Let us introduce ourselves
We’ve been lucky to meet and work with so many amazing people throughout our farming journey. Lately, we’ve been running our farm with a smaller work crew, pictured below.
Julie & Andrew
Julie Fleming and Andrew Flaman, and their three kids - Jonah, Simon and Patrick - are the farm family behind Circle Organic. Andrew is master of all things soil and the reason we can truly call our food nutrient-dense. Together with their crew, Julie and Andrew manage farm operations. Those kids are much bigger now, but none of us stand still long enough to take a family photo, so this will have to do!
Roberto Garcia Lopez
Roberto has been working on the farm since 2013. He is from Michoacan, Mexico and came to Circle Organic through the federal Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). With his language skills and natural leadership, Roberto serves as an irreplaceable link between plans generated in the office and the super humans who have made it all happen over the last decade.
José Castillo Rivera
José joined our field crew in 2014. He is from St. Luis Potosi, Mexico, also through SAWP. José is a tractor wiz and manages our mechanical weeding, planting and other tractor work. We are grateful to know such a kind, calm and skilled farmer.
The New Canadian Centre and Peterborough Immigration Partnership supported the creation of this short documentary, by the talented Shahed Khaito, to raise awareness about migrant farm workers in our community. Roberto and Julie were invited to speak about their experience and we think it’s a rather lovely piece of work. Thanks for including us NCC.
Our critique of the program’s structure was understandably cut down, so here’s a synopsis:
We believe Canada’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) could be improved - to better reflect the value of this absolutely essential group of skilled workers who travel to Canada each year, making up a third of our agricultural workforce - if migrant farm workers were granted:
Open or sector specific work permits, so their employment is not tied to one farm, which gives employers too much power; and,
Permanent residence, so they are treated like equals and granted the rights they deserve, instead of being treated as a second tier of labour in our food system. Many workers don’t want to move to Canada, but permanent resident status would fix inequalities they experience in the agricultural workforce;
More generally, it would be a great service to the cause if we all placed higher value on food and food production labour. When you eat today, think about migrant farm workers, feel all the gratitude for their sacrifice, and join the movement calling for their permanent status and for justice in our food system. And if you’re concerned that we shouldn’t be relying on foreign workers to feed ourselves, then showing more respect and gratitude for this skilled, difficult work would likely attract more Canadians to the jobs. However you understand the problem, the solution requires placing a higher value on our food and showing greater respect for those to grow it.
Follow these migrant rights advocates to learn more about migrant worker issues and developments: