The Future of Sustainable Agriculture at Kwantlen Looks Bright!

July 6, 2017

Today the class spent the first half of the day at the orchard, and the second half of the day on campus presenting our group farm plan projects. The morning began with a fast and efficient strawberry harvest that was finished in record time. Once all of the strawberries were harvested, the class split into groups to do other tasks. One group planted beans in the plots west of our garlic rows.  The second group measured our farms 8-metre buffer zone that is next to the bean plot, which ensures our organic certification. Canadian Organic Standards defines a buffer zone as a “clearly defined and identifiable boundary area that separates an organic production unit from adjacent non-organic areas.”1 These buffer zones are used to prevent crop contamination from neighbouring land. The bean varieties are Blue Lake, Purple Peacock, and Edamame. They will be planted every 40 inches under a circular trellis, allowing for efficient picking.

While the beans were planted and the buffer zone was mapped, sticky traps were installed throughout Nic’s research project, which marked the beginning of his data collection!

Strawberry harvest.

Figuring out a game plan.

On the east side of the orchard a portion of the class was tasked with planting squash and pumpkin transplants. The transplants were spaced every 20cm at each drip emitter.  This is tight spacing considering the fact that they cover quite a large space once mature. The species that were planted include:

·      Steroid Pumpkin: this is a green, oil seed pumpkin.

·      Neon Pumpkin: orange carving pumpkin.

·      Small Sugar: dense and sweet flesh.

·      Orange Summer: dense and sweet flesh.

·      Reno Squash: Acorn squash.

·      Butternut Squash

·      Spaghetti Squash

·      Galutazine Pumpkin: warty, sweet variety.

Nic, getting ready to plant transplants.

Squash transplants in the ground.

Once 11:30 AM hit we packed up our things and headed back to campus for our farm plan project presentations. Before the presentations began, Piper presented the weekly Web of Life organism. The organism that Piper researched was Photorhabdus luminescens. P. luminescens is a gram-negative bioluminescent bacterium from the family Enterobacteriaceae. This bacterium lives symbiotically inside the entomopathogenic nematode, Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. The nematode will burrow in to the target insect larva and regurgitate the bacterium into the primary body cavity of the insect. The bacterium toxins will then kill the target insect. To me, the most fascinating aspect of P. luminescens was its involvement in the American Civil War and First World War. Due to P. luminescens bioluminescent properties, the wounded soldiers exhibited glowing wounds, and had a higher survival rate of those that did not. The higher survival rates can be attributed to the antimicrobial properties that are produced by the bacterium. While these war stories are fascinating, it’s hard to imagine that this was the first time that these bioluminescent bacterium were present in battlegrounds. Considering the folklore that could easily result in something as unusual as glowing wounds, I wonder what the indigenous cultures of North America thought of P. luminescens? Unfortunately, a Google search didn’t seem to pick up anything relevant.

Piper's Web of Life paper.

Well, after a semester and a half of working on them, it was finally time to present the group farm plan projects. Our class had been split up in to three groups-- Orchard, Tsawwassen, and Garden City. All of these farms clearly have their different sets of pros and cons. For example, the orchard is slowly becoming more established, however, the water table is incredibly high; Tsawwassen has a decent amount of arable land, but the soil is filled with clay, and there are areas that have salt contamination; Garden City will have brand new soil that has been trucked in, but with that, comes many future unknowns.

All of the groups presenting definitely touched on the key objectives of Kwantlen's Institute for Sustainable Food Systems. All of these farms revolve around education, community engagement, and environmental stewardship. I enjoyed the Garden City groups many ideas around potential projects like cider production, CSA programs, a community kitchen, and grain milling. Lastly, I enjoyed the Tsawwassen group’s idea for a long-term crop rotation, to reduce soil erosion. While all of the class groups had mostly sound, and creative plans, I believe it is important to now consider how the three farms can work together using their lands unique strengths to create a resilient agricultural centre. These three farms have their different pros and cons, which changes the potential of each one. 

References:
1. Government of Canada. (2015). Canadian Organic Standards- Organic Production Systems. Retrieved from http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/ongc-cgsb/programme-program/normes-standards/internet/bio-org/pgng-gpms-eng.html