(photo of Moss Dance by Sarah Kerr)

It’s a cool spring day in Merville, BC as Moss Dance, sole proprietor of Ripple Farm, unfurls irrigation lines along tightly spaced rows of lettuces. It’s early in the season, but there are already fresh greens, radishes and onions ready to harvest for the weekly farmers’ market.

Dance is a part of a growing movement of small-scale women farmers. She emphasizes that she has always been drawn to outdoor professions, “I just can’t help it—I’ve always been that way, even as a kid. For me to be a healthy person, I need to be outside, working with my hands. I’m passionate about plants and vegetables—growing nutritious, safe food for people. I love people. I love food. And I love collaborating with others.”

Once she entered agriculture, “political reasons followed suit”. Sustainability and social justice both factor into her reasons for farming. She is an advocate who contributes significant amounts of time participating in various community round-table discussions and conferences addressing food security, food sustainability and policy. She and Arzeena Hamir of Amara Farm in Courtenay, have formed a cooperative of their two farms called ‘Merville Organics’. The two women formed this partnership to work together, offering a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program that delivers a weekly vegetable box to customers; plus, they share the responsibility of selling their produce at farmers’ markets.

Growing awareness

Worldwide, women account for 85% of agricultural workers. Here in North America, farming as we know it today—with mechanized machinery—has traditionally been a male-dominated industry; however, in recent years, women have quickly become the fastest growing cohort of people getting into agriculture. For example, the number of farms owned by women in the U.S. almost tripled between 1982 and 2007.

Hamir confirms, “When I helped to launch the Richmond Farm School in 2010, we found that over 60% of the participants were female. In fact, the only males in the first year were husbands! The same seems to be true with the ‘Young Agrarians’ [a movement to connect young farmers throughout Canada] and with most of the farmers’ cooperative work I'm doing as well.”

“It's very evident here in Alberta,” says April Reeves, of Carrot Creek Farm in Bowden. “Women lead the way on many farms: strawberry U-picks, permaculture, vegetable production and even ‘Big Ag’ & factory farms. Women also grow backyard gardens and often expand on their talents and knowledge base from it.”

Jen Cody of Farmship Cooperative in Cedar, BC, believes “it relates to the growing awareness in society that we are not food secure. In BC particularly, we share the understanding that the safety, quality, and access to good food is compromised. We have gathered around this issue for years.”

Reeves, who spent 13 years in marketing, knew she wanted to grow food. She feels a “deep connection” to both industries, “It’s more than just an interest; it’s a calling”.

“I moved into agriculture for a number of reasons,” she shares. “First was a desire to connect to the earth. I was raised on a small commercial nursery and veggie production farm, so you can say it was my ‘roots’. Putting your hands in soil does something for your soul that no other therapy can.”

“Secondly, I moved to Alberta and 80 acres to connect agriculture with community, both on the farm and with customers.” She describes her vision: “I believe those of us with land need to open it up to others and collaborate. I see this land as having several homes and people growing food, where everything is harvested and sold on the farm through a farm gate store along with numerous spin-offs like canning, baking, medicinal herbs and other cool, small-farm manufacturing. I have a vision of a few young families raising their kids here and everyone enjoying the land for what it gives.”

Reeves reveals her third and, what she calls the most important reason for personally getting into agriculture, “Our planet needs us, period. Those in small-scale agriculture with select clients will fare the best and roll through a potential world disaster. Think of the list of what humans need to survive: FOOD, water, shelter, clothing. A recession proof business—that's how it's done.”

Wholistic choices

The salient points made by women farmers time and again included self-sufficiency, sustainability and wholesome, healthy food.

Cody states, “One way to address our ability to be self sustainable in terms of access to health and nutrition, is to grow food for ourselves. Extending that to involve providing food for the community to both generate income and create a mechanism to assure access to good food, makes the choice sustainable. It is logical that women would choose to engage in agriculture as a profession once they have connected the activity to their values and economics. Entering agriculture is a logical extension of implementing action to create a healthier and more sustainable community. Furthermore, the activities associated with farming can be nurturing, healthful and diverse which provides a way for women to see how they can be successful in this area.”

“For me,” shares Hamir, “farming was the opportunity to feed my kids a healthy diet and educate them about where their food comes from. I've been self-employed for a number of years before starting my own farm. Farm life has allowed me to avoid a ‘9 to 5’ office job. I love how every day at the farm is different and challenging. I've also had a lot of support from other farmers—most of whom are women too!”

Cody observes, “We have worked with families that have young children. If one is organized, women of child bearing age in agriculture works well. As a group working together, families can collaborate to ensure there is childcare to provide positive experiences for both parents and children.”

She says that farming has a diversity of activities which can be employed to match the pace and meet the needs of both adults and children alike.

Hamir adds, “I know many women are attracted to the nurturing aspect of farming.
I wonder if this is also because farming, especially market crop production, requires multitasking and developing networks of customers and support but isn't so dependent on the heavy machinery which can be a bit daunting to those of us who don't mind physical work but haven't a clue around an engine.”

This may be a key point in discovering why women are drawn to small-scale agriculture. In general, women tend to be more collaborative and co-operative—they do business differently from their male counterparts. They also enjoy working together, networking and sharing information. The nurturing aspect of food and farming fits well with the nature of relationships and children.

As reported by Sena Christian in ‘Yes! Magazine’, U.S. “census data from 2007 showed that women were more likely than men to operate farms with a diversity of crops, and to own a greater percentage of the land they farmed. Women farmers also tended to sell food directly to the consumer rather than to large food-processing corporations—an approach that [a] United Nations report has found to be important for improving food systems.” She also reported that “Leigh Adcock, executive directory of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network, said she believes the U.S. food system will be healthier when more women farm.”

After the industrial revolution, farming became more and more mechanized until it became the domain of machines that we see today (primarily run by men). The “bigger is better” dominance of mono-crops, chemical applications and industrial, factory farming resulted in a disconnect from the land, severely depleting the soil. Conversely, the new (old) paradigm of small-scale farming and permaculture methods tap into a more harmonious, instinctual relationship with nature, which includes protecting and rebuilding the soil.

Dance suggests that women have always held a significant role in agriculture. She explains that because our society socializes women to not speak up, that this “has contributed to the invisibility of women in farming.” When she got started in farming in 2003, Dance asserts, “All my role models were women. The Saanich Organics folks inspired me a lot.”

She explains, “We tend to have this stereotype of a farmer being a white man, but there are all kinds: women, people with disabilities, and queer farmers coming out of the woodwork!”

Cody concurs with Dance that women have a long track record in agriculture. “While I can see from the stats that there is a growing trend of women entering agriculture, it is not wholely my experience. When I think of my colleagues, they are mostly women, and they have been involved with agriculture for decades, anywhere from 10 to 50 years. Of the four members of Farmship, two are women. Most of the leaders in agriculture and food systems are women. On Vancouver Island alone, I can think of many women leaders in agriculture, young and old.”

Current changes in agriculture

Connie Kuramoto is an Organic Horticulture Instructor who has taught for Vancouver Island University, Gaia College and North Island College. She has been teaching the Organic Master Gardener Course for six years and is currently teaching the Horticultural Apprentice Program.

Kuramoto has noticed a difference in the gender of students taking ‘organic’ courses versus ‘standard’ horticulture.

“In the organic focused classes, there are definitely women in the majority. In fact some classes are 100% women, and I have never had a 100% male class. In the standard horticulture classes I teach, the percentages are more even, or favour men.”

Kuramoto has also found that there are more women in her classes these days who are already farmers or are looking to become farmers. She explores the various reasons why this may be:

“I think one of the reasons may just be that in hard economic times many other good jobs are harder to come by and there is also still a measurable amount of discrimination against woman in the workplace. According to the Statistics Canada publication ‘Income Trends in Canada’, women's annual earnings have been about 70% that of men's since 1972. To add to this inequity, it has been found that more women are hired into part time jobs than men—in fact, 72% of part time workers in Canada are women, and many of the part time jobs tend to be minimum wage jobs. It makes a lot of sense given these factors that women would increasingly look to find some way to produce income in a self directed job situation where a woman is not held back by her gender. It is difficult to imagine why a woman would chose a minimum wage job at a fast food place, be treated poorly, and have to force herself and possibly her children into a rigid set schedule on top of paying for daycare if she has the option and the choice to farm and enjoy the many side benefits that farming offers.
 
“I think we are seeing a return in women wanting to be active in raising their children and farming is a way for women to stay home, or at least have a flexible schedule, and still make some money. With farming, a woman has the possibility of adjusting her schedule somewhat to suit the schedules and needs of her babies as well as eliminating child care costs. It has the added benefit of providing good food for her family at little or no cost.  

“I also see a resurgence of interest in traditional skills and values beginning to surface in our society. I see many young women with an interest in growing food, preserving food, providing fresh food for their families and taking care of their family's health in that way.”

With the dominance of the global food system, Kuramoto states, “There is a growing mistrust of our food in the stores, and women—especially mothers—seem to be increasingly willing to take responsibility for their family's food and health.”

She continues, “Women who have come to age during the last twenty years have also had the freedom to develop their physical strength in ways that were not encouraged in the forties and fifties of the last century. This empowers them to revel in using this strength to accomplish good. Another factor is that I think that women, in general, tend to honour and trust their instincts and observations; this, and the fact that they tend to be flexible and adaptable, are all traits that make them well suited for farming. Farming also satisfies a creative instinct that tends to be very strong in many women. There can be a lot of freedom of choice in farming, and the challenge to creatively deal with changing factors and forces. I think that woman have always made good farmers because of this, and I am overjoyed to see them return to this, here in North America. In many other parts of the world, women have always done the majority of farm work.”

One of the strongest indicators of change in our society is the exponential increase in people returning to the time honoured tradition of growing food for themselves and as an occupation. Women of all ages and backgrounds are entering agriculture: from those fresh out of university, and those who have inherited a farm, to those who are making drastic changes in their line of work to go “back to the land”. Women are clearly holding a strong lead in the changes we’re seeing in agriculture, particularly as it is reflected in small-scale farming. These leaders and role models are also willing and excellent teachers, passing on their skills to others. It will be very interesting to see in the not-so-distant future how the movement of women growing food flourishes, and to witness the impact they will have on our current food systems.


Among other things, Nicole Shaw is an organic farmer, feminist, activist, artist and a keen observer of nature. This piece was originally written and published for Over Grow the System.

For me, discussing ‘creating peace’ without naming ‘ending violence’ would be to jump to solution while neglecting to acknowledge there is a problem. It would at least be misleading, if not dishonest.
I admit this at the risk of being judged—imagining my peers tsk-tsk’ing that I’m ‘focussing on the negative’ rather than ‘attracting that which I want to create’!
Recently, my partner and I gave an inspirational workshop to a group of young people. I shared the concept that acknowledging ‘what is’, is neither positive or negative and encouraged them to be careful about ‘judging’ in that manner. I’ve found that with more and more people subscribing to ‘new age spirituality’, it seems there is a growing refusal to see what is happening for fear of ‘giving it too much energy’. However, by overlooking or outright denying what is we actually contribute to perpetuating the very things we don’t want.
A colleague once shared a new way of speaking ‘consciously’. This new ‘language’ included speaking of things as though they already existed... at the end of the discussion, the topic of patriarchy arose and she insisted that the patriarchy no longer existed!
Have you ever had a family or work situation where everyone avoided the elephant in the room? More often than not, avoidance contributes to building more tension and/or resentment and takes significantly more energy than acknowledging it and then moving on.
I think the primary reason why people avoid reality is simply to avoid the feelings of discomfort that go with it and by ‘giving in to their feelings of discomfort’ they prevent themselves from taking positive action (which can, indeed, be uncomfortable).
The Dalai Lama, in Ethics for the New Millennium, said that we must ‘recognize that the failure to act when it is clear that action is required may itself be a negative action... inaction is attributable less to negative thoughts and emotions as to a lack of compassion. It is thus important that we are no less determined to overcome our habitual tendency to laziness than we are to exercise restraint in response to afflictive emotion.’
Through avoidance, people insulate themselves from reality... then when something ‘negative’ does happen, such as a local teen committing suicide or the man in Connecticut shooting and killing 20 children and 6 adults, most of us are overcome with shock and disbelief that anyone could do such a thing. Really?
Let me get this straight... we live in a culture where we are regularly bombarded with violent words and violent imagery on television, movies, and video games; we send soldiers to invade other countries ‘in the name of democracy’ and they kill other people’s children (we spend enough money on invading other countries, that if spent differently, we could easily eradicate hunger and poverty). Why, then, do we condone such behaviour country-wide, but act shocked when an individual commits an act of violence? Is this not simply a reflection of our society? Our country, alongside the USA, is regularly responsible for parents in other countries experiencing intense grief over the killing of their children. Not 20 children, but thousands.
Do you see the disconnect? How can people in this culture not experience cognitive dissonance with these conflicting messages?
So let’s talk about solution. How do we go about creating peace? I humbly suggest, with eyes wide open. Recognize what needs to change and begin now.
Start at home. What kind of self-talk goes on in my head? How do I speak to my spouse... my children? From there, I can then reach out and affect my immediate sphere of influence—friends, extended family, etc. Then on to my local community, and continue reaching beyond that.
Let’s look at three examples of how we can get involved with creating peace in our society.
Let’s start with the issue of bullying in the schools. Bullying is a learned behaviour. It is within our homes that children learn how to interact with others. Children emulate the behaviours of their family unit—whether healthy and functional or unhealthy and dysfunctional. Sure, children can learn from teachers and guest speakers healthier ways of interacting, but if they go home each afternoon and the adults in their lives continue to demonstrate that violence is how one deals with conflict (name-calling, fighting in sports, wars and so forth), we shouldn’t be surprised that such behaviour is reflected in our children. The ‘healthy’ messages need to be consistent. Find a teacher who is willing to champion the cause, teaching respectful attitudes toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own. Give children real tools that they can practice with each other. There is no need to reinvent the wheel—find those who have already developed successful tools, such as Barbara Colorosso’s book, Kids Are Worth It.
Another issue is that one in three women is sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Men rape. However, rather than accepting that and moving to solution, our culture avoids naming the problem and focuses responsibility on the victims. University campuses, self-defence courses, etc. teach women how to ‘avoid being raped’ rather than acknowledging the problem and focussing on men. Volunteer and contribute to your local women’s centre. Check out the work of Jackson Katz (see page 16 in this edition of Synergy as an introduction).
Another example: there are now over 200 missing and/or murdered First Nations women in Canada, 137 in BC alone. On just one stretch of highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert, now named the ‘Highway of Tears’, at least 18 women have disappeared—17 of which are First Nations.
This particular issue encompasses sexism, racism and classism (to name just three). There are already many existing groups and activists who are working on this particular aspect of our culture and more who take on individual facets—government funding for such organizations is all but dried up. Join and volunteer with an existing group at either a community level or tackle the problem provincially or nationally. Start a letter writing campaign, the more people who rise up and demand that this is unacceptable, the more likely that we will create change.
Imagine a culture where neighbours take the time to get to know one another, help each other, look out for one another. Imagine a culture where children are safe wherever they wander. Imagine a culture where women can feel safe, wherever they are. Imagine a culture where the vast majority of its citizens refuse to allow their governments to bully other cultures—demanding our troops come home. Canada should move away from peacemaking to it’s traditional role of peacekeeping. Wherever you choose to begin creating peace, begin now.

Growing up, my mom kept a large vegetable garden, as did her mom. My paternal grandparents also kept a large garden along with cows, pigs and sheep. We had our own chickens for eggs and meat. My dad hunted wild game and fished for food. I both watched and helped with preserving fruit, vegetables and sauces, freezing corn and peas; watched my dad skin and butcher deer and moose, I helped my mom with wrapping cuts for freezing. We also had fresh (unpasteurized) milk from a neighbour’s milk cow. Although we had treats here and there, Mom was strict about what we did buy from stores: we didn’t have sugary cereals or ‘store-bought’ treats. I was 10 years old before I even realized there was such thing as ‘store-bought’ jam!
I credit those years of eating homegrown, home-caught food as giving me a solid foundation of knowing where my food comes from. Nowadays, those of us who grew up with healthy, wholesome food have a growing responsibility to share what we know.
Just two years ago, at the Vancouver Island Exhibition in Nanaimo (Canada’s oldest agricultural fair, since 1894), a volunteer overheard a young girl ask her mother, “Mom, what is that?” Her mother replied, “I think it’s a cow.”
This example poignantly illustrates the deepening disconnect between us and our food. This isn’t just one generation removed—now it is two! And those of us who used to have a garden or grew up on a farm, are not immune to this disconnect.

Know Your Farmer

When we shop from grocery store chains and big box stores, we buy food products with packaging that depicts contented cows grazing in lovely pastures, chickens scratching around barnyards for bugs, and lush vegetable gardens—just like how we remember it growing up. However, these images are extremely misleading, as factory farmed food today has very little in common with what we grew up with.
What we eat directly affects our mental and physical health (which, in turn, affects our emotional health).
How do we ensure that we are not eating tortured animals, genetically modified food or vegetables sprayed with poisons? By knowing our farmers. Currently, about 1% of Canadians support (meaning, actually do their grocery shopping at) farmers’ markets. In Nanaimo, it is much less than one percent. By looking around at our fellow farmers’ tables at the end of the farmers’ market day (none of us are even close to selling out), it is evident that the lure of one-stop box store shopping seems too tempting for most to take the time to make local food a priority for their family.
Becoming a farmer has allowed me to renew my connection with food. The following are some of the great life lessons that have come from that connection.

Slow Down

Growing food has become a way of life for me. One day while walking with a friend, she asked if while gardening I listen to audio books or podcasts? “No.” I said. She asked if I had been meditating lately. Again, I admitted that I haven’t been. She then asked me to describe what I do in a given day. I shared the myriad of experiences: being close to the plants while weeding, leaving some, pulling others, hands in the soil, planting seeds, beetles scurrying away, ladybugs landing on me, dragonflies hovering in front of my eyes, hummingbirds playing in the spray from our water hose, rescuing a soaked bumblebee by moving it onto a sunflower to dry, discovering tiny frogs the size of my thumbnail, snipping sunflower heads and feeding them to the ducks and chickens.... A smile crept across my friend’s face as she helped me realize that I was, in essence, meditating all day.
The slow food movement, which started in Italy to counteract fast food, calls us to turn off the television and create meals from scratch. We have become programmed to believe that we “don’t have time to make salad”. Now, many of us go to big box stores and buy a plastic package containing ‘micro greens’ or lettuce already chopped up (and some even include a packet of dressing)! The reality, is that it takes me about three minutes to make a salad (a few minutes more for picking the ingredients) and one to three minutes to make dressing from scratch. Most of our wholesome meals are simple and take only 15 to 20 minutes to prepare.
I’ve read several different studies of when families who eat meals together (even just three dinners per week), that those children are 75% less likely to be involved in crime, less likely to abuse drugs, school grades are better and children are more likely to talk to their parents about things that they are dealing with.
Even the very act of eating our food more slowly creates connection. By eating more mindfully, we increase our awareness of craving, tasting, and savouring which allows us more fully enjoy our food; we recognize sooner our internal signs that we are satiated; and our bodies have an easier time with digestion.

Embrace Diversity

Seed and plant diversity builds healthy eco-systems and habitats which naturally sustain a balance of wildlife. Monocrops—the epitome of lacking diversity—create breeding grounds for run amok disease or destructive insects. For example, in the Andes of South America, there nearly 4,000 different varieties of potatoes, whereas Canada grows about 150, with only a handful recognizable to most of us. Remember the Irish Potato Famine? A lack of genetic variation (different strains) resulted in very few resistant potatoes.
Culturally, many of us have been socialized to have a negative attitude toward anything that is different from our world view. We have been programmed (and even legislated in some neighbourhoods!) to see laundry drying on the clothesline as ‘ugly’, natural landscapes as ‘messy’, and soil for growing food as ‘filth’. Challenge your programming!
Embracing diversity promotes learning, flexibility, acceptance and appreciation. For example, I can appreciate that my neighbour likes his yard organized and controlled even though my preferences and aesthetic values are very different.

Eat Simply and Seasonally

Eat whole foods--things with no ingredient labels. It was once recommended to me to do the majority of my ‘grocery shopping’ around the outside aisles of a grocery store. That is where the freshest (what is commonly referred to as ‘perishable’) food is located: The inside aisles are stocked with foods that are chock full of ingredients we don’t need and are even detrimental to our health. And even if the ingredients are healthy, we are still paying for throw-away, recyclable packaging (usually shipped to China), plus we are often ingesting the packaging. Anything in cans, plastic and tetra-packs, usually goes in there warm; which means, that we ingest BPA as well as other endocrine mimicking and cancer-causing substances.
Two of the changes I have made over the years, which I find inextricably linked, are eating simply and seasonally. As a culture, we’ve forgotten what grows when. Because we are able to buy strawberries and grapes in winter, we’ve become inured to the fact that we have seasons and that our bodies naturally crave different foods at different times of the year.
At farmers’ markets, you can buy most of the food that you can find on the outside edges of the grocery store, except that it is local: cheese, fruits and vegetables, chicken, beef, pork, seafood, eggs, breads—even local salt!
The vegetables and fruit are always in season, and every week there is something to look forward to and discover: when the markets first open there are fresh greens (kale, chard, spinach, arugula) to help us cleanse our bodies after the winter months, then come radishes, broad beans and rhubarb, bush beans, raspberries, strawberries, potatoes and garlic, cherries, zucchini, cucumbers, celery, beets, carrots and more. Each year, I look forward to August so that I can eat my fill of tomatoes! The flavour does not compare to fossil fuel-fired, hothouse tomatoes. (Did you know that ‘BC’ hothouse does not stand for British Columbia?) August also sees a variety of fruit ripen from plums and grapes to pears and melons. As autumn weather returns, so do cool weather-loving vegetables: leeks, winter squash, root vegetables and greens.
At farmers’ markets, you can always find unique foods that the grocery stores don’t carry... how about trying kohl rabi or patty pan? There are also turnip greens, collards, dainty mustards, jerusalem artichokes, Russian kale, Tuscan kale, purple beans; as well as a variety of potatoes including French fingerling, German seglinda, Russian blue (purple potatoes), Warba and more.

Share What You Know

Passing on knowledge and experience is vital. Not only are we losing our ability to identify real foods (this year, I’ve been amazed at the number of people who don’t know what scarlet runner beans are!), the loss of traditional ways of preparing, cooking, and preserving our food is quickly becoming a reality as we are presented with, and duped into, buying pre-packaged foods.
An easy way to pass on knowledge is to involve children in growing our own food, or at the very least, involve them in our food purchasing decisions. I love seeing young families at our farmers’ markets with strollers and babies in slings, little ones choosing their own cucumbers and beets.
I’ve recently begun a local ‘WomanShare’ time barter group whose purpose is for women to opt out of the dominant economy. We trade, hour for hour, no matter if the hours are babysitting or graphic design. Although many of us in the beginning thought only of sharing what we ‘do for a living’, more recently we’ve begun to explore branching out to broader ‘skills sharing’. How about learning new ways of cooking or preserving food? Spinning yarn, knitting or sewing?
For me, reviving ‘traditional ways’ instills a sense of confidence and security in my ability to be more self reliant and self sufficient. Through learning together, we are also forging new relationships, across generations, with those in our communities. This kind of sharing is one way that we can create a better, more integrated and harmonious world.

Bullying is a form of abuse. It involves repeated acts over time attempting to create or enforce one person’s (or group’s) power over another person (or group).
- Wikipedia

“Can this truly be serious?” My spouse and I read and reread the first letter we received from the District of Lantzville in September of 2010. Quoting an Unsightly Premises Bylaw, the letter told us to “remove all piles of soil from our property” or it could be done at our expense.
“All piles of soil? Do they really mean for us to remove our gardens?”
A month later, we received a second letter ordering us to “cease all agricultural activity” on our 2.5 acre property, citing the zoning bylaw which states residentially zones properties cannot be used for agriculture purposes.
Since that time, the issue has made headlines in newspapers throughout North America and as far as India, hundreds of letters have been sent to both Lantzville’s Council and the Regional District of Nanaimo and residents have mobilized in various ways to support “urban agriculture” in our very non-urban community.
Along with this support, on the flip side of the coin, my spouse, Dirk, and I have been on the receiving end of lectures, negative assumptions, veiled and overt threats, goading and taunting.
Unfortunately, our situation is not unique. We are probably most familiar with bullying in the schools. Although there are policies in place to address bullying, it still persists. Many young people have ended their lives through suicide as the daily harassment becomes too much to bear. What we do not hear about as often is bullying in the workplace, or in the “adult” world. In a culture where money, greed, image and status are rated highly, those who choose to live simply and sustainably can experience intolerance, contempt and even outright hostility. In our case, things have devolved to bullying tactics.
These tactics began long before we received letters from the District of Lantzville. We have an unhappy neighbour who has deliberately and systematically employed acts of intimidation and bullying toward us, anywhere from several times per week to several times per day. Contrary to what it seems, this behaviour has nothing to do with us growing food. This is simply the current tactic for what seems to be an ongoing, personal vendetta.
Since the “cease all agricultural activity” letter, our neighbour seems to have been emboldened by the attention and has escalated the harassment to the point of us having to involve the police. (The neighbour informed the officer that he had checked with his lawyer and everything he was doing was considered “legal”.)

So what is bullying?
Barbara Coloroso, author of Kids are Worth It and Extraordinary Evil explains that bullying is a far too common system of behaviours learned in childhood. “...Bullying is arrogance in action. People who bully have an air of superiority that is often —though not always— a mask to cover up deep hurt and feelings of inadequacy.” She describes that bullying always includes three elements:
- An imbalance of power (older, stronger, higher up the 1. social ladder, etc.)
- Intent to harm. The bully means to inflict emotional and/or physical pain, expects the action to hurt and often takes pleasure in witnessing the hurt.
- Threat of further aggression: both the bully and the bullied know the bullying can and probably will occur again. This is not meant to be a one-time event.
When bullying escalates unabated, a fourth element is added:
- Terror. Bullying is systematic violence used to intimidate and maintain dominance.

Coloroso further explains that once terror is created, the bully can act without fear of recrimination or retaliation. The bully counts on bystanders becoming involved in participating, supporting the bullying or at least doing nothing to stop it. Thus, the cycle of violence begins.
In our case, the main imbalance of power is money and the cultural, societal conditioning of what is considered “status”. The threat of further aggression is promised, as an example, by the neighbour recently yelling, “I’ve got plans for you Dirk, you dickhead!” (he didn’t notice there were witnesses... a family with three young children were visiting us). The enjoyment is apparent by the grin he displays when either goading or while having a Lantzville councillor standing on his property, taking photos of ours.
And this last point is what has become increasingly worrisome over these past seven months: the power and energy this neighbour has been given by our local, elected officials. The bully seems to have become increasingly emboldened by the attention and support he has received and has continued to escalate his behaviour. From the beginning of our public issue, I saw the mayor visit the neighbour three or four times. Since then, we have witnessed at least two more councillors visit. Most recently, mid-April, a strange exchange ensued between a councillor and I (see page 19, last bullet) while he was walking along the neighbour’s side of the property line, taking photos of our property. And when the neighbour swaggered over, he was grinning ear to ear.
Coloroso clarifies that bullying is not about anger; instead, it is rooted in contempt for another human being “who has been deemed by the bully and his or her accomplices to be worthless, inferior and undeserving of respect.” She writes that contempt has three characteristics:
- A sense of entitlement.
- Intolerance toward differences.
- A liberty to exclude.

Once a person feels contempt for another human being, they can do anything to them and feel no compassion, guilt, or shame; in fact, they often feel pleasure from the targeted person’s pain. The process of dehumanizing that person is then normalized. Because we have different values, we have been targeted. It doesn’t matter if we used to work as “white collar” professionals with good wages, or whether we are considered “poor”, “weird” or “dirty farmers”. With contempt, different equals inferior and thus not worthy of respect. Excluding is to isolate and segregate a person not worthy of respect or care. This has been evident by our mayor continuing to repeat our neighbour’s words on television and by more council members visiting his house and not ours. To me, this is our council advocating on behalf of the neighbour.
The media can become complicit in the vicious social arrangement created by bullies. As described by Coloroso, “It is easy for a bystander to become invested in the logic and practices of the instigator and become not just complicit, but ‘owned by it’. They find that their acts enhance their reputation with the bullies (planners, instigators and perpetrators) and among their peers. They then act less out of compliance and often initiate and flaunt their own tactics.” We’ve found that complete strangers, who have never visited our property, suddenly believe they are “experts” on our situation - tossing rude remarks when they see us in public.
Cultural attitudes toward farmers and farming have helped fan the flame; in our case, manure. Not only has the media made hay (pun intended) with the fact we use horse manure from within Lantzville, one of our elected officials has been reported as retorting to local supporters of urban agriculture, “Do you want a pig farm beside your house?” Such statements are tactics designed to manipulate. This is a slow erosion of social status —which is how exclusion works. And now, rather than simply “dirty farmers”, our status is lowered further to become “dirty, stinky farmers”. The vast majority of strangers driving slowly by our home on a daily basis (which is on a dead end road) to see what all the commotion is about, have stopped and expressed genuine surprise that the place is tidy and doesn’t stink. They are also surprised at the amount of space between the houses. They have said that by the way we’ve been portrayed, they expected to see a row of houses side-by-side and one in the middle with hillbillies, broken down cars and the stench of liquid cow manure. See how powerful imagery can be? How powerful positioning and the strategic use of words designed to manipulate can be?

So how can we stop bullying?
There are certainly “do’s and don’ts” when dealing with such behaviour. With children, we immediately intervene and show the bully that their behaviour is unacceptable. We teach them empathy and friendship skills. We ensure the bullied target knows that it isn’t their fault and we certainly don’t minimize or trivialize the bully’s behaviour.
However, with adults, people seem to be less willing to intervene. Attempting to stop bullying by having “positive thoughts” and sending the bully “loving energy” —which is advice we have received from countless people— is futile, naive, and ultimately dangerous. It refuses to recognize inappropriate behaviour and even rewards hostile behaviour by allowing it to carry on unchecked. Action must be taken. But what action?
I don’t purport to know the answers, however I do know that we have a responsibility to create a community where we want to live. A place where we all feel welcome, safe and secure.
So then, how can we as a community, as a society, respond to bullying in general? How can we become more open and willing to engage with each other concerning this issue?


“When one finds an imbalance of power, intent to harm, and threat of further aggression, combined with contempt that is propped up with its apparent psychological advantages of sense of entitlement, liberty to exclude, and intolerance toward differences, along with an experience of pleasure from other human being’s pain, you have the makings of a bullying that is absolutely distinct and a far cry from mere conflict.” - Barbara Coloroso

Talk to women about feminism and you are likely to hear differing opinions and oftentimes, you will get polarizing emotional stances. When I was 17 years old, I began asking every woman I knew (and those I didn’t!) what “feminism” meant to them. I have often been perplexed with the answers which, to this day, range from “equal rights between the sexes” to “militant man-haters”.
Why am I writing this? Don’t women already have equal rights? We can vote; we can work; we can own property...
Is this as far as equality goes?
Feminism is a vast topic, so my intention with this article is to begin a dialogue - an exploration of what it means to women today philosophically, and how they see it playing out in their lives practically as individuals, mothers, wives, homemakers and working women. Where women’s first names have been used, they have given permission for me to do so.
“Some people have a negative view towards the term ‘feminist’,” shares Karen. “I think that some see it as being the female version of a ‘male chauvinist’ - which it certainly is not!”
[Male Chauvinist: a male who patronizes, disparages, or otherwise denigrates females with the belief that they are inferior to males and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.]
Interestingly enough, when I verbally ask women for their definition of feminism, more often than not, the answers range from “women who think they are better than men” to “man-haters”. When I ask women to write their thoughts on feminism (even those who do not consider themselves feminist), their answers seem to be much more from a place of thoughtful reflection and are almost wholly about supporting equal rights. What this tells me is that the pervading knee-jerk response to the “F-word” in our culture stems from people’s incorrect definition of feminism, a concept I coined in my teens as “female chauvinism”.
The dictionary definition of feminism is “The principle that women should have political, economic and social rights equal to men.” Sounds simple enough. So how did the term come to be interpreted as female chauvinism?
Further confusion over the term, feminist, is expressed by Louise, “I am not fond of using the term to describe myself at this current point in history. To say you are a feminist is to work from the assumption that women are somehow weaker. I prefer to work from the reality that all people are obviously equal.”
Years ago, during a discussion with a man about “equality between the sexes”, he stated that men and women were not equal. When I disagreed, he insisted that because we are inherently different, we cannot be equal. As we both became more vehement, it was obvious that we were entrenched in our positions and neither of us would budge. It took some time for me to decipher that this particular person’s point of view was very simplistic, compressive and black and white so his definition of “equal” meant “identical; the same”, period. Whereas, my understanding of the definition was (and is!) “identical or the same in value”.
[Stats: In Canada, on average women are paid 78% of what men are paid in doing the same job. 80% of lone-parent households are managed by women. The child poverty rate
is 3.5 times greater in “single mom” families than in two parent families.]
“People observing my life may not think I am a feminist or strong woman because I have come to live such a stereotypically female role.” Louise continues, “They are
very mistaken! I thank the amazing feminists that came before me for my ability to choose. I live my life as a stay at home mom by deliberate choice. I am not forced here by my husband and not trapped in circumstances due to my sex. My partner and I can decide what works for our family and implement it. Because of feminism, if this wasn’t working, I could change any part of my life in any way I chose. Thank you feminism!”
Let’s take a snap-shot look at Sarah and Tabitha. Both women are married with three children. Both chose to be “stay-at-home” moms, are committed to providing wholesome, nutritious food for their families and both homeschool their children. For all intents and purposes, they live very similar lives practically-speaking. When asked about their philosophical views, Sarah does not hesitate to state she is anti-feminist, while Tabitha calls herself a feminist. Sarah sees feminism as women pursuing careers whereas Tabitha says, “I’m not ‘just a mom’. I’m a radical challenge to the systems failing our world today. I’m changing the world one fully-present, bursting-with-intensity moment at a time.” She adds, “Throughout my day, I cook and clean and bake and do laundry and garden. I read stories and play games and visit the library, I soothe hurts and I cuddle. I meal-plan and meal-prep, I set the table and I do dishes. And with each and every act that I perform in my role as ‘mother’ and ‘homemaker’, I am acting from a deeply political and deeply personal place.”
Rose also chose to stay home to raise her children. “I think feminism is a tool for achieving cultural balance and the freedom to be oneself, regardless of gender,” she shares. “It is very personal. For me, the term means having a pro-woman or ‘feminocentric’ perspective.”
Rose describes how, as a mother, she sees examples of how we live in a ‘masculocentric’ culture in books and television where there are many male characters and either underdeveloped or downplayed female characters. “When I used to read books to my kids, I would make more of the characters ‘she’ than there actually were; especially when by gendering them female, they became examples of females exhibiting more diverse and less typical behaviour than I usually found in female story characters.”
Tabitha’s “quick” definition would be, “feminism is the rational person’s response to patriarchy”. She elaborates:
 “It’s been awhile since I reflected on exactly what feminism means to me. And honestly, as I’ve grown and evolved and my life has centered more and more around the home, it has changed. In my early twenties in university, I took a minor degree in women’s studies. I took all sorts of classes that allowed me to open my vision much wider than my small southern-Alberta town and urban catholic school experiences ever had. It was the first time I ever heard talk of women’s history or how global social issues such as the global economy are very much issues that affect women’s daily lives and existences. And while so much of it resonated deep within my soul, there were also many ideas that I soaked in and then took a few years to really process.
“For even in the women’s studies programming, there was a sense of equality meaning ‘getting women to the top’ and competing for scarce resources such as power and money. While several classes were spent discussing the limiting effects of patriarchy and the all-encompassing cage it has evolved into, I still remember one particular class with the head of the program at the time. She had invited each of the class participants to bring their most treasured item to share. She was doing a research project on the topic, speaking with women of diverse backgrounds, lifestyles and ages about the items of highest value to them. At the end of the days of sharing, she stood up and passed judgment on the entire episode. She was disappointed, she said, that even within her women’s studies classes, that there was such a disproportionate number of items that reflected relationship with others and so few items that reflected the achievements of the individual sharing them. It took me a couple of years to really process that. In effect, what she was telling us was that our relationships matter less than our achievements. That to achieve is far more valuable than to connect. I disagree with this and think that my core of feminism is built on this disagreement.
Tabitha continues, “To me, feminism is about living in a world built on human relationships with an equal access to power. And while I don’t want to base what my feminism is based on what it isn’t, I think it is vital to talk about patriarchy when discussing feminism. Feminism is very much about disregarding and dismantling the patriarchy that pervades every social and economic institution in our society. This patriarchal system serves very few individuals in our culture, as it is based on hierarchy, limited access to resources and scarcity in all things. My feminism is based on creating an alternative system.
  “This is reflected in my life in almost every aspect of daily living, which is centered around my family. I collaborate with my partner and children to create a living environment that is in harmony with ourselves and our world. Not partaking in the patriarchal goals of conquest, consumption and ever-expanding growth, but by challenging the worldview that says there is limited amounts of power that must be fought over and creating a new world view. [This is] the definition of feminism to me.
“The alternative worldview is what I seek to express in my daily life and why I consider myself an activist, even when it may look to others like I am ‘just a stay at home mother’. I think one of the most important aspects of my activism is the fact that I act like we did win the revolution. I value childcare and the work of feeding and caregiving as vital, important aspects of society.
“I believe that feminism is caring about relationships within the entire web of life – the local and global neighbours of people, plants and animals, the water, air and soil. It is respect for and genuine interest in the well-being of all living things. It’s not about getting an equal footing in the dysfunction that is patriarchy (as so often is displayed in the mainstream media), but about dismantling it one act, one breath at a time.”


“Feminism has fought no wars. It has killed no opponents. It has set up no concentration camps, starved no enemies, practiced no cruelties. Its battles have been for education, for the vote, for better working conditions.. for safety on the streets... for child care, for social welfare...for rape crisis centers, women’s refuges, reforms in the law.” If someone says ‘Oh, I’m not a feminist,’ I ask, ‘Why? What’s your problem?’”
- Dale Spender, author of For the Record: The Making & Meaning of Feminist Knowledge, 1985

Several hundred island residents attended a forum May 30th in Nanaimo to discuss, share and learn about our world’s water crisis, the results of privatization in other countries and how to act locally to protect our own watersheds.
The weekend forum was organized and co-ordinated by the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition, in conjunction with CUPE, Council of Canadians and various other coalitions who are working to raise awareness of the importance of protecting our community watersheds and surrounding environment.
Several high-powered speakers presented including Maude Barlow, Rafe Mair, Ingmar Lee and Robin Matthews.
Barlow, Chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, gave a snapshot of the big-picture problem of global water depletion, citing examples of over one hundred countries that are currently experiencing “desertification” and explained that the word “drought” is being used instead because the former is simply “too scary”. She added that all 667 lakes in Africa are in crisis, as most industries require large amounts of water to produce products whether it be clothing, cotton, wine, rice, etc. Barlow’s sober message: “We have to stop.”
For example, Lake Naivasha, in Kenya, is depleting at an alarming rate, whereby in five to ten years, it may very well be completely dry. This devastating effect is in large part a result of companies growing roses for first world countries. Pesticides and fertilizers are drastically changing the ecology of the lake and the water usage is sucking it dry. (See "quick facts" below).
Closer to home, Barlow explained that Canada’s National Water Act is 40 years old and does not include groundwater protection or any mapping of our ground water. Our governments are even promoting the use of private service companies which has already proven to be a dangerous route in other countries. Here at home, she said companies “... see water as a commodity to be sold and traded. Water is a public trust; it belongs to everyone but water privatization is sneaking through the back door in the form of public-private partnerships.”
Ingmar Lee brought things even closer to home by speaking about Nanaimo’s 230 kilometre community drinking watershed. Lee has planted more than a million trees in British Columbia over 21 years and has supervised the planting of 10 million more. Since being fired from Island Timberlands for refusing to handle the chemical fertilizers within the watershed, he has been active and vocal about the industrial logging destruction of Nanaimo’s drinking watershed.
“In order to effect [needed] changes.... due process isn’t cutting it.” Lee stated. “The problem is that the Nanaimo community drinking watershed has been stolen, its owned by the people who have lived here for 10,000 years. It’s not owned by Island Timberlands. What concerns me about this conference is I keep hearing people talk about ‘We’ve got to reacquire our watershed’, ‘We’ve got to buy it back’. I’ve heard talk about $165 million - bullshit!”, the conference broke into cheers and applause, “Expropriation is too polite of a word for these criminals against the environment,” Lee stated, “I say, confiscate it! We owe nothing to that logging company. We can take it back and start to heal it from the top down.”
Robin Matthews, author and retired SFU professor, examined “the implications of privatization of water”. That the “assault on democratic structures across the Western world” is global. “It intends to remove public participation from government decision-making and intends to direct the wealth held by the commons to private, corporate uses.” He was emphatic in his description of “privatization” being “theft”.
The speakers warned of the inherent risks in allowing private companies to own the land around our watersheds through citing both local and overseas examples and stressed the importance of communities taking action.
Barlow concluded, “We need community resistance.” Matthews stressed that the community “must take back the commons,” and that it is time for “Canadians to organize and intervene”. Lee declared, “We have an aware majority. It’s time to mobilize.”

For more information on getting involved, visit www.vancouverislandwaterwatchcoalition.org


Quick Facts

Dr. David Harper, an ecology and conservation biologist who has conducted 25 years of research at Lake Naivasha, says “Roses that come cheap are grown by companies that have no concern for the environment, who cut corners and avoid legislation, who sell their flowers into the auction in Amsterdam so that all the buyer knows is the flowers ‘come from Holland’... In reality, they have come from Kenya where the industry is - literally - draining that country dry.”

“80% of the primeval forest on Vancouver Island is gone”, “Through the freedom of information act, we found that 60 tonnes of fertilizer was used in [Nanaimo’s] community drinking watershed area.” - Ingmar Lee.

A factor in the contamination of local watersheds is the huge amount of water used in mining operations. As it stands now, mining companies can even apply to have names of fish lakes changed to “tailing impoundments” (see http://www.raventrust.com/projects/fishlaketeztanbiny/issuesofconcern.html and http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3792)

Maude Barlow:

• Stressed the importance of re-localizing our food production and preserving water as a human right for life. We can learn from Ecuador, which has approved a new Constitution granting rights to Nature. (see http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=3104)
• Australia sold its water rights to corporations and are now having to compete with private, foreign investors to buy them back.
• The privatization of the public service of drinking water in Cochabamba, Bolivia created what is known as “The Water War”. One of the largest American water companies had the monopoly on water - including rainwater - until the residents of neighbourhoods defended their right to access water. http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/water/bolivia.html

Additional notes:

• Every activity affects the quality of water
• All land is a watershed
• Hard surfaces (such as paving) decrease aquifer recharge
• The declining hydrological cycle changes weather patterns [ie: the more paving, or clearcuts, the less fog drip which is followed by lower moisture levels, eventually leading to desertification]
• Golf Courses require 1” of water per week, which is 12” over the summer
• Canadians use 1,600,000 litres of water per year

“A Reasonable Life” by Ferenc Maté, ISBN 0-920256-30-9

“Toward a simpler, secure, more humane existence.”

How did life become so complicated? How is it that in a few short decades we have become so disconnected with what is really important? - our relationships with our families, friends and our connection with nature. We have come to assume that how our western society currently operates is “normal”: rushing, fastfood, spending the vast majority of our waking hours working to pay for bills and toys we really don’t need, taking anti-depressants, giving our children to other people to raise, putting our kids on drugs to make them more easily controllable. At the end of the day, we have come to expect that being too exhausted to spend quality time with those who really matter is simply the cost of living. This book paints an inspiring, practical vision for how we can make changes in our lives to escape the proverbial rat-race and bring us back... to sanity.
Maté weaves his humour throughout, making the reality of our “modern society”
a little more palatable.
Are you tired of running so hard and fast on the hamster wheel, only to go round and round and feel like you aren’t getting anywhere? Do you wonder and ask yourself, “Is is this really how it is?” If so, then you are ready for this book. For me, it affirmed many things that I thought and felt and had talked about with friends. Moreover, it gave me the encouragement and strength to continue on a path of more conscious choice, whereby I decide how I want to live my life and how I want to spend my time, energy and money in a way that feels good in my heart.