Addressing your concerns

Our campaign is live and I've been blown away by the support.  It is extremely humbling to expose yourself in this way and your generosity is breathtaking.  Not just on the campaign site but by the local farmers who have delivered tanks of water for us.  Our neighbour who is helping us to temporarily hook into one of his wells to water the back field.  To the elderly lady who drove to our farm from Abbotsford to hand me $3 which is what she could afford.  I didn't want to accept her money but she insisted and my heart broke.

On the flip side of that is the hate mail following the aricle in The Province newspaper.  Yes, that's right, people have taken the time from their day to both comment on the article and send e-mails to my personal inbox.  Being a kind of "live and let live" type of girl, I was surprised. I had thought that not everyone would want to support the campaign but I hadn't considered this would happen.  To be honest, I didn't care until my friend texted me to say she was upset by what she was reading, and upsetting my friends evoked a reaction.

However, I'm not angry or upset by these comments but it has made me think about peoples legitimate concerns about donating to this kind of campaign.  Some of the comments, although not eloquent and presented with a degree of vitriol, raise valid points which I feel I need to speak to.  Not because I think I can convert the haters or enter into a game of oneupmanship, that's not my bag.  I'm writing this to my customers, the genuine supporters and most of all, my family and friends who are upset by the comments.

So here goes:

"Wow. I was a single female trying to keep my farm after a divorce. It was 5 acres. I had to replace well pump. It never cost that much. Still a very hard time trying to hang on to my farm. I did it for years. I had no financial help. I could never ask other people for help. Five acres in Aldergrove is worth a lot of money. I ended up having to sell after many years of struggling. It was not other people's jobs to help with my finances. Just my opinion".

I'm not sure what the point is here.  She didn't ask for help and lost her farm so we should do the same?  I am amazed that we live in a society that has forums like indiegogo and kickstarter.  We hear so many criticisms of the world we live in and yet there are strangers who will love somebody elses ideas or work and support them.  It's astounding.  I'm not going to apologise for utilizing this platform.  I've supported campaigns and now I've launched one myself.

I have a very difficult time feeling sorry for these people.  My father was a fresh new immigrant many years ago when he came to Canada. ..he worked his ass off for many years and never once asked for a hand out. ..he never lived beyond his means.  Time for this family to consider some major downsizing.  Canadians are nice people but most of us aren't stupid enough to pay for someone else's dreams. 

To be honest, I'm not really sure how the immigrant thing is relevant. Canada is our forever home.  Would it be different if we were third generation Canadian?  We don't feel like we are asking for a hand out.  We feel like we are asking for an investment from our community after we have invested so much into the community. For sure, we could give up and move our family to a condo.  I had a call today from a developer who had read our story and made me an offer for the farm.  And that's the risk.  We work hard as environmental stewards here and take our time to educate people who come here.  We strive to promote environmental awareness in the elementary school children who have their (free) garden here, that I tend and fund.  We paid for our own dream and we're asking for help to enable us to maintain our status as a community farm. If we go, what happens to the land?  It's unlikely that it will be anything good given that the vulchers are circling already.

Are we supposed to pay for it?

Errr, no.  Support the campaign or don't.  This is not a heist and you will not be hurt if you don't pay up. Anyone who would like to see copies of the quotes for the new well, please send me an e-mail and I will forward it to you.

Now for my personal favourite, received by e-mail:

"I watched the video you fat b#*ch.  Why don't you eat a few less burgers and then you can afford to pay for your own S#*T.  F#*k off back to where you came from.  Hope the plane crashes on the way home".

I'm sorry but that made me laugh out loud.

Look, here's the thing, let's wrap it up.  Even the best piece of journalism in the world can't encapsulate every angle of every story.   We are a farm, we're not making money from farming, that's not our agenda. We make quality, organic food accessible.  It's hugely under priced.  We don't take a wage.  We think in terms of acres not hours or money.  We love this lifestyle and we work harder than we ever have before. We not claiming we're any worse off or harder working than anyone else and we're not asking for sympathy. This farm is our dream but it's also a valuable community hub working with schools and non profits and sometimes just people who have no where else to go during holidays.  I extend a warm invitation to anyone who has an opinion, positive or negative, come and visit us and make sure it's an informed opinion.