NFU members keep their distance, but pickup tree seedlings.

Apr 29, 2020

Members of National Farmers Union Local 316 were planning to hold an event to celebrate the purchase of trees to be planted on the farmsteads of its members as a climate change mitigation initiative this week, but that couldn’t happen.

Instead they arranged for the trees, a mix of deciduous and coniferous species, to be delivered from Kemptville to Orbit Farms (owned by Jeff and Sue Peters) near Inverary. Members arrived at intervals to pick up 50 trees each and took them home to plant. 2,600 trees are being planted around Frontenac County and rural Kingston this week, a project that was funded through the proceeds of the local 316 farm to table dinner last fall.

Local 316 President Josh Suppan from Fat Chance Farm, said there are currently no events planned for this year because of COVID-19 restrictions, although there has been some early talk about some sort of virtual farm to table dinner this fall, if social distancing is still in place. 

But in general, farmers are seeing much less of a negative impact from the pandemic than people in other industries. Fat Chance Farmstead runs a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in addition to a pick your own strawberry operation, at their location near the Frontenac County/Kingston boundary line. Customers pay for regular deliveries of fresh vegetables, and like other local farms running CSA’s, Suppan has seen unprecedented demand this year.

“We usually have four or five on a waiting list for our food boxes,” he said, “but this year we have forty on the list, and when we tried to refer people to other CSA’s, they were all full as well. I think maybe one of the positive outcomes of what is going on, could be a recognition of the need for, and value of, local food.”

The National Farmers Union is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, which is one of the reasons that local 316 members are planting 50 trees, as part of this initiative.