The Rural Voice, 1989-04, Page 20Growing up Organic
Don Gingerich, who grows organic soys for
the production of tofu, has revitalized his farm
with the help of a close working relationship
between the farmer and his market.
D
on Gingerich and his wife
Sharon were in some very
serious financial problems
not many years ago. Their operating
loan was at its limit and they were in
arrears with Farm Credit. But when
they decided to change to organic
farming, their financial problems
loosened up.
"I don't think we would be farming
anymore if we hadn't gone organic,"
Don says, "We would have had all the
input costs and there's no way that we
could have managed."
In their pretty kitchen, eating
homemade muffins, Don and Sharon
speak about the switch to organic
farming. Pictures of their seven chil-
dren are arranged on the wall, and the
youngest, Michael, who is two years
old, sits on his mother's lap.
Gingerich has been farming in
Huron County since 1967. He started
with a few sows and some beef cattle,
but now has a 60 -sow farrow -to -finish
operation on 200 acres of heavy clay
soil. The pigs run outside year round.
Ben, Gingerich's second youngest,
informs me very seriously that they
are always chasing the chickens.
Besides the hogs, Gingerich has a
by Dee Kramer
Left and above: healthy specimens — note the
good nodules on the roots.
second source of income. For four
years he has grown organic soybeans
for Jon Cloud from Soy City Foods of
Toronto. He reckons that he has made
about $150 an acre from his organic
soys. His expenses are about $50, his
custom combine operator charges him
$25 per acre, and his yield has been
just under 30 bushels an acre.
Ecological farming is economical
farming, Don says emphatically. "I
decided that the chemicals were just
an extra expense, that they weren't
that great anyway."
. • •
John Cloud is the production
manager of Soy City Foods, a seven-
year-old worker -owned co-operative.
The company processes soy products,
everything from large quantities of
tofu to frozen products like soyettes
(hamburgers), falafels (spicy balls),
tempe (like tofu but made with
mycelium threads), and soy -pro (a
pate -like product).
Soy City contracted to buy Don's
— and another 42 farmers' —1988
beans at $10 a bushel. This compares
favourably to the fluctuating price of
$8.38 that producers get for their
commercial beans from the Ontario
Soya -bean Growers Marketing Board.
Cloud, a licenced dealer for organ-
ic soybeans, handles 90 per cent of all
organic soys grown in Canada. Soy
City's needs are small in comparison
to the total amount of soybeans that
Cloud distributes, wholesales, and
retails. "The demand is just growing
like crazy," he says, "I can hardly
keep track of it. I need to have 6,000
acres of soybeans for next year (1989)
— roughly 6,000 tonnes."
"Soy City itself will use only
100,000 pounds of that, and I sell the
rest to processors and brokers."
Cloud is very particular about
whom he contracts to grow soybeans
for him. "If a farmers turns to organ-
ics to try and save himself financially,
he is making a big mistake. There is
no short-cut to prosperity, that's for
damn sure. The money is there but
you have to learn the system, and
organic farming is not as easy to do as
conventional farming."
He doesn't insist, however, that the
farmers who grow for him be certified
by the OCIA (Organic Crop Improve-
ment Association), because the regis-
tration and certification fees of $140
18 THE RURAL VOICE