We’re in a MOVIE!
Our farm, along with two other amazing Vancouver-area farms, were featured in CBC’s “Absolutely Canadian” documentary series. You can watch it by clicking here.
Where it all Began
Fractal Farm is owned and operated by Dan Edmond and Piotr Majkowski.
Dan and Piotr met in 2010 as they were starting their career in engineering and nursing, respectively. Their commitment to sustainable life eventually pushed them to take on more and more daring projects, culminating in Fractal Farm.
Fractal Farm was founded in 2017, starting as a 15 member CSA. From there, the farm has grown to support markets, restaurants, prepared food delivery boxes, and of course the CSA.
What’s a CSA?
CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is the primary way that we distribute our vegetables. In this model, rather than buying produce as a customer, you can sign up to become a member of the farm. You pay at the beginning of the year, and then we provide you with an assorted box of vegetables once a week for the season. This system is excellent for farmers, because it means that we receive our money before planting season, which means we don’t need to go into debt to finance our production. Customers love it because it introduces them to new vegetables, and because they never have to worry about paying for vegetable for the rest of the year. Because it’s essentially a bulk purchase, it ends up being way cheaper than buying similar vegetables at a market.
The Land
Fractal Farm is committed to reconciliation in all of its work. Because farming brings us closer to the land, we begin by acknowledging that our produce is grown, prepared, and distributed on Sto:Lo and Coast Salish territory.
2021 is a huge year for us! We completed our last year at the Kwantlen Incubator Farm in 2020, and we are now preparing a new site in Surrey. It’s an awesome site, but there’s lots of work to do!
Food Ethics
Because we are itinerant users of land, we cannot currently certify as organic. We do, however, subscribe to a similar standard of growing practices. No chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides are used at our farm. In addition, we take measures to reduce our use of plastics and carbon more generally, which is something that organic certification does not require. The fact that vegetables are produced locally for the Vancouver market means that the carbon impact of transporting vegetables is greatly reduced. It also contributes to the skills, land preparation, and distribution systems that contribute to food security in our region.
Sustainable, fresh, healthy vegetables should be a human right, but are increasingly out of reach for certain members of our community. What’s more, COVID-19 has meant that some people who are already food insecure are unable to stand in food bank line ups because they are immunocompromised. We believe that in addition to environmental sustainability, we also have a responsibility to community sustainability. That’s why Fractal Farm supports local non-profits, and asks that our CSA members do, too. In 2020, our CSA members have donated $2,125, and we have added over $3,000 in vegetables to our community partners. By ensuring that all people in our community have access to fresh sustainable vegetables, we are taking an important step towards democratizing sustainable food.
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