I just walked out to check on the tomatoes. Still green, just a touch of pink here and there. This is my fault. I started the seeds late, and was late in getting the baby plants into the ground. I’m not much of a vegetable gardener, probably because I’m not very interested in cooking, but I sure do enjoy that first tomato of the year, fresh off the vine. Nothing like it! I enjoyed Barbara’s take on fresh tomato sandwiches over at Folkways Notebook. While I wait for that first homegrown tomato, I have been doing the next-best thing, visiting our local pick-your-own and garden market farm and buying tomatoes there.
On a recent visit, I picked up a handout on the counter, a folder advertising local food farms. There is an amazing array of fresh food available right here, close to home, everything from vegetables and orchard fruits to honey and maple syrup. The flyer says it all: “No matter how you slice it, local food is more than a passing fad. In fact, supporting local food is one of the simplest things you can do to support the local economy, conserve valuable farm land, protect the environment, improve your health and learn more about where you live. Today, the average Canadian meal travels over 2,000 kilometers from the farm to your plate. … vegetables may be picked days or weeks before ripening. …local food is harvested fresh – as it was meant to be!”
The “Eat Local” movement has caught on and spread like wildfire. Books such as Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and Smith and Mackinnon’s The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, have helped to raise awareness of food issues. Recently, I’ve noticed new books such as native plant gardening guru Lorraine Johnson’s City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing, Sarah Elton’s Locavore: From Farmers’ Fields To Rooftop Gardens – How Canadians Are Changing the Way We Eat and Novella Carpenter’s Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer have focused on urban food issues. Celebrity chefs such as Toronto’s Jamie Kennedy are promoting local food culture and restaurants have begun to offer dishes featuring all-local food. There are even festivals celebrating local food. The local food movement has been so keenly embraced that even supermarkets are jumping on the bandwagon and advertising local produce.
Yes, eating local is big news these days. I was therefore aghast when I read of the Canadian government’s plan to close down prison farms! These farms are a 100-year-old tradition in Canada and to close them just at this point in history when local food production is more relevant than ever flies in the face of reason.
Beyond the obvious advantage of providing inmates with farm-fresh produce, farms offer an opportunity to work out-of-doors and experience the natural world in a way that it is unlikely many inmates have ever been able to enjoy. The Public Safety Committee, a group composed of representatives from all political parties, heard from witnesses who said that prison farms teach inmates valuable work and life skills that serve them well upon release. Mark Holland, the committee’s vice-chairman, said “The bottom line is it’s one of the most effective programs we have at rehabilitating inmates.”
Yet the Conservative government, making the announcement through spokesman Chris McCluskey, says that traditional farming is outdated and less than one percent of inmates find agricultural employment after leaving prison. The Conservatives have even refused an appeal to hire independent experts to study the impact of the closures, and is acting without full insight into the benefits of farms and the effects the closures will have.
If you agree that prison farms should be saved, you can sign the petition at Saveourprisonfarms.ca.
Willow House Chronicles 
That’s ridiculous. I’d write, but I don’t think that a letter from a “Murican” would do much good.
Let me just add, on an equally ridiculous note, that, somehow, I am very relieved to see that your government sometimes does stupid things, just like ours. Sometimes I don’t think that government, especially here in New York State, could be any more mucked up.
Sooo… what’re they proposing the prisoners do instead? Taxpayers are paying their room and board to be there, the least they can do is give something back to the community while they’re there with time on their hands.
The closure of the prison farms has to be one of the most bizarre and illogical decisions ever made by government…not in its magnitude perhaps…but in its utter defiance of logic.
As someone mentioned, we provide prisoners with shelter, clothing and food. The prison farms were producing a minimum of 4 million dollars worth of food every year…and getting better at it all the time. So that work by prisoners was offsetting the cost of prison and the winners were us taxpayers.
And that’s just on a practical level.
The recidivism rate for those who were released through the farm system has always been far lower than for those released through the regular system.
The Harper government is insane.
It boggles the mind. Something so good on so many levels cast aside in favor of what? Replacing fresh air and hard work with walking in circles on a concrete pad? Replacing fresh food with come chemical laden processed stuff (I refuse to call it “food”)? Replace stimulating the brain and providing life skills with watching TV and avoiding the gangs?
Thanks, everyone, for your input. I should say, the government does have a plan for the prison farms. Yes. It plans on paving over the farmland and building more prisons! What alternative activities inmates will participate in, I haven’t heard.
that is thoroughly depressing! i will click through to the petition after posting here.
i always try to buy local. it’s so frustrating though, have you noticed the new packaging of the ontario peaches and nectarines? clear plastic baskets that are rather flimsy and awkward, not the nice paper baskets with the handle on top. because we need more plastic in our lives… (sigh, where is the petition for that one?)…
i will end on a positive note and say that your garden does look lovely!
ana, I have noticed those plastic baskets too. I agree with you, we don’t need any more plastic and they’re not very sturdy. Thanks for your compliment on the garden!
I’ve been following the news about the prison farms, and I’ve heard valid points on both sides. It sounds to me like they’re trying to get away from the old “work farm” model which comes out of the same mentality of the railroad prison work in the south, and perhaps provide more technologically useful skills instead. I also suspect that ex-cons can’t compete with migrant workers for the farm labour jobs these days. On the other hand, I would think that working on a farm — or anything to do with growing and tending life — would be the very best of therapy for people hardened by crime and dead-end lives. I would really love to see more discussion of possible alternatives as opposed to the “change vs no-change” polarized arguments that get stuck in vicious circles.
By the way, your garden is looking fabulous! We’re still waiting for our tomatoes to ripen, though I did pick my first zucchini yesterday 🙂
A farm is the perfect setting for study and training. You need a machine shop to repair farm implements, milking machines etc., and why not set up landscaping classes…there’s a shortage of parks and greenhouse workers right now. To close them down seems short-sighted.
You’re absolutely right, eyegillian, it’s not possible to make an informed decision when the government refuses to conduct an independant study or reveal their alternative program.
As Jim points out, farmers are jacks-of-all-trades and require good business skills as well. There are many transferable work skills and ethics, and until people decide to give up eating, food is a good investment.
Thanks, the garden is coming along well. I’ll have to post more on the veggies later this week!
barefoot…yes jacks of all trades indeed…and what better setting in which to learn than a farm. Let’s not forget that The University of Guelph started out essentially as a farm – as a place to teach the finer points of agriculture and gradually over the years, they added engineering courses, various mechanical and electrical courses, horticultural classes (greenhouses, plant propagation etc.).
A government with just a teensy bit of imagination and originality would seek to build on a good foundation rather than destroy the foundation itself.
I love your blog by the way.
Yay for U of G! That’s my alma mater (although not in agriculture). Thanks for your comments, and your compliment Jim.