Seed The Change - Help Metchosin Farm Flourish

Fiona Chambers is organizing this fundraiser.

Donation protected

Welcome to Metchosin Farm.

We are a small, biologically-diverse seed grower located on Southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Why focus on seeds? Because this is where food security starts, and Metchosin Farm:

Stewards 250+ seed varieties
Creates entirely new food plants ("new heritage")
Educates citizens on the essential nature of seeds in our food system

It’s not easy being a small seed farmer in Canada, but we do it because it MATTERS! Right now, Canada imports an estimated 97% of its vegetable seed (SeedChange.org), leaving our food system highly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, climate change, and growing political instability.

There is no food security without seed security, and we are asking for your help to make our 100% Canadian seed farm thrive.

The outlook is not optimistic. With so much bulk, industrial seed imported each year into Canada, small seed farms like ours struggle to compete with big seed resellers. The labour required to hand-harvest and process our seeds costs too much - and that's with owner/operator Fiona paying herself no wage and doing off-farm work to keep the business going and staff paid. This is not sustainable - we need key infrastructure and specialized equipment in order to streamline our production and make our business work.

We are asking for your help to take Metchosin Farm to the next level.

Help us to become the seed hub our country needs.

HISTORY

Once upon a time, Fiona was a simple organic vegetable farmer with a market garden. One winter, she discovered that her favourite spinach seed had disappeared out of not one, but three big seed catalogues.

Naively believing that these companies grew their own seeds, she called them to ask what had happened to their crops. From the cagey answers and reluctant responses, Fiona eventually discovered that NONE of these companies grew their own seed! In reality, the single supplier of that spinach had stopped growing it. Thus, the major Canadian seed houses could no longer purchase or resell it.

This made an impression. Not being one to shy from learning new skills, Fiona started saving her own seed crops. As she learned more about things like minimum population numbers and genetic health, she suddenly had 3kg of kale seed when all she needed was half a cup!

So, she bought some coin envelopes from Staples, stayed up late with her two young boys hand labeling the packs, and brought them to the next Seedy Saturday Market.

They sold every single package.

And thus, Metchosin Farm began to grow seeds.

The farm now grows more than 250+ varieties of seed crops, ranging from vegetables, herbs, flowers, native BC seed, and almost 50 types of tomato. Fiona also began to breed new varieties of plants, creating "new heirlooms" - a step towards replacing the staggering 75% of plant food varieti has lost globally in the past 100 years (UNFAO).

Since the beginning of COVID, Metchosin Farm has shipped 46,000+ seed packages from coast to coast to coast. We have provided individuals, families, community gardens and First Nations with high-quality, BC-certified organic seed. Through our in-person farm tours, we have educated hundreds of school children, recent immigrants, and local residents about the importance of seed security and ways they can grow and save their own seed.

Do you remember the parable that if you give someone a bucket of fish you feed them for a day, and if you teach them to fish you feed them for life? Actually, we don't agree. People need to know how to create their own nets, fishing lines, and hooks. This is what we do with seeds.

With her background in ethnobotany and indigenous food systems, Fiona is a treasure trove of essential knowledge and skillsets around plants and seeds. Our farm team works their butts off. But with our present infrastructure, Metchosin Farm is caught between being a small family farm and a financially viable business. Your funds will go towards the following line items, and will allow for Metchosin Farm to truly thrive.

BUDGET

FIRST GOAL TOTAL = $36,650

Seed Equipment

Air Separator - $2000

Professional Seed Screens - $3000

Seed Drying Racks - $1200

Threshing Boxes - $300

New Wheelbarrows - $900

Custom Seed Retail Racks - $2350 (25 racks)

Farm Equipment

Small Tractor/Lawn Mower - $5,000

Utility Carts - $600

Infrastructure

Finish Seed House Construction (insulating, building storage, exterior cement pad & covered entrance) - $7000

All-Season Threshing Pad (install cover) - $2000

Irrigation - Complete Pump House Build (insulation, exterior siding) - $1200

Upgrade Machinery Shed (solid roof, to use as all-weather teaching space) - $5000

Potting / Teaching Shed - $5000

Covered & Secured Compost/Fertilizer Bins - $1000

SECOND GOAL TOTAL = $76,650

Accessible Seed Tours for Schools - $10,000. At its core, seed security starts with experiential education - teaching people to handle seeds, get their hands in the dirt, and feel what it's like to farm. That is why we're focused on making our education options as accessible as possible. This money will go towards providing a sliding scale for our school tours.

Farm Staff Subsidy - $30,000. Metchosin Farm is located outside Victoria, BC - an incredibly beautiful place, and now the most expensive region to live in Canada. Farms everywhere are struggling with the cost of payroll and retaining good staff, and on a seed farm this is doubly important as seed knowledge and skillsets are rapidly vanishing.

Our farm staff are incredibly passionate about our mission, but at present, the farm can't afford to pay them a true living wage in our area. Your donations will help us to retain our existing trained farm staff by providing a modest yet critical subsidy to their existing salaries.

Assistant Grower Salary - $15,000

Sales, Inventory & Marketing Salary - $15,000