“What the hell?”

This post on my Facebook wall was a not entirely unexpected reaction to the news that after six years as a software developer, I was suddenly reporting that I was a couple of weeks into an organic farming internship. It was a bit of a jump, to be sure, but one that had been in the works for a while. An increasing awareness of issues relating to sustainability had left me unsatisfied with the impact I felt able to make as a keyboard-bound cog in a multinational machine.

Films such as Food Inc, and books such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma had already opened my eyes to the extent to which our food system has become rooted in unsustainable and environmentally damaging practices. From the vast monocultures of corn and soy that are the source of so many ingredients in the mind-boggling array of processed foods available in your supermarket, to the oceans of petroleum upon which modern industrial agriculture floats, we have moved from working with the soil to produce our nutrition towards strip-mining it for its nutrients, using crops as the extractive tools.

So when the opportunity arose to spend a growing season living and working on an organic farm, I saw my opportunity to step across into a field that is experiencing a renaissance, and is only going to become more relevant as time goes on. Everybody eats, and everything we eat was at one time, at least in part, growing in or walking upon the ground. And regardless of whether the amount of oil left will see us through the next 50 years or the next 150 years, the fact remains that the supply of oil is finite, whilst our demand for it appears to be insatiable.

The farm I am living and working on is a relatively small organic farm about half an hour’s drive from the city of Hamilton, in South-West Ontario, Canada. I will go into greater detail about what organic agriculture is, and how it differs from the prevailing methods of farming, but for now it will suffice to say that eating the food grown on this farm will cut a significant portion of petroleum from your diet. There are no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides used on the farm. A 1960’s-era tractor is the principal piece of mechanization, and is used for only a few tasks, principally initial field preparation. The rest of the work – bed preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting – is all done by hand.

Yet, from the eight acres being used for vegetable production at any given time, enough produce is obtained to feed the 10 people living on the farm, to stock tables at three local farmers markets every week, and to serve a Community Supported Agriculture scheme (CSA) with over 100 members. I will go into more details on these outlets in a later post, but for those unfamiliar with the CSA concept, it essentially allows people to purchase a share of the season’s crop, in exchange receiving a box of produce harvested from the farm every week throughout the season. The remainder of the farm’s 40 acres are grown in crops for hay, pasture for the farm’s livestock, and grains such as rye and wheat for livestock feed and bread-making.

Over the course of the season I’ll give you a taste of what’s involved in growing food according to organic and sustainable principles. We’ll cover the difference between organic and conventional agriculture (and look at the different ways in which “organic” agriculture is practiced), see some of the techniques involved in growing organically, and look at the different outlets for the farm produce once it’s been harvested. It’s going to be quite the learning experience for me, and I look forward to sharing it with you. Welcome to the farm.