When most people think of “organic”, they think of a label they might see in a store. But what does that label actually mean? At Kroeker Farms in Winkler, that label represents innovative farming and consumer choice.
“Really, organic is another food production system,” says Jason Peters, Agronomist at Kroeker Farms. “If you want to put that organic label on your product, you have to follow certain rules. It takes a lot of effort; everything we do is third party verified. If they say we’ve done everything right, then we can put the organic label on our product.”
Peters says transitioning land for organic production is a lengthy process.
“We have to wait 36 months until we're allowed to sell something as organic. Once the land meets that status, then what we grow and harvest off that land is allowed to be sold as organic. It’s also a chance for those of us who are farming the land to start thinking about how we're going to manage it differently.”
It’s this type of innovative agriculture that Peters says attracts people who have a “bit of a curiosity for a different bent on agriculture.”
“That's what interested me – we look at agriculture from a different perspective. We’ve been doing organics for almost 25 years and have seen success. That made me curious, and I dove right in.”
It’s not a matter of conventional versus organic, notes Peters. It’s really all about giving the consumer a choice.
“If buying organic is important to you, that's great. But the products we grow on the conventional side are no less healthy or safe. They're just as valuable.”
Kevin Nickel says he feels like he grew up at Kroeker Farms, having started in the Raspberry Division when he was just a teenager. Now, years later, he is in Seed Variety Development, a role in which he plans what will be grown up to nine years in advance. This includes actively assessing over 100 different potato varieties right here in Winkler.
Nickel says they also produce seed potatoes in Saskatchewan, planted by hand, and harvested by hand.
“Our focus there is just clean early generation seed potatoes.”
He adds that farming organic crops has made everyone at Kroeker Farms better farmers overall.
“(When) growing organic potatoes, we can't rely on synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. We have to figure out another way – breeding varieties that can withstand droughts, high water, and different types of insects. It’s made us better farmers.”
Peters adds that Kroeker Farms was among the first certified organic growers in Canada, and that meant helping define the organic standard.
“In the late 1990s, our shareholders said, ‘hey, we want you guys to do this organic thing.’ At the time, some thought maybe it was a fad. But some people ran with it and developed the (internal)
program we have today. We started with 30 acres in 2001. We’ve grown exponentially since then to well over 4000 acres.”
In the beginning there was some hesitation, Nickel adds.
“It's a scary thing. And the truth is, it's not easy. So, when we got into it, we took our oldest fields – they were very tired. They'd been in production for generations already. But today those are some of our most nutrient dense fields. It really shows that we're giving something back to the ground. Healthy Food, Healthy World.”
Peters adds that the organic certification process is a team effort at Kroeker Farms.
“We have a great team of people working together on all of this, from all the different departments, pulling records together and answering questions. Working together as a team makes the process so much smoother.”
So how do shoppers know which products are truly certified organic?
“Look on the back of most of these packages – it should say ‘certified by’ and there will be a little logo of the third-party auditor, so ‘certified by EcoCert’ or ‘certified by CCOF’.”
You can find Kroeker Farms’ organic produce at The Potato Store in Winkler, and at grocery stores across North America. Learn more about the company at https://kroekerfarms.com/
