While we value local purchases and farm-to-table consumption more than ever, The Press hits the road again this summer to meet craftsmen and agricultural workers. Here is the fourth portrait of a series of six with Sébastien Angers, from the Ferme de l’Odyssée.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
“I can pass for a fly “, agrees Sébastien Angers.
When we arrive at his farm in Sainte-Monique, in the county of Nicolet-Yamaska, he immediately gets to the heart of the matter. “I want to talk to you about regenerative agriculture. It’s at the heart of everything I do. We prioritize greater biodiversity and soil health,” he summarizes.
Sébastien Angers cultivates on a large scale the pumpkin seeds that you find in the bags of the Löka snack from the Prana brand.
In 2020, when the farmer got involved in this crop which practically did not exist in Quebec — but a lot in Austria and Asia — he was recovering from a difficult period.
But thanks to a partnership with Marie-Josée Richer, “dragon” and co-founder of Prana, he was able to embark on the adventure of pumpkin seeds. “She is important, Marie-Josée! It financed my first harvest”, he underlines.
In 2020, this first harvest was done… by hand! Then, Sébastien was able to get his hands on a harvester, so he was able to produce no less than six tons of pumpkin seeds!
Years before, Marie-Josée and Sébastien had met at a public market in Outremont.
“We were next to the kiosk,” says Sébastien. At the time, he represented Rheintal Meats. But when he separated from the mother of his two daughters, Guylaine Buecheli, it was she who took over the processing business, while he stayed on the land.
I lived through years of great financial vulnerability. As I often say, farmers are a club of broke millionaires.
Sebastien Angers
Farm land and equipment are worth a fortune, but profitability is a perpetual challenge…
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
Each pumpkin plant produces about six.
This year, Sébastien Angers can finally breathe a little. He teams up with three farms that grow the same variety of pumpkins (different from those for sale on Halloween). And he can always count on his herd of some 1100 pigs which supply Les Viandes du Breton.
Originally from Saint-Wenceslas, Sébastien Angers studied organic farming at Cégep de Victoriaville. He then did a bachelor’s degree in agronomy. He worked on farms in Alsace and Saskatchewan and it was an internship that led him to the land he still cultivates and which belonged to his former father-in-law.
Sébastien Angers renamed the place the Ferme de l’Odyssée. In addition to pumpkins, he notably grows corn and sunflowers. During our visit, the latter were in bloom and many passers-by in cars stopped there to take pictures of them.
The “solar corridors”
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
The sunflowers were in bloom when we visited.
In the middle of the fields, Sébastien Angers explained to us the technique of the “solar corridor”, which consists of planting corn on only one row out of two. If farmers would see a loss of half the yield, it is rather more sun for the plants, which grow so well that they can be planted closer to each other.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
A river runs through the farm land.
In regenerative agriculture, biodiversity is key. Sébastien Angers, for example, plants hairy vetch so that this leguminous plant creates a “plant cover”. “Just to feed the soil, not to harvest it,” he says.
He also applies the technique of rolled rye, which gives a kind of straw protecting the ground. “The diversity of plants creates a balance and we respect the natural carbon cycle of the soil,” he explains.
Find your “flower route”
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
It was during his difficult period that Sébastien Angers discovered the principles of regenerative agriculture.
“I was like the Thinker of Rodin, he says. When you are vulnerable, you are immobile. You are on your knees, in humility and hypersensitivity, and in search of truth. »
He realized that he was taking too many risks as a farmer and he went to meet pioneers of the no till farming in the USA. “One of my mentors is David Brandt,” he says.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
We owe the fresco of the farm to the muralist Maxim Charland, while the logo inspired by the four elements is signed Roxane Gariépy.
Sébastien Angers also met Steve Groff and Gabe Brown, stars of the Netflix series Kiss The Groundwhich demonstrates how healthy soils can combat climate change.
He was fascinated by their “minimal intervention”. However, for anyone new to regenerative agriculture, the creation of an ecosystem does not happen overnight. “It’s a space-time. According to Sébastien, each farmer must find his “flower route”, that is, the plants that will allow him to achieve his goals.
not so fly ?
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, THE PRESS
Originally from Saint-Wenceslas, Sébastien Angers studied organic farming at Cégep de Victoriaville. He then did a bachelor’s degree in agronomy.
Sébastien Angers sometimes embodies the archetype of the mad scientist. He quotes Rodin as The little Princeas well as the innovation approach of the design-thinking.
One thing is certain, he thinks that the future of agriculture is in the sharing of ideas. “We’re going to find agronomic recipes as a team,” he says.
Sébastien Angers also pleads for farmers to have access to the Carbon Exchange. He also believes in the digitization of agriculture. “There is a level of complexity of interactions and we need data. »
As the name of his farm suggests, Sébastien Angers is on an odyssey.
“I am an outlier,” he says. But perhaps time will eventually prove otherwise.