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What’s the biggest mistake you’ve ever made on the farm?
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Itching to Travel |
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If Nova Scotia found a way to eliminate no-see-’ems and black flies, everybody would want to move there.
In a hectic three days in early August, I visited 14 fruit orchards and packers in the Annapolis Valley, and the stop I remember “best” is the one where 125 people, including me, stood, itching and scratching, listening to Josh Oulton at
Taproot Farm describe his on-farm trials of several varieties of sweet cherries on several dwarfing rootstocks.
Despite the insects, Nova Scotia has held a fascination for me for more than 35 years, when I first traveled there. It was great to go back and see how prosperity has come to a place where people were then leaving in droves. The apple
industry, discovering it could grow and market popular new varieties like Honeycrisp, has increased its output of fruit for fresh market and, except for a nifty niche market in Northern Spies for apple pies, virtually abandoned apples for
processing.
Still, the Annapolis Valley is the major player in farming in the province. There, fruit grows on the hillsides lining the valley and field crops grow on the flatlands. Once out of the valley, the province is wooded in the interior, covered
with mostly low value species. Fishing villages line the long coastline and the price of fish, crabs and lobster has made a vibrant economy.
Interestingly enough, the use of DDT back in the 1960s really cut back on the insect populations in the American Northeast and in the Maritime provinces of Canada. People used to put blocks of plastic of paris, laced with DDT, into stream
headwaters to wipe out these critters that breed only in the highest quality fast-flowing streams.
But, everybody decided they’d rather have lobster, which also suffered at the hands of DDT, and so there you have it. Lobster was selling at $12 a pound off the docks, and the one I ate was well worth it – even if I itched and scratched a
bit for it.
While on the trip, I had a chance to talk to Sam DiMaria, a grower from British Columbia, who's really happy about how the labor situation has resolved itself this year. His comments are in the Q&A below.
More details on the program will be published in future issues of FGN and on the Web site www.ifruittree.org.
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 Sam DiMaria
Okanagan Valley of British Columbia
 Sam and Patti DiMaria own and operate 65 acres of apples and pears near Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Sam and his parents immigrated to Canada from Europe in 1959
and entered the orchard business about 10 years later. He’s a member of the board of the International Fruit Tree Association. During the IFTA tour to Nova Scotia Aug. 2-5, we talked about the labor situation in British Columbia and Canada in
general.
How has the labor situation been for growers out your way?
Three years ago, the growers were desperate for labor. We were using local labor, with all the headaches and baggage that come with that. Then the government worked out a deal with Mexico, and the Mexican workers have brought a breath of
fresh air. They work hard, they’re respectful, and they’ll do any work you ask them to. They’re reliable. You know they’re going to be there. They have a good work ethic.
What brought about the change?
The government of British Columbia obtained the same rules the growers in Ontario have had for 17 years. The Canadian government had allowed in off-shore workers for Ontario, mostly from Jamaica, but not for out West. Our program now is like
the H-2A program in the United States. Workers can come in for a limited time to do specific work on specific farms. Of course, Canada doesn’t have a problem with illegal immigrants, and that’s partly because everybody in Canada has an ID card
they use with the health care system.
So it’s working out well?
Extremely. The program takes only married men, with dependents in Mexico, and the Mexican government screens them. They don’t drink or smoke. We try hard to treat them well. I’m trying to learn Spanish, and I try to teach them English. We
pay them every Tuesday night, directly depositing in their own bank account. I bend over backwards for the Mexicans, and we do things for them we never did for local labor. We house them and give them cable TV, free access to the telephone
(but they use their own phone cards for long distance) and personal bank accounts. The local church collects clothing for them to take back for their children. Within crews, they set their own work hours.
What’s the future hold?
As I look back at it, labor was the key factor keeping me small all these years. Now, I can grow my farm.
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