Young farmers grow against the grain

Looking out on one of their rolling fields of organic spelt, Drew Jeffrey and Will Beattie beam with pride.

The grain stalks are tall and green, with hints of yellow peeking out of their husks. But soon the whole field will be a golden red blaze when the spelt is good and ripe.

Look how well this stuffs doing, Jeffrey says as they drive through a path in the middle of the field.

Yeah, Beattie replies.

And they say were crazy.

The two young men have been working hard getting their crops in the ground this season.

Its just the two of them and one other young man helping them out. Together, the three men planted 1,000 acres of organic cereal grains and oil seeds in field patches across the (Prince Edward) Island.

Now theyre waiting anxiously to see if their organic barley, oats and hullless oats, rye, buckwheat, flax and soybeans will succeed.

Jeffrey, 23, and Beattie, 22, are new to organic farming, and they believe its the way of the future.

But its been an uphill battle.

One of the biggest challenges they face is one of perception. Most conventional farmers who see their fields of soybeans planted in 30-inch rows or who know theyre organic often question the logic of the two young farmers.

All these people up here in their farms say to us, How do you plant your soybeans in 30-inch rows? Thats too much. Youll never get the weeds, Jeffrey said.

But Jeffrey and Beattie have travelled to Ontario and Quebec and saw first-hand how this is the new wave of farming and that it can be donesuccessfully.

Theyve been doing it for 10 years and they grow thousands and thousands of acres. Theyve got the same equipment we have and theyre making a lot of money.

Beattie said he gets the impression many Island farmers need to see it for themselves before they believe its possible to have a successful, large-scale organic crop.

Its just different. It hasnt been tried and tested here, thats all, he said.

And although many in the local farm sector remain skeptical, the two young men are optimistic.

Susan MacKinnon, the organic development officer with the provincial Department of Agriculture, says they have every reason to be.

The demand for organic product right now is at an all-time high, she said.

We as government have been receiving inquiries and producers have been receiving inquiries from all over the place.

Local companies are interested in sourcing organic grains and oil seeds from the region to supply regional markets with feed for organic livestock. There are also inquiries from New England for organic grain feed for dairy cows, and there is big demand in Japan.

The demand is great, and its across the boardnot only just for grains, MacKinnon said.

Right now theres a really big demand for organic fruittheres not enough supply right now to meet demand.

Despite this, MacKinnon said she estimates there are only about 60 out of 1,700 PEI producers who are certified organic.

One reason is the social stigma, MacKinnon said.

But the other big obstacle is the lack of available information and resources.

The conventional farming industry has a wide range of information available. But for many years, organic farmers had little to no information available to them.

Thats slowly changing, but its more of a challenge for organic farmers to find information about production, MacKinnon said.

Its her job to provide that information to people like Jeffrey and Beattie who are going against the grain and banking on organic crops.

Its a major learning curve when you cant go to your neighbour down the road and talk to him about what he did, Jeffrey said.

And it doesnt help when the farmer down the road doesnt understand what theyre doing or why theyre doing it.

Were classified as crazy to everyone else, Beattie said.

Yeah, but now theres an awful lot of people around here that are looking to see how we do, Jeffrey replied.

And I think if we do well, well have a lot more people looking at getting into it.

(This article was originally published in The Guardian.)