Creative Farmers find their niche by Dee Hobsbawn-Smith
The Costco Connection, March/April 2000

Tony Marshall is an entrepreneur with a cause. He and his home economist wife, Penny, and their two daughters reside on Highwood Crossing Farm south of Calgary, where they produce and bottle cold-pressed organic canola oil and flaxseed oil.

Their mission – to improve the land they tend while producing healthful, chemical-free oils – has tangible results, visible in health food stores, high end restaurants and specialty markets in Southern Alberta.

Their Farm has been in the family for five generations, and Marshall wryly observes that their vision would have been more at home in an earlier era.

In the growing debate between genetically modified and organic food, Marshall is intelligently articulate buy low-key. “I avoid the soapbox,” he laughs. “We are fundamentally committed to bio-regionalism and organic growing. Our mandate is to stay local. Recent food scares have solidified the position of organic growers because more people are beginning to care about where and how their food is raised and they begin to see that genetic engineering is a double-edged sword.”

Like other organic farmers, Marshall feels that growers should only pursue organic farming if they believe in the tenets of sustainable agriculture. “Commit on a soul level,” he insists, “because three years later, hard questions arise during transition, when you might otherwise say, ‘this is just not work the hard work.’ I love my life. This farm enables me to do what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Marshall farms cheek-to-cheek with neighbors growing genetically modified Argentine-strain canola. A buffer zone of six to eight kilometers is generally accepted as the norm to prevent cross-pollinization. Here, Marshall says, all the neighbors are close by, so the Marshalls have not grown their own canola for two years. Instead, they buy certified-organic Polish strain seed from farmers with larger land bases. Recently developed and relatively inexpensive DNA tests, however, mean that growing their canola crop, with careful testing for purity, is again an option for the Marshalls.

The oil press, located in its own building, is closely monitored to eliminate light, heat, and oxidation during pressing. Dark glass bottles are filled, labeled and promptly refrigerated before their short trip to retail shelves. In an ingenious marketing move, the extruded solids are sold as well, a high-demand, high-protein feed for organically raised poultry and livestock and sought after as fertilizer among organic city gardeners.

 The marketing end comes easily to Marshall, who spend 25 years “in an earlier life” in the clothing manufacturing game. A driving belief in bio-regionalism means that Highwood Crossing’s square-shouldered bottles don’t incur high transport costs, but remain fairly close to home. The oils are sold in Alberta, but craved by cutting-edge restaurant chefs and health food stores across Canada. The oils boast strong, clean flavours, high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in saturated fat.

The hard work of farming is repaid for Marshal when he hears the immediate feedback of happy customers. One farmers’ market-goer told Marshall in utter sincerity that “a special place in Heaven is reserved for organic farmers!”