Saturday, December 12, 2009

Consumption and health: Morgan Farms

I publish this column as a favour to John Bastian, a long-time friend who devoted much of his life to organic agriculture and livestock breading. He wishes to address you the message below.

«Dear friends and customers,

For over 20 years now, my dream retirement project has been to grow organic healthy food for as many people as possible. And it has been quite a journey, a wonderful journey—and as all journeys are, they come to an end of some sort. This project grew a little larger than I planned. Almost all of you tell us that you appreciate Morgan Farms as a place where you can get a good variety of organic meats and baked goods from our freshly ground whole flour. And we sincerely thank you for your support and feedback these past years.

However, with me turning 70 next year, and my wife Janice getting busy again with her Chiropractic practice, we are approaching a different path in our lives. With the world’s economy as it is, and the absolute need for local, organic foods, we find this painfully sad that unless we find a solution, we may have to close down almost all of the farm operations. Our participation at the yearly organic markets and our availability here at the store would come to an end.

We are writing to you, our valued friends and customers, to inform you of our situation and the possible consequences of what may happen next year. These past years we have looked at different solutions to keep the farm operation up and running, but so far have not come up with anything viable. We therefore want to get the word out and ask people like you who have been close to the farm, if you know anyone who may have the dream of becoming involved and continuing this type of venture. The farm has grown to where several individuals could make a good living from the farming, food processing and distribution activities. Among all the buildings we have, there are three houses that would be available for rent to people settling on the farm. The farm has a big infrastructure.

South of the border we heard of consumers grouping themselves together to operate their own farm to ensure a good quality food supply. There is an interest already at Morgan Farms to open a Co-op for which there would have to be many consumers who want to become members, with either an active or passive contribution.

If you are interested in any kind of participation, want to share ideas or have questions, please e-mail us at john@fermemorgan.com or call us at 819-687-9021. We plan to set up information sessions here on the farm and would welcome your presence and participation.

We have come to a point where having tried many different options, we feel we don’t have many solutions left at our disposal to keep the farm open for another year. Therefore, any interest or creative ideas are welcome. We want very much for our dream of the farm to live on, to continue providing healthy and sustainable food alternatives, and we hope that new fresh solutions come our way for Morgan Farms to continue its journey!

In appreciation, »

Janice and John

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Benoit Duguay said...

Thank you for showing your appreciation!