A Good Way To Be Connected To The Bigger Farming Community

As climate conditions become more extreme and less predictable during the growing season, universities, producer groups and farmers are collaborating to identify regionally adapted crops and best management practices that can increase the resilience of the organic vegetable sector. Agricultural research is most important and impactful when immediately applicable on-farm. In order to facilitate organic research, and applicable results, two University of British Columbia projects encourage producers to participate in trials and engage in larger research networks; both projects are part of the national Organic Science Cluster 4.

One such study is called Regenerative Climate Resilient Organic Vegetables led by Sean Smukler. The research team is quantifying soil health, carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions for production practices like crop rotation, targeted compost application, “beyond 4R” nutrient management, cover cropping and conservation tillage.

“We’ve been building off previous work that we’ve done with organic vegetable producers in the province. Really to try to study some beneficial management practices that are likely to improve the farmer’s adaptation and climate mitigation capacity,” Smukler says. “Those are the primary things that we’re interested in achieving as well as farm sustainability and profitability.”

The group is conducting research using a mother-daughter farm experimental design. In this approach, the two research “mother” farms are the UBC long-term research site in Vancouver and Green Fire Farm in Duncan. The mother farms will have controlled replicated experiments where indicators are measured intensively by the research team. The “daughter” farms are organic operations across the province. Each daughter farm will serve as a replica for a set of similar treatments.

“They’re more of a demonstration site and a way to contextualize our experimental results,” Smukler says. “And a way to sort of ground them in the real world, … particularly in small-scale organic farming, which ranges quite dramatically in terms of approaches and diversification.”

Five farms on Vancouver Island facilitated best management practice trials during the 2024 growing season and Smukler hopes to include 15 farms during the 2025 season. Producers who are interested in participating this summer, particularly in the Lower Mainland and Kootenays, can learn more about the study at Organic-Science-Canada.ca. Through the project, producers  can learn about the best management practices that work in their region and on their farm to improve resilience.

“The promise to the producer that we’re providing right now is analysis of their soil and an indication of how soil health might be changing over time,” says Smukler.

He adds that while some work on cover crops looks promising, it is still too early to make recommendations without definitive results. 

Also out of UBC, the Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement (CANOVI) network is a farmer-led approach to crop research. The CANOVI team works with regional farming organizations to coordinate on-farm variety trials where farmers generate and share data about regional variety performance. Data from the on-farm trials contribute to a broader understanding of crop-environment interactions. CANOVI also supports three participatory plant breeding projects, using information from the variety trials. 

“Most of the seeds that organic farms are using are actually imported from outside of Canada,” says project lead and postdoctoral researcher Weijia Wang. “It’s not good for the seed security of the small-scale farms in Canada.”

As a result, CANOVI has cultivated a network of producers, farm organizations and plant breeders to build up local seed stocks across the country. Indeed, the group looks to decentralize approaches that address regional and crop-specific gaps in seed systems by encouraging farmers to produce seed.

“A couple hundred years ago, every farmer would do it and it hasn’t been part of the farming culture,” FarmFolk CityFolk BC Seed Security program manager and BC’s CANOVI coordinator David Catzel says of seed production. “We’re trying to encourage farmers to kind of get back into the practice of producing seeds again, just because the more people everywhere that produce seeds, the greater diversity of seeds we’re all going to have.”

Each participating farmer conducts a single trial and harvests the data.

“But because we have so many of them, the data is useful,” Catzel says. “I think farmers are probably the best people to do this research. … They know what works in the field. They know the types of varieties that are going to be popular and they’re going to be able to sell. And they have the best eye for selection.”

During the 2024 growing season, 50 farmers across Canada completed CANOVI’s heat tolerant lettuce trial. In the past, farmers have tested leeks, spinach, bok choy and most recently trialed open-pollinated carrots that can compete with hybrid varieties.  Each participant receives an honorarium of $300 to reimburse the time and effort of planting, harvesting and record keeping.

Even though the lettuce trial may have taken more time than routine plantings and harvests, Heather Ramsay of Umi Nami Farm in Metchosin, BC, found that the benefits far outweighed the labour costs.

“It’s actually been really interesting. Just the doors it’s opened,” she says.

Throughout the 2024 growing season, Ramsay and her farm team trialed eight lettuce varieties, an important crop in the farm’s Japanese specialty crop rotation. Farm staff took the opportunity to learn more about this crop, sharpen their observation skills and engage in thoughtful discussions. 

The varieties did exceptionally well in the cool summer conditions on Vancouver Island last year, so Ramsay had an excessive amount of lettuce that needed a home. As a result of her efforts to find new outlets for this overflowing crop, Ramsay onboarded new CSA customers and formed a valuable partnership with a local food bank.

Indeed, CANOVI trials allow producers to experiment with varieties in real-world conditions with a reduced financial risk of crop failure.

“It’s very important to include farmers in the research process. From the grower’s perspective, I think a benefit to them is that they have the chance to let us know what their real needs are because we do have this connection with them,” Wang says. “From a breeder’s perspective, I think it’s important that we get farmers’ contributions of their knowledge of their local growing conditions and the preferred traits. Based on that, the breeding process will be tailored to meet the specific needs of the community and the specific region.”

In addition to enhancing food production, seed security and farm resilience, collaborative trials enable peer-to-peer social connections, which are also incredibly valuable.

“Because we [haven’t] really done the farmers market for the last several years, it’s easy to be kind of a little bit more isolated,” Ramsay says. “This is also a really nice way to be part of a bigger farming community.”