It’s a beautiful May morning on the farm: the birds are singing, the frogs are croaking in the pond and the young seedlings are green in the field. Sitting on my veranda, I open my computer and read an email I just received: Ira and Dima Morkva are a young couple of market gardeners from the Kyiv region of Ukraine. The start of their agricultural season was interrupted by the approach of war. They had to flee with their two children to take refuge in another region of the country.
Posted at 5:00 p.m.
After several weeks of fighting, the immediate danger having passed, they returned to their farm to face what a market gardener might see as a ruined season: dead seedlings in the nursery, weeds that have taken over the tunnels and fields, crop planning to redo.
But they took over the tiller, spread compost and started new seedlings. Not only are they determined to feed their community, but they also want to support others around them to help them grow their own vegetables. They ask me if they can use one of my online courses as teaching material for their project.
Resilient agriculture
When my wife, Maude-Hélène, and I started our Les Jardins de la Grelinette farm nearly 20 years ago, many people thought we were crazy to think that we could really make a living by producing organic vegetables on a single hectare.
Not only have we demonstrated that it is possible, but we have also witnessed the emergence of a movement of people who share our values: to change the world by simply feeding your community with food produced in harmony with nature, one small farm at a time.
Having both studied environmental studies at McGill University, we were also aware of the inherent fragility of a globalized food system, oriented towards monoculture and orchestrated by the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides rather than the intelligence of nature.
When I wrote my book The market gardener, published 10 years ago, I wanted to pass on our methods and techniques to others so that they too can make a success of their vegetable micro-farm project. This book took me to the four corners of the world and brought me to meet people who, like Ira and Dima from Kyiv, are dedicated to feeding the people around them with healthy food. People who, like us, see agriculture on a human scale as an immediate way to have a positive impact in the world. And now, I accompany market gardeners from 87 countries who participate in my online training, and I continue to be amazed by the global aspect of this movement which gives hope for a better world.
When are the questions?
It has always been close to my heart to present solutions, teach how and provide tools rather than denouncing what is wrong. But after more than 100 days of an abominable war, beyond human horror, we see looming the specter of famine and skyrocketing prices of basic foods here and elsewhere.
We have to face the facts: the current food system is not sustainable.
Now a question arises: what are we waiting for to steer our societies towards a more resilient agriculture in the face of geopolitical disturbances and climate change? Why do we continue to propose agricultural systems based on globalized commodity markets as the only way to feed ourselves? Why continue to subsidize models that destroy soil fertility, ecosystems and put our health at risk? And why so many obstacles for those who want to practice benevolent agriculture rooted in nature and the community?
It is our collective responsibility to ask ourselves these questions and to find concrete answers to ensure the future of the world. Meanwhile, Ira and Dima will continue to plant beets, carrots and lettuce that will feed Kyiv’s neighborhoods this year, and hopefully for many years to come.