Down to Earth
Alberta Markets Growing With Organics

By Mary Bailey

  Complimentary Flavours the essence of entertaining 2005 
 
 
 

There’s a movement afoot at the grocery store. According to a recent report by Alberta Agriculture Food and Rural Development, 18 per cent of Canadians and 12 per cent of Albertans regularly buy organic food. Canadian organic food sales are growing into the double digits, compared to the two-to-four per cent growth in grocery sales overall, accounting for two percent of grocery dollars spent.
     
... Ron and Sheila Hamilton operate Sunworks Farm, a certified organic operation near Armena. They operate stands at the Old Strathcona Market in Edmonton and at Calgary’s new Currie Barracks Market, which Ron was instrumental in forming. This has allowed Sunworks to create a distribution stream for their products and those of several other small producers of organic goat yogurt, milk and seasonal fruit.

These families are part of the new generation of farmers; people who have chosen a farming lifestyle based on personal satisfaction and beliefs.