ACORN

This week we went to the ACORN conference [http://www.acornorganic.org/index.html] for new farmers in Moncton. It was interesting. Very interesting. Those who know me will be surprised to hear that my one complaint was that we didn't have the opportunity to mix socially more. Not the Conference's fault as they have a brunch and mixer etc but we had arrive just in time and leave right away because our animals need looking after.

Anyway I found all the speakers to be engaging and informative and most of them applied to us. The other thing that was intriguing to me was that most of the participants seems serious about farming. I contrast that to the Farmstart courses I did in Ontario where most people seemed like dreamers and hadn't taken any more steps towards farming than paying the course fee. I don't blame Farmstart for that mind you.

I have been thinking about it since the conference and think this is it: In Ontario small scale organic farming is just a dream for the most part. The capital expense of land is just too high to really have a chance unless you inherit. The serious people (like us?) move to places like New Brunswick where and old house and some land are more affordable and therefore a young farmer doesn't start off with a hopeless amount of crippling debt.

Yes we met several other people from Ontario and Western Canada who came here for the reduced start-up costs.