere continues to warm, its ability to hold moisture will increase. This will cause periods of heavier rain and waterlogged soil. For Christmas tree growers, this means phytophthora root rot, a species of spore-like fungal organisms that can lay dormant in soil or plant debris for years. During wet periods, the swimming spores germinate and become attracted to tree roots. Over time, they deprive the host of nutrients and water. Spread by rain, runoff water or even on footwear or farm equipment, once phytophthora is active in the soil, it’s almost impossible to eradicate.

At North Carolina State University, Justin Whitehall, an extension specialist in Christmas tree genetics, notes that there’s been a slow but steady increase in phytophthora in North Carolina. “Eleven percent of fields were infected in 2014. In the last few years, that number is closer to 16 and 17 percent,” he says. This is concerning for a state ranked as the second largest producer of Christmas trees in the US. 

 “Growers and consumers want high-quality trees, but in some places, North American trees cannot be grown because of phytophthora,” says Chastagner. “Eurasian firs, particularly the Nordmann, Trojan and Turkey firs, have shown some resistance to the disease.” Cones from mother trees have been brought back to Washington State, where seeds have been extracted and orchards planted to gauge the trees’ adaptability to the Pacific Northwest. 

The Momi fir from Japan has also proven to be resistant to phytophthora. “By working on a biochemical level trying to explore how the species resists the disease, we may be able, through genome editing or modification, get some of those traits into North American Christmas trees,” says Whitehall.  

Photography courtesy of Real Christmas Tree Board.

While researchers look at ways to adapt to an altering climate, growers are already making changes. 

 “When you have a crop that takes between eight  and 10 years to grow from seed to harvest, a lot can happen in that window,” says Marsha Gray, executive director of the Real Christmas Tree Board (RCTB), a non-profit organization supporting Christmas tree growers throughout North America. “When we are talking about weather issues, especially when it comes to getting seedlings established, growers are having a harder time,” she says. But they’re adapting. 

In the United States, there are 15,000 farms growing Christmas trees and more than 100,000 people are employed annually by growers and sellers. In an industry valued at more than  $2.5 billion, approximately 25 million to 30 million natural Christmas trees are sold annually. With so much at stake, growers have no choice but to adhere to changing conditions. 

In North Carolina, planting on slopes encourages better water drainage and helps combat phytophthora. In other places, such as Oregon, growers are looking at adding irrigation. Although common in other regions, the soil in the state has traditionally held enough moisture to keep trees from drying out. At Aldor Acres in British Columbia, Anderson touts irrigation as having been the farm’s saving grace during hotter summers. “It’s a fine line, though, between keeping the tree moist when it’s hot but not too wet that it encourages disease.”

The RCTB has invested more than  $250,000 in research to try and ensure the future is merry and bright for the trees. “That might seem like a lot,” says Gray, “but, for our industry, that’s more than has ever been invested. Over half of our research is in response to the changing weather.” 

The post Climate Change is Coming for Christmas Trees. Can They Be Saved? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Genetically modified crops (GMO) are also cross-bred, but instead of pollen, foreign DNA is introduced into the plant’s genome to create a new crop with desired characteristics such as sweeter-tasting fruit or longer-lasting color.  

But genome-edited (GE) breeding falls somewhere in the middle, depending on how you look at it. Ian Affleck is vice president of biotechnology for CropLife Canada, a trade association representing developers and distributors of plant science innovations and plant biotechnology. He describes GE crops as naturally derived, because you’re not introducing anything new into the genome. “The GE process is like tweaking a Word document. Instead of importing data, you are simply copying and pasting within the original document, using the material that has already been written.”    

In this metaphor, the seed, or document, had no bugs or glitches before moving things around internally, so, it shouldn’t  have any after the treatment, as nothing new has been added.The process, better known by some as CRISPR, is highly controversial among proponents of organic growing. 

Allison Squires is an organic farmer and president of  Canadian Organic Growers. “It’s still not natural. The seed has been synthetically altered.” Now, regulations from the Canadian government this spring have put Squires in what she sees as a precarious situation. 

CRISPR editing of seeds. Photography by Shutterstock.

In May, the Canadian federal government introduced new guidelines that removed public disclosure requirements and reduced health and safety assessments on some GE seeds. In the new wording of the regulation, two types of plants fall under an automatic assessment from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). All seeds that introduce DNA from another species (meaning all GMO seeds) trigger an automatic assessment from CFIA. Plus, plants that possess “new traits and have the potential to negatively impact the environment” require assessment. Some GE seeds may fall under that second umbrella, and others will not. 

The bulk of Squire’s grain is exported to the European Union (EU), where any plant that has had its DNA altered in any way that doesn’t occur naturally is classed as a GMO. This includes GE-derived products. “It’s a huge market,” she says. Every load Squires sends overseas is genetically tested two or three times by EU customs, and agricultural officials have to make sure it’s not been in any way genetically manipulated, before being allowed into commercial circulation. “It’s a stringent process,” she says. “If my grain is deemed to be synthetically altered, I not only will lose the income from the shipment but will not be able to sell to the EU for several years until I can prove myself again.” 

The issue, for Squires and other growers like her, is that GE seeds can be released in the Canadian market without any additional testing—and growers are not obligated to disclose that the seeds have been gene edited.

When Squires buys seed from a distributor, they sign an affidavit assuring her that what she buys hasn’t been genetically altered. In Canada, under the Canadian Organic Standards, farmers are required to disclose if they use gene-edited seed or feed for livestock. If they do, even by mistake, they lose their organic certification. However, it is possible that because GE seeds won’t be identified as genetically altered within Canada that neither she nor the seed distributor will know if she is being sold GE seed.  

Proponents of gene-edited products point to Seeds Canada as the answer to everyone’s woes. The advocacy group has developed the Canadian Variety Transparency Database as a way for growers such as  Squires to keep track of GE seeds as they enter the marketplace.

Alison Squires at her farm, Upland Organics. Photography courtesy of Upland Organics.

Lucy Sharratt is a coordinator for the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) and works with farmer associations and environmental and social justice groups opposed to the synthetic engineering of food. She isn’t convinced the database will be effective when it comes to GE seed. “It’s entirely voluntary; seed companies can choose to register their seeds or not. There’s no tracking of who has or hasn’t [registered] and no enforcement. ”

Sharratt also points out that this lack of disclosure could translate to the consumer. In most Canadian grocery stores, organic and non-organic produce is clearly labeled. However, if GE seed is not required to be disclosed, it only follows that what is grown from that seed won’t be either. Consumers are already leery of this, according to a 2022 public opinion poll conducted by CBAN. A majority of Canadians (54 percent) are concerned about the safety of genetically altered foods and opposed by nearly two to one to letting companies conduct their own safety assessments, rather than the federally regulated Health Canada.

In the United States, there’s also opposition to government policy surrounding GE products. In 2020, the Plant Protection Act removed requirements regarding public disclosure and safety assessments on GE seed.

The Organic Trade Association (OTA) represents 10,000 organic businesses across 50 states and, as in Canada, continues to advocate for the organic food system to remain true to its intent by keeping modern biotechnology out—including GE seed. 

Currently, there are only a handful of GE vegetables and a soybean variety available commercially in the US. “In Canada, a few vegetable seeds could enter the marketplace in time for the 2024 growing season, with grain following a couple of years later,” Affleck predicts. 

And despite media reports that the Canadian decision was influenced by biotech companies such as CropLife lobbying the government, there is currently no review process of the legislation scheduled. Affleck maintains the decision “was based on reviews by Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and all available science.”

This is not reassuring to Squires, who, in a September press release from Canadian Organic Growers, writes that “mandatory transparency of GE seeds is one of the most significant issues organic farmers are facing today. Without it, the integrity of organic production in Canada is severely threatened.”

Personally,  all Squires wants, she says, is for GE seeds to be identified and to be able to protect her family’s livelihood. “I don’t care if folk use GE seed, I just want to know, so I have a choice not to.” 

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that all GE seeds were exempt from assessment under Canadian regulations. In fact, some GE seeds may require additional scrutiny from CFIA. We’ve updated the story to reflect this change. We regret the error.

The post How Should Gene-Edited Seeds be Regulated? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

“They can be divided into two categories,” says Claudio DiBacco, a research scientist with Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans Canada. “Those that have been around since the latter part of the 19th century, they don’t harm the environment. It’s the newcomers that have arrived in the last few decades that are the troublemakers,” he says.

How sea squirts arrive and spread in a new area is no mystery. Often, they hitch rides in the ballast water used to weigh down ships without cargo. “The larvae are invisible and float with the ocean currents. They’re onboarded with a ship’s ballast water, and when it discharges in a new location, so does the tunicate,” says Boris Worm, a marine ecologist at Dalhousie University’s Ocean Frontier Institute. “It is almost impossible to keep them from spreading.”

Sea squirts are tiny (species range from 6-10 inches long) and have cute nicknames such as Compound Sea Squirt, Golden Star and Pancake Batter. But, despite their small stature and fun names, these invaders sucker themselves like barnacles to any hard surface, natural or manmade, singularly or in massive colonies. And they are heavier than they look. Made up of organs, sea squirts are 95 percent water; an oyster cage weighing five pounds can easily exceed 75 lbs. when attacked by colonized tunicates. 

“We weren’t prepared for how heavy they were.” (Photo courtesy of courtesy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

Colton D’Eon is a self-described sea farmer and chief operating officer for D’Eon Oyster Company in Yarmouth, NS.  He remembers the first time his oyster farm was hit with a tunicate infestation. “We weren’t prepared for how heavy they were, and lines snapped and we lost equipment. Now, we’re diligent. Our oysters are grown on the surface of the water in cages that can hold up to six bags of 300-1,200 oysters. We have learned to regularly take the bag and cage out of the water and let the sun and wind dry it out. This kills the tunicate but doesn’t solve the problem. They never go away,” he says.

It used to be that tunicates would die back in the cold winter water, and reemerge in the spring as the ocean warmed. “Now,” says DiBacco, “they’re finding thermal refuges, where the water stays warm enough for them to survive all year.”

Since the 1980s, there’s been an increase of more than two degrees Celsius (four degrees Fahrenheit) in the Gulf of Maine and surrounding waters. The average global ocean temperature has risen by only 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) during that time. “The rate of warming is more than twice as fast as the global average,” says Worm.

Where the Bay of Fundy converges with the Gulf of Maine, for example, the water has warmed from a low of -3 degrees Celsius in 1960 to a low of just above freezing in 2020.

In 2006, NASA scientists said warming sea surface temperatures were also causing a global decline in phytoplankton productivity, a main food source for tunicates and shellfish.

“This competition for resources has caused the growth rate of mussels in some areas with heavy tunicate populations to be reduced by 30 percent,” says DiBacco. In 2015, bio-fouling tunicates so severely affected mussel supply in Nova Scotia that there was a three-month shortage for shellfish consumers.  

Bio-fouling tunicates have severely affected mussel harvests. (Photo courtesy of courtesy of Fisheries and Oceans Canada)

Controlling bio-fouling organisms such as tunicates is expensive for fishermen, sometimes taking up to 10 percent of their profits in terms of manpower and equipment needed. These expenses can then be passed on to the consumer.

They are everywhere along the eastern coast of North America. The United States Department of Agriculture lists several species of sea squirts including clubbed and compound as invasive. In 2008, tunicates were found in Lake Tashmoo, a protected marine pond with shellfish aquaculture operations located on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. 

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts says oyster farmers along the US Eastern seaboard are continually finding cages and equipment covered with the brown-and-orange foam of the pancake batter tunicate. It takes months to clean it off and recoup the market loss of thousands of oysters suffocated by the invader. The institute is now studying the adaptive qualities of tunicates, wondering if there are any limits to their survival.

 “I don’t think there’s a way for humans to stop them,” says D’Eon.

Aside from manually flipping and drying cages, pressure washing to rinse off the fouling tunicates has also been effective, along with adding a chemical lime solution to infested mussel stocks. And starting in 2024, the Canadian government will implement new ballast water regulations that require ships to scrub the water of organisms before dumping it. But, ultimately, it may be climate change that solves the problem. 

In July 2023, Nova Scotia experienced a massive rain event. A total of 200 millimetres  of rain fell within 12 hours, adding fresh water to Halifax harbor where the DFO had set up plates to track tunicate populations. “After the storm,” says DiBacco, “the invasive tunicates were gone and, as of mid-September 2023, hadn’t returned. It might be that the rainfall lowered the salinity in the water, changing oxygen and PH levels and affecting reproduction. We’re still collecting data.”   

It’s a small flicker of hope for D’Eon, especially as more fresh water is coming. As polar ice caps melt, volumes will spill into the Atlantic. This, along with a warmer atmosphere and its ability to hold more moisture, increasing the frequency and velocity of rain events, could be the sea squirt’s kryptonite—an outcome for which fishermen and shellfish farmers have been hoping.

The post What Will Stop Troublemaking Sea Squirts Along North America’s Atlantic Coast? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

But that could change. A report released this spring by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)  suggested that, by 2050, unless growers move north, there’s a real possibility that there will be no Florida strawberries on grocery store shelves during those crucial winter months. “By mid-century, Hillsborough County will no longer be within that Goldilocks range,” says Dr. Eileen McLellan, a senior scientist at EDF and co-author of the report.

In 2020, there were approximately 75 days with temperatures over 85 degrees Fahrenheit in Hillsborough County. By 2050, the climate models used by the EDF predict that number could soar to more than 150 days. It’s already getting hotter. The 12-month average temperature in the county has increased by 4.9 degrees Fahrenheit from May 1900 to April 2023.

Photography courtesy of Canadian Berry Trial Network.

Outside of Florida, which produces many of the winter strawberries, the majority of the strawberries in the nation come from California. The golden state produces 87 percent of all the strawberries consumed in North America. Are strawberries doomed here as well? Scientists at the University of California (UC), Davis have been researching and developing new varieties of strawberries since the 1930s. “One of the primary concerns for growers in California, at the moment, is the saline content in water and soil,” says Dr. Mitchell Feldman, director-elect of UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Program and Research Group. 

Too much salt in the soil will, over time, pull water out of plant roots and cause them to die. Salt is present in all soil and is normally leached away by rain or through irrigation. But, up until the heavy rains of last winter, more than 60 percent of  California was in the grips of a drought that scientists say was made more severe because of human-caused climate change. The salt in the soil remained. Drought may be one side effect of climate change, but it’s not the only one with which growers are contending. A warmer atmosphere has an increased ability to hold moisture, which causes heavier and longer periods of rain. This means unpredictability for growers.

“No two seasons are the same anymore,” says Kevin Schooley, executive director of the North American Strawberry Growers Association. “Some growing periods are wet; others hot and dry. But it’s the crusher events, periods of unexpected and heavy rain, and sudden storms that do the real damage.”

The heavy rains in California last winter may have ended a long period of drought, but they also caused strawberry fields to be flooded. This meant fewer strawberries available at the grocery store, along with higher prices. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of strawberries in the United States during the first week of March 2023 was 27 percent higher compared to the same time in 2022. 

Photography courtesy of Canadian Berry Trial Network.

A warming planet also encourages the spread of soil pathogens. Fusarium wilt is a fungal infection that attacks plant roots and  also restricts water flow through the plant. Once controlled by methyl bromide, a pesticide now banned because of its harm to the atmosphere, fusarium wilt thrives in high temperatures, arid climates and warm soils. 

“California is a perfect storm of heat and dry [conditions] for soil pathogens to emerge,” says Dr. Stephen Knapp, director of the UC Davis strawberry breeding program. This past spring, UC Davis released five new strains of strawberries into commercial production resistant to fusarium wilt: UC Eclipse, UC Golden Gate, UC Keystone, UC Monarch and UC Surfline. 

Three new varieties of strawberries have also been developed recently by the Canadian Berry Trial Network (CBTN), spearheaded by Dr. Beatrice Amyotte, and have proven more resilient to   the effects of climate change than those previously grown in eastern Canada. “Their skin is cohesive, airtight and watertight, which makes them able to withstand heavy precipitation without becoming soft or broken up by the rain,” Amyotte told Canada’s Weather Network.

The Canadian Berry Trial Network team.

It takes time, though, to develop new varieties of berries. It took Amyotte and her team 10 years to produce those three varieties. With the effects of climate change affecting the planet faster than first predicted, will there be enough time to save the strawberry? An international team of scientists led by UC Davis has been able to sequence the genome of the cultivated strawberry. This genetic roadmap makes it easier and faster to target specific traits and develop the strawberry with climate change-resistant qualities, such as a higher saline resistance in the event of drought.  

Even in the field, growers are finding creative ways to adapt. “Polyurethane tunnels and cloth covers are regularly used to shade plants from extreme heat and severe weather. It’s amazing, even with the sides of the tunnel pulled up, it stays cool,” says Schooley.

McLellan is realistic that strawberries may not be able to be grown in the fields of Hillsborough County by 2050, but she is also hopeful about the berry’s  future.     

“Strawberries are a bellwether of what could happen to other small berry fruits and vegetables as climate change marches on,” says McLellan, “and why it’s important to study them now and make important changes before it does become too late.” 

The post The Goldilocks Zone Needed to Keep Strawberry Fields Forever appeared first on Modern Farmer.

But in 2022, the data was stark: Researchers warned of severe grasshopper infestations in southern Alberta and along the Saskatchewan border. But without much-needed rain, there was very little that could have been done to hold back the hungry hordes.

Dan Johnson is a professor of environmental science at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. “Grasshoppers are very responsive to weather,” he says.

A male clearwing grasshopper. Photography courtesy of Dan Johnson.

Females lay their eggs in late summer, sometimes as many as eight pods of between 10 and 90 eggs each. If it’s a wet fall, fungi and bacteria can infect the eggs, limiting their survival rates. If it’s a warm spring, the eggs will hatch early, and the nymphs can develop quickly. In southeastern Alberta, three years of warm springs and long dry summer and fall months have created the perfect conditions for egg laying and population growth.

“The irony,” says Johnson, “is that there are about 80 common species of grasshoppers and only a handful are bad guys. The rest are beneficial to the ecosystem, devouring invasive weeds and providing food for prairie birds like the endangered burrowing owl. In Alberta, it’s the clear-winged and two-striped grasshoppers that are causing all the damage.”

Just 10 of these “bad guys” per square metre can consume between 16 percent and  60 percent of available vegetation. Their meals of choice are: barley, oats, corn, soy, wheat, rye and alfalfa, the mainstay commercial crops of prairie farmers. 

Unfortunately, prevention isn’t as easy as spraying the larvae with pesticides. “Spraying has to be targeted, and unless you know the difference between the larva of the bad versus good grasshopper, which many people don’t, spraying can be ineffective,” says Johnson. Then, once the insects start eating, it’s too late to fight back. “Insecticides can deter some of them, but when the numbers are as high as they are now, it’s pretty much impossible to eradicate them all.” 

Even if a farmer does spray, there’s often a wait time between the application of a chemical pesticide and when it’s safe to harvest a crop. This means farms have to keep the crop alive and use up precious water resources in an already water-restricted environment.

Crops devoured by grasshoppers. Photography courtesy of Dan Johnson.

Stewart Wells is a  third-generation farmer and owner of Penny Lane Organic Farms in Swift Current, SK. The farm’s organic certification means he is unable to use synthetic pesticides, so he instead relies on natural controls for his wheat, lentils, peas, alfalfa, mustard and coriander. While most of what he’s growing are traditional cash crops, the coriander isn’t for commercial sale. It’s for the grasshoppers. “They don’t like the smell and will avoid areas where it’s planted,” he says. Does it work? “Moderately.” Unfortunately, there aren’t many other proven methods to use. Wells could try to seed his crops early, so they can be harvested before the nymphs mature into eating machines. But that’s tricky. Farmers need warm weather to seed, and the warmer it gets, the faster the nymphs grow.

It all adds up to a smorgasbord for the hungry insects.  

Justine Comeau is an agricultural fieldman for southeastern Alberta’s Special Areas Board. An agency of the Government of Alberta, the board acts as a rural municipal service and, during a crisis, provides support to residents of the region. “Many of us remember the drought of the early 2000s and how grasshoppers ate the siding off houses. They were everywhere—even roads and highways had to be closed. This year is almost as bad,” she says.  

Across North America, farmers and ranchers are telling similar stories. In 2022, Oregon had an estimated 5.3 million acres of farm and ranchland infested by destructive grasshoppers. In some places, the average density was estimated at 73 grasshoppers per square yard. The United States Department of Agriculture sets a threshold of 15 to 20 nymphs or 8 to 10 adults per square yard before economic damage occurs.

“The financial impact of Alberta’s 2023 grasshopper infestation will vary from zero to 100 percent loss, depending on the area,” says Comeau. “There are pockets where there are none and, in other areas, 100 per square metre.

“For many livestock producers, the few grazing areas left that haven’t dried up because of lack of water have now been eaten by the grasshoppers,” says Comeau. The situation has become so serious that ranchers are having to destock herds.” It will take years for the pastures and perennial forages to recover, and that’s only if conditions improve. In the meantime, the costs and damages keep adding up. The effects of the 2001-2002 drought and all its combined losses, including grasshopper damage, cost the Canadian economy $5.8 billion.

An immature clearwing grasshopper. Photography courtesy of Dan Johnson.

The effects of this drought could be even more far-reaching. Alberta exports seven million tons of wheat each year to 70 countries around the world. With supplies of wheat already hampered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a blow like this could put another dent in an already dwindling supply.

In July, the Special Areas Board declared an agricultural disaster in southeastern Alberta, in hopes of making it easier for producers to get financial help from the province and access crop insurance claims. It will help, but it won’t solve the overall problem. If the hoped-for rains come and the drought abates, it won’t be the last time farmers and ranchers will have to deal with apocalyptic hordes of grasshoppers. According to the Government of Alberta’s climate change website, elongated periods of hot and dry weather are predicted to become more frequent in the province and to last longer because of climate change. 

Along with the heat and arid conditions, there will be grasshoppers.

The post Hungry and Seemingly Unstoppable: Grasshoppers Invade Canada’s Prairies appeared first on Modern Farmer.

With only 88 farms producing just one percent of the fresh produce consumed locally, it’s not a choice but a necessity for food to be imported from the south. Until now. North of the capital Whitehorse, in the southernmost part of the territory, Yukon Berry Farms is growing 50,000 haskap berry plants on 50 acres. 

In 2022, the farm yielded 15,000 pounds of berries, most of which will be turned into wine or cider and exported out of the territory—a rarity for the area, which is almost completely reliant on imported food. 

 It begs the question: How can haskaps be grown on such a massive scale, in such an inhospitable setting? 

Photography courtesy of Yukon Berry Farms.

Haskaps, which look like an elongated blueberry and taste similar to a tart raspberry, grow wild in circumpolar regions throughout Canada, Asia and northern Europe. But very few people have heard of them. 

“Wild haskaps are small and it takes a lot of picking to fill a bucket,” says Dr. Bob Bors, manager of the fruit program at the University of Saskatchewan. There, Bors has successfully hybridized more than 10 different varieties of haskaps, all suited for northern growing.

The idea of turning haskaps into a commercial crop first took seed in the 1950s. Canadian horticulturists hybridized a strain of haskap from wild plants and those commercially grown in Siberia. But it didn’t even make it to market. “That berry,” says Bors, “tasted like tonic water and fruit breeders saw no marketability in it.” Bors’ secret weapon was the sweet Japanese haskap, which he combined with the Canadian wild berry and Siberian cultivator to create a cold hardy plant, with a bigger,  tastier fruit than earlier versions. 

Now his berries are growing at Yukon Berry Farms. He’s not surprised at their success, especially with climate change causing warmer winters. In 2021, the lowest recorded temperature in Whitehorse was -45.5 degrees Celsuis. Further south in Abbotsford, the heart of British Columbia’s fertile berry-producing Fraser Valley, where mild winters are often the norm and spring comes early, the  temperature barely dipped below -7  degrees Celsius.     

“Haskaps love extended periods of deep, sub-zero cold,” says Bors. “In the south,they can wake up too earl, and flower before the bees and insects they rely on for pollination and ultimately fruit production have broken their hibernation.” Bors’ research also suggests that the heat typical of long southern summers could shut down the plant’s ability to grow and produce. 

They’re also susceptible to humidity. “This can cause powdery mildew, a fungal disease, that damages the plant,” says Graham Gambles, secretary for the Haskap Berry Growers Association of Ontario. This makes Whitehorse’s dry climate (it receives less than  260 millimetres of rain, or 11 inches, annually) ideal for haskaps.  

Photography courtesy of Yukon Berry Farms.

Kyle Marchuk, the co-owner of Yukon Berry Farms, knew how lucrative haskaps could be as an export crop from the moment he first encountered them. 

“A friend of mine was growing haskaps on a small test plot, here in the Yukon, and they were producing more berries than on bushes being grown in the south. So many, in fact, that a buyer from outside of the Yukon was willing to buy all the berries that could be produced and export them out of the territory.”

It spurred Marchuk to become a partner in Yukon Berry Farms in 2014 and plant 20,000 haskaps. In 2016, at a food show in Tokyo, Japan, he showcased haskap berry jam and was amazed at the Japanese interest in the product. He knew then that haskaps could be a lucrative export market for Yukon growers.   

By the end of 2018, Yukon Berry Farms had expanded operations and was growing more than 40,000 haskap bushes.    

Photography courtesy of Yukon Berry Farms.

There are weeds that pop up between the plants and  voles that eat the bark for food over the winter.  “But the biggest challenge,” says Marchuk, “has been the changes the Canadian government made in 2019 to export licensing of fresh food.”  

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CIFA)  new regulations meant growers such as Marchuk would be required to do more paperwork and be subject to more inspections. The process was more time consuming than it had been and the licensing more expensive, so instead of exporting raw berries and jam, Marchuk and his partners opened Yukon’s first winery and cidery. 

“The laws surrounding the export of alcohol are more lenient. We’re exporting haskap wine and cider to Japan and planning to get products into stores across Canada very soon,” he says. 

Taking three to four years to reach maturity, each haskap bush can yield up to 10 pounds of berries a season—enough to share with the world and the local community, says Carl Burgess, executive director  of the Yukon Agricultural Association. He sees no reason why haskap berries grown in the Yukon can’t be exported. “We have tomatoes from Mexico imported to the Yukon, so why not locally grown haskaps exported to Mexico?”

The post How the Haskap Berry Survives Arctic Temperatures appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Eventually, they would bottle eight and a half gallons of extra virgin olive oil, the first commercial-grade olive oil produced in Canada. It wasn’t a lot. Olive trees are slow growers, taking at least four years to produce fruit. Many of the trees on the Brauns’ property were still maturing, only just reaching their fourth birthday, and still too young to produce fruit. But, despite the low yield, it was enough to give the Brauns the inspiration they needed.  

Sheri and George Braun.
Photography submitted.

Other than the hobbyist who plants a few trees in their garden or patio pots, olive farming has traditionally been considered ill suited for Canada’s unpredictable cold weather. But, with heat intensifying in traditional olive-growing regions around the world, places such as Oregon and the microclimate of British Columbia’s Gulf Islands have become unlikely olive oil hubs. 

Since 2020, the olive-producing regions of northern California have experienced increasingly intense heat in the low hundreds. Heat waves have also accelerated in Europe over the past several decades. Spain produces 57% of the world’s olive oil, and this past April, just as the olive trees were in blossom, temperatures in many regions soared.

The Brauns are in a sweet spot of west-coast geography. Salt Spring Island is part of a larger archipelago of islands between the mainland of southern British Columbia and Vancouver Island. The warming currents of the Pacific Ocean meet the Salish Sea and create a rain-shadow effect and moderate temperatures encompassing the region. The climate is often compared to the olive-producing regions of northern Italy, Portugal or Spain. 

Photography courtesy of The Olive Farm.

Michael Pierce operates Saturna Olive Consortium on neighbouring Saturna Island. He imports olive trees and sells them to local hobbyists. Despite the mild climate and an increase of frost-free days in British Columbia (a  whopping three weeks since the middle of the last century), Pierce cautions that “growing olives in British Columbia is not for the risk averse.” 

The sentiment is echoed by Lenore Newman, director of the Food and Agricultural Institute of the University of the Fraser Valley. “Climate change is making the average [temperature] warmer, but we are more likely to get erratic weather that includes deep arctic outbursts that are too cold for olive trees in most areas.”

Olive trees are sensitive. Ideally, they should be planted on a south-facing slope with well-draining soil to wick water away. If the roots get water-logged, they may not survive. Never truly dormant, they need periods of chill to tell them to stop producing for the season, but not too cold. Young trees are only able to withstand temperatures as low as 10 degrees F (-12 degrees Celsius). It’s intense heat, though, that may be their worst enemy. Although olive trees like warmth, they also have their limits, as many varieties are only able to tolerate temperatures to a maximum of 104 degrees F.

Photography courtesy of The Olive Farm

Despite The Olive Farm’s prime location, southern sloped exposure and the Brauns’ careful selection of cold-hardy varieties of olive trees (Leccino, Maurino and Frantoio), they’ve experienced challenges.

“It’s a really good thing we didn’t know what we know now when we bought the property in 2010, or we wouldn’t have embarked upon the project,” Sheri jokes. After planting their first trees in 2012, the couple had to wait four agonizing years to see if any would produce fruit. If that wasn’t hard enough, in November 2021, atmospheric rivers of rain pummelled British Columbia’s south coast. The Brauns lost 10 percent of their 3,000-tree grove. In late June 2021, just as their trees were blooming, a massive heat dome stretched from California into northern British Columbia, lasting almost a week.

“The trees survived, but the flowers withered,” says Sheri. Without flowers, there’s no fruit.

That alone might have been enough for some to throw in the towel, but a previous visit to an olive grove in Oregon State kept them motivated. Western Oregon has warm arid summers and mild wet winters—not dissimilar to Salt Spring.  

Here, too, it’s getting hotter. According to a January 2023 report by Oregon State University’s Climate Change Institute, average temperatures in the state have increased by 2.2 degrees F since 1895 and are projected to increase by 5 degrees F by the 2050s and 8.2 degrees F by the 2080s.

Chris Barry is the agricultural manager of River Ranch Olive Farm, located in the southwestern corner of Oregon. River Ranch’s secret, much like The Olive Farm, is the micro-climate created by the gentle breezes of the North Umpqua River bordering the olive grove, which keeps the temperatures stable. “It takes determination to grow olives in this climate,” he says. “If the rain comes and the ground freezes, the trees are goners, especially the younger ones.”

On Salt Spring Island, the Brauns’ determination to grow olives has paid off. Their best harvest to date was in 2022, when the grove produced 89.5 gallons of Canadian extra virgin olive oil.

 “We’re committed now,” says Sheri.

The post The Hot and Cold of Growing Olives in Canada appeared first on Modern Farmer.