New practices revive farming

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Acting as a co-op while permitting its members to maintain their own individuality, the First Nations Agrigroup of southern Ontario is creating a better political and financial environment for farmers.

Started in 1998 on the Six Nations of the Grand River in Ohsweken, the mandate of Agrigroup is to develop long-term availability of agricultural land and to promote good land stewardship. Its 32 members, two dozen of them from the Six Nations reserve, individually farm their lands totalling 8,000 hectares (80 sq. km). They have also joined together in what is likely the first Aboriginal farming co-op on the continent, to reap greater economic benefits.

Agrigroup is designed to meet the specific needs of Native farmers. Chairman Barry Hill, who has one of the larger properties covering 1,100 hectares, says this organization provides a voice for farmers who didn't have one.

Native farmers have struggled for almost a half-century when the country's laws and the trends of the industry left them behind. In the 1950s and 1960s, mixed farms of animals and crops became outdated as specialization and large-scale farming, with intensive capital layout, became commonplace.

First Nations farmers were kept out of the loop because they weren't able to obtain the financial support to improve and increase their properties. According to the Indian Act, there is no equity or value placed upon tribal lands outside of the reserve.

"That's always been a roadblock to community development because commercial banks are not able to get security when lending to a Native," Hill said.

As a result, Six Nations properties became vacant and untilled as farmers traded in their equipment to work off the reserve. In leaving the land, Hill said, these farmers were also leaving behind a cultural heritage of self-sufficiency as grain and vegetable growers.

The Indian Agricultural Program of Ontario founded in 1984 to encourage and assist Native people to acquire loans and to prevent non-Natives from seizing reserve property did not go far enough. Agrigroup seeks to improve the financial and political status of Aboriginal farmers.

"Most of us rent land from non-farming families who own property (but) around here we have no clout and no respect."

Part of the lack of respect, according to Hill, is the misunderstanding of how farmers operate. With a heightened awareness of how land and water are used and maintained, all agriculturalists are under the public scrutiny.

Off-reserve, land zoned for agricultural use, is governed by regulations regarding what can be produced, how waste may be disposed and how land may be severed. This allows the community-at-large to know how farm land is being managed and to have a sense of security regarding environmental practices.

Farms on the reserve, however, aren't regulated the same way. That situation can create suspicion among non-farmers. That's why Agrigroup is looking for more structure as to how First Nations' land should be governed.

"Many of us have substantial investments in our equipment but we have no guidelines when it comes to land use on the reserve," said Hill about the absence of zoning and drainage rules. "We feel that if we keep up with provincial standards and best (environmental) practices, we can allay any criticism from those who are non-farmers."

Agrigroup has saved each farmer, on average, $500 per year for three years on the cost of purchasing fertilizer, as a result of making bulk purchases direct from manufacturers. That is not a bad return on investment when co-op membership costs only $40. Dues are used to offset office expenses.

"By forming the organization as an entity of farmers doing our own business, it gives us the ability to access other funding sources," Hill said.

There are larger projects Agrigroup is sponsoring and proposing. Under the grant-supported Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, farmers are taking turns maintaining a demonstration farm to study cro rotations and plant fertility.

At Six Nations, the primary crop is soy beans. Agrigroup is involved with an initiative, co-ordinated out of the University of Guelph, called Soy 2020, designed to increase production and consumption of the bean.

Because many soy foods are imported into Canada, Hill sees Agrigroup as having an opportunity to increase the value of its soy by becoming the producer, processor and distributor of the crop.

The benefits of soy products are well-documented within health circles. On First Nations there are a disproportionate number of people who are lactose intolerant and for whom soy acts as a nutritious substitute for milk, Hill said. In baking, "By adding a small amount of soy flour, it helps in the bleaching process and removes the need to add artificial whitening and it also retains moisture, keeping the bread fresher."

In addition to obtaining better prices when purchasing products, Hill says Agrigroup is also in the infant stages of creating an Aboriginal food partnership with other reserves and tribes through trade and exchange. Recently trading with a band on Manitoulin Island, where there are no cash crops, calves were obtained to raise on the larger farms in the south.

"This ultimately will create a foodbasket that would be good for our people," Hill said about these co-operative agricultural practices.