11 www.SmallFarmCanada.ca Welcome to a place where turkeys, goats and pigs all want to be scratched behind the ears. In addition to humane animal production, fourth-year farmer Andrew Warren planted 130,000 vegetable starts last year. He reports that he only has 40,000 pounds in storage from the half million pounds of food he grew in 2025. Andrew admits he did not grow up on a farm. As a gardener, the lure of food production drew him onward toward larger scale. With more than one hundred animals and tens of thousands of bedding plants going into his fields, he has mainly been on his own. In his first three years of operation, he was unable to access provincial support, even while he obtained a Crown land lease. In Newfoundland and Labrador, unlike other provinces, farmers who lease government land can never look forward to owning the land and cannot build a home on the land for at least three years. Without land tenure, it is much harder to obtain bank financing. Andrew rose to this challenge, building barns for his chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, pigs, cattle and horses using recycled roofing materials and discarded telephone poles. After he had demonstrated solid intention to farm, the province stepped in with farming support programs that have allowed him to purchase farm equipment, clear additional land and assist him with labour. Farming near the tip of an isolated peninsula, he is providing local, healthy food to a remote part of our province. Food hubs are an innovative way of connecting food producers with customers, using a direct digital pathway. Essentially, a food hub is an online ordering mechanism that allows the individual, group or business to identify and order food and other products from suppliers and producers more directly by using the internet. This means that with aggregation of products from multiple sources, the customer has wider choice at a single online ‘store’ while producers are more visible and can be paid more directly through the online hub. Ordering is simple with a growing number of local producers offering vegetables, fruit, food products, health supplies, baked goods and crafts. On a weekly schedule, at either of our province’s food hubs, you can assemble your order, make direct payment and, claim your order at a convenient pickup point. This mode of food distribution can make a real difference in how local food reaches customers. It is being tested and evaluated and may be extended right across the island and into Labrador, if it proves effective. While operating costs do require subsidy, if food is essential and a human right, there is every reason for governments to support food hubs, as a core way to achieve regional food security. For information, visit https://www. nlfoodhub.ca/ In a small building in a town just north of St. John’s, volunteers are collecting and distributing stale-dated food and supplies to residents for free. Last year the volunteers provided more than 94,000 meals to people in Pouch Cove. The registered charity Second Harvest collects ‘food waste’ and distributes it to those in need. They estimate that Canadians throw away up to 47 per cent of the food we produce and import. Some of this waste happens at the warehouse, where food distributors must keep surplus stock to fill just in time orders. Some occurs when stale-dated foods are past their ‘best before’ date and are discarded, even though they are still safe and edible. About 17 per cent of wasted food occurs in the home. A tiny portion of this organic waste is composted or fed to animals, but the rest ends up as pollution in landfill, generating methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) and costing municipalities many thousands of dollars in tipping fees. Led by Tony and Mary Palmer, the crew of volunteers meets twice a week to distribute vegetables, canned food, bakery products and more, to a growing number of local residents. Without funding support and residing in a free building provided by the town, there is still the cost of fuel to pick up the food. Fuel is purchased with donations from the box at the Pantry. Volunteer programs like this are one way we can re- duce food waste, and turn food that would otherwise be discarded into a valuable shared community re- source. For more information about Second Harvest initiatives please see https://www.secondharvest.ca. POUCH COVE PANTRY FEEDS THE COMMUNITY WELCOME TO WARREN’S FARM: WHERE THE ANIMALS ARE YOUR FRIENDS AVALON FOOD HUB OFFERS ONLINE FOOD DISTRIBUTION
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