Healing People and the Environment through Farming
Willo'Wind Farm, Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada
Adrian Stocking and his mother Elizabeth can be found, along with their many helpers, at the Village Market on Saturdays, May to December, in the lower section of the Toronto Waldorf School, Thornhill, Ontario presiding over a large display of fresh and colourful organic vegetables. Adrian and Elizabeth work together as partners to manage the growing business on their farm, Willo’ Wind. Adrian is the key manager for all farm development.
Here is some history from their website:
In the fall of 1984 Rudy and Elizabeth Stocking found a piece of property in the Uxbridge area that they knew would be home. They named it Willo’ Wind and knew it was the place to raise their young children Luke, Erica and Adrian. They could enjoy having animals, growing healthy food and the pleasure of living on a farm. It was also to be a place of hospitality for others to enjoy through their Bed & Breakfast and retreats. The plan was to have the farm as a hobby farm with a few animals, a small garden and to farm in a sustainable and ecological manner. ……..The Stocking family set about life on the farm. Soon the family grew to include sons Travis and Niall. It also grew to include Elizabeth’s brother Richard who had been living with their mother until the time of her death. Uncle Richard became a huge help when chores needed to be done. The next 14 years the family raised family, sheep, laying hens, meat birds and turkeys.
Threefolding ideas shine a light on the need for new ways of thinking about land ownership. I thought it would be interesting to hear Adrian’s viewpoint on how land can be dealt with, especially since we currently often think about land as a retirement fund for farmers. If that is the case, how do we manage the passing down of farmland from one generation to the next, so that the land, especially land close to a city, will continue to be farmed?
I was able to speak to Adrian in the middle of December, 2023, before the last Saturday market of the year.
EW: Hi Adrian, thanks so much for taking time to talk to me! I am wondering, what are your thoughts regarding access to land, especially for younger people who might be interested in farming?
Adrian: I have a personal experience of differing attitudes towards land. About fifteen years ago, during our honeymoon, my wife and I were camping on a Peruvian island ‘owned’ by an indigenous tribe. We wanted to camp out on this island, but wanted to get permission to do so first. When we asked a local, that person was not able to give us permission because they did not see the land as belonging to them. After we asked a few other people, we came to the conclusion that the question was strange for them. No one owned the land! We finally got the message that we could camp wherever we wanted to!
Our experience is maybe tied to an important idea that land is something you honestly live on - you steward it and then pass it on to the next person who can steward it. In our culture, land grabbing super-inflates the cost of land. Land grabbing also takes away from the reality that land is something so precious you cannot put a monetary value on it. If access to the land can be passed on to the next generation, generational wealth is created.
In the last ten years, the cost of property in my area has doubled. A property bought for $280,000 forty years ago will now sell for $2.5 million.
If we are really serious about treating land differently, we need to find something else to do with the land besides drawing an income from it by selling it off for purposes that are not in the long run conducive to a healthy planet.
EW: Can you tell me, what is your situation regarding the land you farm? What do you think is the best way for the land to be passed down from one generation to the next?
Adrian: For me personally, I would like to own land, not just to buy and sell it, but to pass it on to future generations. Legally, however, it is not easy to do. A challenge for me is making enough money to buy out my siblings so they can each receive 1/5 of the wealth from what the land would bring in, if it were sold. Either that, or find another way for the farm to generate income. Then my siblings could partake of the income and wouldn’t feel slighted. That is easier said than done, especially since produce does not generate a lot of excess income. It is also difficult if you are working with others in the family who are not interested in preserving the idea of running a farm, but who want the money out of the farm. In Europe, there seems to be a different outlook regarding the value of having land for growing healthy food, but for people in our culture, land can more easily be seen as a way of getting money. There are other models. One of them, perhaps not a desirable one, is foreign land ownership. The foreign company is operating on the other side of the world, possibly waiting to sell the land to developers. There is no intimacy. No care.
Our family is currently working hard on a model for our family succession, so that the property could be held in trust between my siblings and me, which would enable us all to use and enjoy the property and maintain its potential for sustainable food production now and for generations to come.
EW: I know of a bio-dynamic farmer about two hours north of Toronto who has farmed there since the early 1980’s. Now neighbouring land is being bought up by what I understand is a European who is pulling out the hedgerows (trees bordering the land), most likely in order to clear huge swaths of land for large scale, corporate-driven agriculture using pesticides and artificial fertilizers.
Adrian: Land distribution is like wealth distribution. The ones who have land tend to not be keen on re-distributing it. There are also those who do not like government regulations - ‘my land, my rights’ - ‘back off, government’. Some regulations are perhaps necessary, but some things the government does are stupid.
EW: We have had some issues regarding land ownership and development on the Green Belt. (The Green Belt is an area surrounding the greater Toronto megapolis which has been designated as protected area due to its sandy soils, wetlands, aquifers and river sources.)
Adrian: The recent pushback from the public to the provincial government’s attempt to develop part of the Greenbelt shows that people are realizing that we can’t live without wetlands and farms. If you are paving over without considerations, you won’t be around for very long. People are starting to wake up, but it is not easy. What I find, the people who have the means to buy the land usually have no desire to fully farm the land. Often, people who can afford a nice farm in this area, are just buying up land. The have no rural experience and it is hard for them to find people to farm their land.
If we want more farms, we need many people to help on the land. We need to give young people assurance that the farm will sustain them. We need to develop infrastructures, such as markets, where the farmers can sell their produce, as well as encourage shoppers to change their shopping habits.
EW: People are maybe starting to realize that supporting local organic farmers is a way to improve the environment.
Adrian: There has been a shift in last 15 years There are more new farmers in the area, more organic farms - most of these people are coming from urban areas. Some of the people who buy land don’t want it sprayed with Roundup. I have 100 acres offered to me to farm, simply because older farmers are retiring. The new owners would prefer the land to be farmed, but preferably not sprayed with pesticides and herbicides. One recent owner let 100 acres lie fallow rather than having it farmed in the conventional way.
EW: I guess that helps the environment!
Adrian: For sure!
EW: I understand that agribusiness is successful in influencing local farmers with their advertising.
Adrian: Our organic food is better and safer than what big agriculture produces. However, I am not opposed to smart solutions. Going back to threefolding ideas- the solutions have to make sense rather than just add to the coffers of big agriculture. The promoters of agribusiness will say things that are simply not true. Some farmers tell me that to prove that roundup is safe, agribusiness reps will say things like: “I will pay you $25 to drink Roundup.” That does not jive with certain court cases where people who have been harmed by pesticides or herbicides have been compensated.
EW: My daughter wanted to be a farmer and had apprenticeships on three thriving and interesting bio-dynamic farms. However, at the moment, she is not pursuing farming. She did not want to go into farming if she would be overworked, not receive adequate compensation and not be a part of a thriving farming community which included people of her generation. Access to land was also an issue.
Adrian: There are dark aspects to running an organic farm - overwork and underpay. Two thirds of the farms in my area have closed in the last three decades. You are at the mercy of the weather, which has not been in our favour recently.
EW: Talking about the weather, do people talk about changing their lifestyle?
Adrian: It is hard to force changes on people- it has to be a personal decision. It does not matter how many people decide that they are not going to fly more than once a year, all it takes is billionaires flying around in high-flying jets to offset the emissions regular people have tried to reduce by not flying. How could you make private jets illegal? We need to make choices.
EW: On another note, do you feel you have a good work/life balance?
Adrian: No definitely not! I am definitely working on that. Some days and months I am doing better at it, but juggling a farm with all that it involves without having a lot of money to invest is a real challenge. You have to deal with the reality of what you can hope to get from your produce. Also, the weather is a huge factor.
I view farm sustainability as comprising three pillars:
1. Is my farm environmentally sustainable ? Am I increasing its fertility, etc?
2. Does my farm have financial sustainability? A farm is a business. It has to make enough of an income to survive. If you are not paying bills, you will be bankrupt.
3. Is it sustainable for the people running the farm? Killing that person slowly due to stress because they don’t have time for a social life or going on a holiday is not healthy.
I take my hat off to anyone who has fully achieved a balance between the three pillars. You can always try. Sometimes we are doing better on the first and second pillars, but the third pillar - personal health - is not doing so great!
Perspectives in regards to the balance of the three pillars change depending of if you are growing your business or not.
EW: How is your job satisfaction?
Adrian: Yeah, there are some bad aspects, such as losing 2,000 seedlings because they were flooded under torrential rain - which meant no profit from those plants. But, just because something is hard does not mean it is not satisfying. Small things are satisfying - for example, to finally get one hour to repair something that has needed repair for a long time. Seeing people’s reactions at the market - seeing healthy people. Nutritionists may have told some of our customers: “Start eating organic vegetables!” You do see somewhat of a transformation in your customers, which is very satisfying. Also, we have done some wildlife regeneration. It is very satisfying to see other life forms benefitting from our practices vs a cash crop corn field which looks like a desert. That is very satisfying.
EW: More awareness is needed from those who don’t farm regarding land ownership and land management.
Adrian: People need to examine their priorities. Some spend money on a Sea-Doo for the cottage and then feel they cannot afford to spend on good vegetables. Farming also has a social importance for the farmers and society at large. We are all the product of our environment. Consumerism warps our view of what really counts. We are not in an easy situation. Maybe the community could make 100 acres of workable land available for people who would like to work together to do a type of homesteading. Maybe people could get together to do a market garden. To grow nourishing food, society needs to realize that we need bodies on the land. We need to develop templates for the young person who is coming onto the farm land. We need to think of ways so that farmers, especially young farmers, can see that there is a certain security in what they have undertaken, that they can be fairly confident that it will work out.
EW: Adam Smith wrote about self interest. Nowadays, I think some people see self-interest in quite a narrow way - “I need to look after myself.” Yet, I think Adam Smith was saying that it is in your self-interest that others are also doing well.
Adrian: Some people have a narrow view: Their philosophy seems to be: ‘screw others’.
EW: How can you be happy if others are unhappy?
Adrian: It is in my self interest for my neighbours to do well. Like a poultry place. It is in my self-interest for other businesses, such as the poultry place, to be doing well.
EW: Threefolding ideas recommend that producers, consumers and distributors form associations and talk to each other to arrive at mutually beneficial arrangements.
Adrian: Consumers tell me what they like, but I can also tell what was appreciated by the produce I bring back at the end of Market day. I want that same relationship with my suppliers - what are the tools we need? A threefold benchmark can be that what we do should be 1) good for the community, 2) fair to everyone and 3) affordable, scaled to fit. We need to look at the system we create. As farmers, we need awareness. We need to loop back to the land and see what affect we have on it. But when you come into an industrial system, farming 10,000 acres with auto-start and GPS, all these relationships fall apart.
EW: Are people starting to see?
Adrian: The majority of people in specific settings are beginning to see. But we maybe still have a lot of education to do for the general public.
EW: Rachel Carson published her book, Silent Spring, in 1962, exposing the hazards of DDT. It took a while for her questions to gain traction, but now her ideas on DDT have resulted in laws banning DDT.
Adrian: People don’t want to take responsibility: “I did what I was told - it is not me.”
EW: Thank you for your work, Adrian. Many of us customers truly appreciate what you and your team do. I hope you get a rest during the next few weeks. Sometimes we need to stop the crazy idea of being efficient every minute!
Adrian: I am going to get a rest! I will shut the farm down for a few weeks!
EW: I sometimes think of the story of a person who was resting on the beach with his fishing rod propped up against a tree. A passing tourist stopped to talk to him: “What are you doing?” the tourist asked. “I have caught a fish for my family’s supper and now I am resting.” “Why do you not keep fishing for more fish?” “Why would I do that?” asked the fisherman. “Then you could sell the extra fish for money.” “What would I do with the money?” “You could go on a holiday!” “And what would I do on my holiday?” “You could rest!” “Well, that is what I am doing now!”
For Willo’Wind Farm website, click here.
Below: Two pictures from the Willo’Wind website.
