David Gillespie of L’Isle-aux-Allumettes has been working with a committee of dedicated volunteers to connect the Pontiac and greater Outaouais region to Ontario, Vermont and New York by way of a new international farm and culinary trail.
The trail, designed as a loop over 1600 km long, will guide locals and tourists to visit the small-scale farms and food businesses that populate the four regions. The goal, he said, is both to draw more people to the region and encourage local farmers and entrepreneurs to join the growing agritourism industry.
Gillespie has been a leading advocate of agritourism in the Pontiac for some time. Earlier this month, he presented the proposed trail at an international agritourism conference in Vermont. While the trail is not officially . . .
launched, Gillespie anticipates it will be up and running by the fall of next year.
THE EQUITY sat down with him to get a better sense of what this trail will involve, and why it would be a good fit for the Pontiac.
What will the International Farm and Culinary Trail involve?
Well, I didn’t reinvent the wheel, I connected the dots, meaning I used existing trails and connected them. Every country has their own definition of agritourism. It’s not set yet. But essentially, it’s the idea of people going to visit [farms] and learning what their local food is all about. But we use the words farm and culinary because there will also be value-added businesses [included on the trail]. Like here, we have some places that add to the local products. They may either do it as part of their farm, meaning it’s a value added, or maybe they buy the products and transform it into beer, wine, or cider or hops, or they transform into food, like bread from local grain. It’s to get the public to go and visit these places.
Why is the Pontiac well positioned to participate in this kind of industry?
For us to try and compete with the corn belt in the US, we would need tens of thousands of acres, and we’d need a warmer climate. Traditional agriculture is important here [in the Pontiac]. I don’t want us to forget that. Those farmers are the main growers of some of the basic foods. But the thing is, it’s tough because you’re competing against some huge players in the world. And many of the traditional farms are disappearing here. They’re getting fewer in numbers and those that remain are bigger. That’s the trend everywhere, it’s not unique to us. If you want to stay small, the best way is not to try and compete with them [the big farms] but it is to diversify or come up with alternatives. And one way to do that is through agritourism. So that’s why that industry is very important here.
Plus, we have two big population centers, which a lot of other areas in North America don’t have, and they’re not that far away. So, you have the population, and a lot of them in that area are well-to-do. They want to travel and want to experience food, especially the millennials. We’re well suited for that. We’re close by the large population centers, we have beautiful areas to visit, we’re in the valley, we got the Ottawa River, we’ve got the hills on one side, and we have, potentially, the scale of farm that would suit well for it.
What kinds of farms are best positioned to make the transition to this kind of business?
If you’re willing to adapt, evolve, be on top of the technologies and especially the tastes and the demands of the population, you’ll do great. And that also involves the marketing of it, that’s hugely important. They have to be willing to adapt. If they don’t, they’re not going to succeed.
Aside from the farmers, who would be responsible for marketing this trail to the larger international markets?
The International Culinary Trail committee, (responsible for developing the trail thus far) is going to continue. It’s going to look at market transfers and marketing itself. There is going to be a website, there’s going to be promo. We’re getting funding for that.
What can the Pontiac do to prepare for hosting this kind of industry?
We need to make sure we have the agencies like the MRC and the mayors on board, but also the infrastructure. Like for the overnight stays, where are they going to stay? Okay, that’s critical. If they stay overnight at the farm, there’s all kinds of regulations in Quebec that makes it really difficult. So, we need to have the government work with us. And they are, now that we’re getting the attention at the highest level.
by SOPHIE KUIJPER DICKSON
SHAWVILLE September 19, 2022
