BC Couple Grow Own Clean Vegetables on Farm to Spark Local Food Movement—Made $201,000 Last Year

Nathan Wiebe and Emily Woody show off their clean, locally grown produce at their farm in near Nelson. B.C. Courtesy of Confluence Farms

If you ask Nathan Wiebe and Emily Woody why 80 percent of small-scale farmers laboring to grow their own healthy food fail, they will tell you organic vegetables don’t sell themselves.

The young couple, who started a local online farm hub to sell clean, no-till produce, moved into one of North America’s local food economy hotspots with a thriving food scene and grower co-ops: the Kootenay Mountains around Nelson, B.C., where hippies and hopeful organic farmers have, for decades, sought respite from the dominance of large, industrial farms.