Know Your Farmer

With all the news right now about large processing plants and supply issues, we wanted to communicate with you about what it means to be transparent about where your food is coming from.  At CultivatR, we built our company on the idea that we should have a local food system that is safe, fair, and transparent. 

Our transparency is simple. We only work with local Alberta farmers, growers, harvesters, ranchers and food artisans.  Our products do not go through large factories or processing plants. We can tell you exactly how and where every item we sell is produced, and more importantly, who produced it.

We carefully choose who we partner with.

We are working hard every day to reach out to and meet new farming families to understand their mission, values and how they are bringing innovation and sustainability to their organic farming practices. While one delicious part of our job is quality testing all of the amazing products that we have access to, we are also looking to understand their ability to support CultivatR customers and ensure we have a stable and scalable supply network.

One of the goals of our work is to also help develop a stronger food system entirely – including things like local, independent meat processing facilities. One challenge of these big corporate/factory processing facilities is that they don’t care where the meat comes from, nor do they care about the standards and practices of the individual farms. Everything gets thrown together and packaged and sent out to grocery stores on the other end.

It is going to take time to rebuild Alberta’s food independence, but it so important for us to build a better system, and support Alberta producers, so we can create more Alberta business and more Alberta jobs. Whether it's COVID-19 or a listeria outbreak, these factory facilities are not good for humans or animals. 

Nothing makes us happier than paying our partners and seeing each invoice get larger. I love hearing them say “this is the largest order, we have ever done.”  It's amazing that we are helping them grow their business from being hobbies, to something that can provide for their families and Alberta’s families. 

Providing a way for all of these small, incredibly well-run family farms to reach Alberta families is only a part of the conversation.

The other big problem we wanted to tackle is food waste.

We want to eliminate waste by helping you think ahead about what you want to have in your kitchen. This is a more active method of framing your food needs, making you more aware of your eating and meal habits, and hopefully preventing you from picking things up at the grocery store that you end up throwing away!

More importantly, once you realize how much more enjoyable it is to always have truly farm fresh food at your fingertips – you may cut down on your need for packaged and processed foods.

The other side of the equation is that we are also helping our small and micro farms plan their farming activities in a more sustainable way. Because we pay our farmers as soon as the order is placed and allow them to see our orders ahead of time, they can better manage their operations to adjust to your family’s needs.

It is pretty simple math.

The food you order, the food you eat – was grown for you and your family.

If there is one thing we have learnt from our farmers, it is that you have to look for positives in a bad situation and just like operating a farm – it is all hands on deck and everyone has a role to play. 

Let’s use this time to rebuild our relationship with food and our community and let’s rebuild Alberta’s strength and capability within agriculture.