Survey for Small-Scale & CSA Farmers

JavaScript isn't enabled in your browser, so this file can't be opened. Enable and reload.

We at Iyé Creative want to learn from you, the incredible people growing our local food, how we can best support you and work towards creating the conditions for our collective thriving here on the traditional territories of the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEĆ nations.

Our Intention

IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, and people of colour) communities and other communities experiencing marginalization are disconnected by design and struggling to eat local, nutrient-dense food and culturally-significant foods. Our intention is to raise awareness within the farming community to collectively design initiatives that can increase the active participation of consumers within the local food system, thus creating conditions for equity, co-creation, and resilience.

Our past initiatives have included teaching vertical gardening methods, providing no-cost CSA boxes grown by local small-scale farms or purchased through the South Island Farm Hub (a local farm aggregator), hosting cooking workshops, providing credit for Black and Indigenous families to access the Esquimalt Farmers Market to choose and purchase their own fresh produce, and hosting community conversations. Over the past three years, our work has supported the livelihood of 14 Farmers and 12 makers, and in 2022 alone, we provided over 1300 boxes of locally grown produce to our communities.

Why are we doing this?
We are in the process of expanding and strengthening our Community Supported Agriculture model for 2023, and we would love to hear first-hand from you about what you've learned since the start of your farming/CSA journey, and open the opportunity for interested farmers to collaborate with us. Your answers are anonymous, but may be used to disseminate information to other small-scale farmers who can learn from your experiences, other food access organizations in Victoria, policy-makers, and for anyone else who is interested and invested in re-storying our local food system.

Please feel free to share this survey with any of your farmer friends in the Greater Victoria area! We are incredibly grateful to you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us, as we know your time and energy is extremely valuable. Feel free to skip questions that don't feel relevant or aligned for you - all questions are optional. Please note that this survey is completely anonymous, unless you choose to include your email address if you're interested in teaching a workshop with us.

Thank you for all you do for our local food system!

Asé

Your Farm Network and Infrastructure

In this section, we'd like to understand the physical and social landscape in which you and your farm operate.

Note: We consider small-scale-farmers to those individuals who operate in or less five acres of land through agro-ecology practices, and gross less than $60,000 annually (BC)

Where is your farm located?

Sidney

North Saanich

Central Saanich

Saanich

View Royal

Highlands

Colwood

Langford

Other

Why did you become a farmer? (Select all that apply)

Ability to work outside and engage with the soil biodiversity

Provide foundations for land ecological stewardship and a more resilient food system

Improved personal and community well-being

Provide a nursery for the development of new enterprises and marketing systems

Build community around food growing

Small farming for profit

Family history of farming

Witnessing a need and wanting to play a part in the local food system

Self-employment and self-directed work is what works best for me/us

Other:

What are the greatest challenges you experience(d) in your farming career?

Coping with climate change, soil erosion and biodiversity loss

Satisfying consumers’ changing tastes and expectations

Not making enough sales to be sustainable

Meeting rising demand for more food of higher quality

Accessing start-up capital to investing in farm productivity

Accessing and securing farmland

Staying resilient against global economic factors (ex. supply chain challenges)

Long hours and few breaks

Burnout - physical, emotional, or spiritual

Lack of support - sometimes feeling like we're doing it alone

Keeping up with social media, website, marketing, etc.

Admin time takes away from on-farm time

Other:

How many other farms/farmers do you interact closely with on a regular basis to share knowledge and resources?

None

1-2

3-5

Clear selection

If there were one thing that you've learned that helped you and your farm business most significantly that you could share with other small-scale farmers, what would it be?

How does your community support your farm business already? How can community support further, or, what is lacking for you to excel?

How have you accessed the land you're farming on now? Check all that apply.

I/we own it

A family member or friend owns it

I'm/we're renting

I'm/we're leasing

Young Agrarians land matching program

Short-term agreement

Long-term agreement

Co-operatively owned land or land trust

I'd rather not say

Other:

What are the challenges for the security/long-term viability of your farm business?

What are the most significant barriers in infrastructure you're experiencing right now? (What infrastructure would make your life much easier that you can't afford or don't have access to?)

Compost systems

Water/irrigation systems

Better harvest coolers and bins

Insulated cold storage stations (shipping container, refrigerators, freezers, etc.)

Row covers, weed killing tarps

Sheltered washing & packing station

Propagation house/station

High tunnel

How do you integrate self-care into your daily/weekly/seasonal farm schedule?

Distribution and Consumer Access

In this section we'd like to understand your main channels of distribution and any barriers you or your consumers may face in accessing your farm products.

What are your primary methods of selling your farm-grown produce or farm products? (In approximate order) *

Farmers Markets

Farm Stand

CSA Box

Wholesale (grocery stores)

Wholesale (restaurants & local businesses)

Direct-to-consumer/special orders

Online

Other

Primary method of sales

Second highest method of sales

Third highest method of sales

Fourth highest method of sales

Fifth highest method of sales

Do you run a CSA box? If so, what are your favourite aspects of that program?

What are the greatest challenges associated with running your CSA program? (Check all that apply - if applicable)

Building healthy connections through marketing

Being responsive to customers

Having an user-friendly website

Managing deliveries or pickups

Flexibility and customization options for customers

Easy inventory management

Email communication with customers

Getting customers to return totes or other reusable containers

Having enough diversity throughout the season to ensure satisfied customers

Other:

Clear form

Never submit passwords through Google Forms.

This form was created inside of Iyé Creative. Report Abuse

Forms