In a time of noisy online discourse, where peoples’ values seem to generate more heat than light, it’s easy to overlook those who are steadily and quietly doing good things in their communities—folks like Cumberland resident Rick Dobson.
Since semi-retiring his landscaping business over the last couple years, Dobson has begun growing food in his neighbours’ backyards. It’s a simple arrangement: the yards’ owners contribute the land and water. Dobson works the soil and provides seeds and/or transplants. They share the harvest equally; any surplus goes to the Cumberland Food Share program.
It’s entirely non-commercial—no money changes hands—and it helps Dobson act on his concerns about food security and the way ordinary people have become alienated from farm activities.
A farmer at heart: Dobson’s roots in agriculture
Dobson was born and raised on a family farm in southern Manitoba. “We had 320 acres—hogs, pigs, chickens, barley, wheat …. Just like an ordinary small prairie farm,” he recalls. When he was a kid, in the postwar period, there were thousands of farms like his. “Of course,” he says, “things have changed now, the family farm has pretty well disappeared …. A lot of the landscape has been just cleared, so you can have a straight big field to run machines. That’s the changes I’ve seen in my time.”
He explains that his collaborative micro-farming initiative came about organically: “I know there are quite a bit of opportunities just in Cumberland of underutilized or not-utilized vegetable garden beds, for whatever reason that may be… I was just lucky to be able to pick up some plots by word of mouth.” And it’s organic. “There’s no pesticides, there’s no herbicides, there’s no GMOs,” Dobson says.
Urban farming: a growing movement across Canada
He points out there are urban farmers doing similar things in cities across Canada: “I’m one of many little persons that have used land or worked out something with somebody with land that they’re just not using for whatever reason.”
He’s currently working four different plots in Cumberland. The core objectives: the homeowners have a source of fresh vegetables, and Rick has a good supply to share with his kinfolk and/or freeze and pickle for the winter. He works with each landowner to decide what to plant: “There’s some vegetables that they don’t care for. That’s fine by me.”
A socialist creed in action
In terms of weeding and watering, everybody’s different. “One place, she does a lot because she likes gardening, so I’m helpful in terms of bringing stuff, planning, seeding, do my little bit …. Another plot, they’re a young family, so they’re busy, I tend to do a lot of the work. That’s fine,” he says. “I’ll always get a few other people to help out, and they can share a bit of the harvest …. I encourage people to pick—don’t be shy.” From each according to their ability, to each according to their need is how Dobson operates. “You know, it’s a very basic socialist creed.”
He encourages anyone who has the inclination to do a similar project to connect with their friends and neighbours and just go for it. As an added bonus, he adds, micro-farming builds community. “I meet these people, families, there’s kids to talk to, you can show them—okay, this is how you should pull a beet, this is when a beet is ready to pull. You interact with your fellow human beings, and you’re doing a worthy thing together. And by doing that we have something wonderful in terms of food, that we need. It keeps the costs down.”
