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The Family Farmers Network is a group of local organic farmers that produce baskets of organic, fresh and local vegetables all year round and deliver them to a location near you or near your workplace.
What is the Family Farmers Network?
Created by Équiterre in 1995 and based on the principles of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), the Family Farmers Network uses the organic basket system to connect local producers to consumers. Today, the Network brings together more than 100 organic farms in Quebec and New Brunswick, feeding more than 20,000 families every year (which amounts to nearly 60,000 people), as well as numerous partners who provide convenient basket pickup points. There are more than 600 delivery points across 14 administrative regions in Quebec, as well as in New Brunswick and Ontario. Participating produce and livestock farms are certified organic (or in the process of certification), promoting a short food circuit.
Sign me up for my organic baskets!
When you subscribe to your organic baskets and pre-order your locally grown vegetables, you help support local farmers, by guaranteeing them income and making the distribution of their products much easier. In return, family farmers commit to providing subscribers with seasonal, diverse, high-quality products, in sufficient quantities, all with the greatest possible respect for the environment.
Équiterre created this network as a natural extension of its values and its mission, playing an important role for farmers and consumers. We do more than just promote the Network’s organic basket program; Équiterre helps sustain and bolster organic farming in Quebec.
The Network is also a platform to build solidarity among farmers themselves, fostering exchanges of best practices and training, so that this type of environmentally virtuous small-scale farming can grow and thrive, for the good of the economy and the planet.
Sign me up for my organic baskets!
A great selection of delivery points, thanks to our many partners
The Family Farmers Network has more than 600 delivery points across Quebec’s 14 administrative regions, as well as in New Brunswick and Ontario. Many groups, enterprises, workplaces and social actors have helped make delivery points as accessible as possible to consumers as part of their commitment to the Family Farmers Network.
Municipalities can also support this contribution to the local economy!
Municipalities can play an active role in the development and consolidation of this contribution to the local economy by adjusting their regulations in order to make public spaces available year-round to our farmers. Municipalities like Bromont, Val-David or the borough of Verdun, in Montreal, have provided privileged access to public spaces to the farmers in their region. Local elected officials have the power to be agents of change in the community, by supporting the Family Farmers Network!
For more information, please contact Anne Rigaud, Development Agent for the Family Farmers Network: arigaud@equiterre.org
