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Food and drink: Rootin' for the land

Pemberton’s Gavin Wright and Sarah McMillan are rooted to their own farm and UBC’s

There we were, hundreds of us all spread out over the straw-dry meadow at UBC farm like a giant picnic party that exploded, except in this case there was a focal point: a small stage with the ubiquitous white B.C. tent in case of rain that never came, sheltering Michael Pollan on tour with his new book, In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto .

The whole event was a fund- and awareness-raiser for UBC farm, whose future is unreasonably uncertain right now as the university's board of governors ponders what to do with the site in sight of more residential development for the endowment lands, including the farm, where no one thing serves a single purpose. The chickens, for instance, are a source of education, eggs, local protein, fertilizer and just plain fun, plus they work right into the organic crop rotation system by breaking up pest and disease cycles.

Given UBC farm does such important sustainable agricultural work and research with its 40 cultivated acres and some 200 crops, it's good to know we have a couple of major fans of the farm right in Whistler's own backyard.

Gavin Wright and Sarah McMillan run Rootdown Organics in Pemberton Valley on a site they're leasing from the Helmers. There these two new farmies have been tussling with the likes of deer, flea beetles and cabbage loopers in between making giant, stinky fertilizer "teas" of chicken manure or nettle or comfrey leaves, all in hopes of creating the kind of farm that both mimics and fits in with natural ecosystems.

The good news is that after a bit of a rough start what with this year's protracted winter replete with heavy, potentially greenhouse-crushing snows, Gavin and Sarah are winning, at least for now. They've been selling to many a happy customer their quintessentially organic and thoughtfully produced veggies, herbs, transplants and eggs at their farm gate and at the local Pemberton and Squamish farmers' markets, as well as the markets at Trout Lake and Kitsilano in The Big Smoke.

And both of them have UBC farm to thank for much of what they're doing and what they believe in - really one and the same thing.

"Sarah was a nutritionist by training and then realized she was really interested in the food production side. So she worked at a farm in Lytton for a season. And then last year did a farming apprenticeship at UBC farm - that was the first year they had it," says Gavin.

"She realized on her own what Michael Pollan is preaching now, and that's that good nutrition and good health are linked to eating good whole food. It's not about breaking things up and giving people nutriceuticals and little doses of vitamins and all this stuff. The best thing for nutrition is to have whole fresh food."

You'll have to read Pollan's book to get the whole drift, including understanding nutriceuticals - think nutrition and pharmaceuticals, like the new pick-me-up drinks and supplements loaded with vitamins, artificial extracts, trendy vita-herbs and the like.

In the meantime, consider how many threads are coalescing with this couple and their Rootdown efforts, for Sarah also worked at the Vancouver Farmers' Market as assistant operations manager and at Araxi, home of the original "source local" movement in Whistler restaurants, thanks to executive chef, the ever-creative James Walt.

As for Gavin, UBC farm is where he honed his passion for farming as an education and outreach coordinator for four years, while earning a Master of Science degree in agriculture education. (He will also help host the Outstanding in the Field dinner - for the fifth time - at UBC farm this Sunday, after Saturday's outstanding OITF dinner at Trish and Jordan Sturdy's North Arm Farm, with none other than the aforementioned Mr. Walt performing his magic. Still tickets available, I hear, if you're up for a real treat.)

And all this after enjoying many a raw carrot with a bit of dirt still on them yanked from the gardens his mom had, as well as studying communications as an undergrad at SFU. But it was the certificate Gavin took in sustainable community development that really shaped his ideas.

"It had a real focus on local - developing communities rather than relying on this global economic system, which meant looking at food security, food economies and urban agriculture and asking questions like, are we food secure? Are we feeding ourselves rather than relying on this global food swap?" he says.

The growing adventure he and Sarah have launched doesn't exactly try to answer these Qs directly, but one day maybe it will. While this first year has been something of a trial, their goal is to support themselves from the farm. Then el ultimo goal, at least for Gavin, is to start teaching people how to do same.

"This is what I believe in - this is what I think is important in our future: to have more small, diverse farms that are supplying the local market, and we need young farmers to do that. There aren't that many right now so I would like to teach and help people get into growing good food on good land - stewarding the land - and then marketing it locally."

As for UBC farm, which seems to be doing much the same only in a different context, it would be a weird and pathetic irony if its mantra of "more than a single use" came to be fulfilled by turning this working site for sustainable and urban agriculture - where the soil has been enriched for agricultural purposes for more than 40 years, where the bees, the chickens and the woodlot are as much a part of the whole as the rows and rows of espaliered apples and veggies and herb beds - into a condo site.

If you, too, think it's a no-brainer that the farm is more important then ever in the face of climate change, fake food and increasing food security issues, check out the Friends of the UBC Farm website that has a petition going to save the farm. Or go to the farm's own website at www.landfood.ubc.ca.

You can also learn more about Sarah's and Gavin's rootin' tootin' Rootdown adventures, and likely pick up a gardening/farming tip or three, at their very cool and informative blog at rootdownbc.wordpress.com.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who just learned from Rootdown that giving your young onion plants a haircut promotes root development. Maybe it works for humans, too.