We want organic farming that is local, inclusive and coherent with our northern character and specific needs.
We want more agricultural and educational initiatives that nourish natural and human ecosystems.
Alienated from the land that feeds us. Loss of natural knowledge and culinary know-how. Food security undermined. Communities eroding and sharing spaces disappearing. Poor understanding of food value. Partial disappearance of food autonomy. Deteriorating health of living beings, soils, waters and air.
The time has come to hand the stewardship of our land and feeding us to the artisans of organic, community-based and sustainable farming.
Luckily, not all of our farming knowledge has been lost; but we will need to grant it its rightful prestige if we are to feed Québec families sustainably. This is not a return to the past, but a way of living off the land, based on the rhythm of the seasons, inspired by history and motivated by modern-day challenges.
What we hope to see, from the bottom of our hearts, is more local, diversified, organic and human-scale farms.
- Because they allow us to conserve and develop our collective farming expertise.
- Because they are the purest expression of the flavours of our land.
- Because they are the guardians of farming biodiversity, and crucial to developing resilience and autonomy.
- Because they provide meaningful and sustainable employment.
- Because they stimulate the local economy and ensure food security in times of crisis.
- Because they promote the demographic development of rural areas.
- Because they are places for people to come together and thrive.
- Because they are integrated with natural and human ecosystems, bringing both balance and light.
- Because they reconnect people to the land – and, therefore, to the love of the resources it provides and the need to protect them.
A number of government policies could make this major farming revolution easier: access to land, sound financing of farming businesses, review of health standards and laws on quotas, steadfast support of organic farming, more public markets, the promotion and support of short food supply chains, educational programs focussed on nature and local foods, to name but a few.
To steer the government toward taking concrete action, each and every citizen can support and demand change to the agri-food industry; by getting involved with a family farmer, by buying from farmer’s markets and local organic grocery stores, by adapting food choices with the seasons, by demanding that municipalities introduce edible flower beds and public food spaces, by replacing lawns with aromatic, medicinal, honey-producing or vegetable plants, or by getting involved in the choice of ingredients served in schools and hospitals.
Every action counts toward sowing collective pride and resilience and stoking the great revolutionary Québec food movement that is underway.
Every gesture, no matter how small, is part of a movement bigger than itself. And when enough of us have joined this movement, the rushing streams of hope will open up into rivers of freedom.
—Family Farmers