Taking a love of farming to market

What do camelina oil, roasted fava beans, and chocolate covered chickpeas all have in common? One, they’re all consumer products that rely on Prairie pulses as the primary input, and two, they are all made by the Saskatchewan-based company, Three Farmers.

“Three Farmers started in a stereotypical Saskatchewan farmer way. It was literally three farmers sitting in a curling rink in Saskatchewan discussing the low commodity prices, challenges of our farms, and challenges of our community,” said co-founder and University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Agriculture and Bioresources alumnus, Colin Rosengren.

He says the conversation quickly moved towards the other challenges faced by today’s farmers.

“As farms grew, two things happened,’ he said. “There were less people in rural areas to keep communities thriving and there was a disconnect between rural and urban; between the farmer and the consumer. As farmers do, we tried to come up with ways to improve the situation.”

The group decided that if they took some of their products direct to the consumer, they could bring value back to their communities and strengthen the link between producer and consumer through nourishing food that relies on sustainable growing practices. But for the team, the philosophy behind the business runs deeper and their focus extends beyond developing a premium product.

“We wanted to bring healthy products to people and communicate with them about how we produced it,” said Rosengren. “The practices we use on our farms in Canada to grow crops are among the safest in the world, and our practices are sustainable. Three Farmers practices go beyond sustainable and are striving to rebuild and improve our soil health all the time.”

As a business run by real farmers, working alongside other agricultural producers with similar values, it is important for Rosengren and his partners to maintain transparency throughout. As a result, the entire product mix presented by Three Farmers can be traced from farm to production to package to the shelves in your community market.

“When we started, we learned that we were not understanding the needs and concerns of the consumer very well,” said Rosengren. “We realized that we needed good full-time people to manage these steps. People that had the connection to both us farmers and the urban consumers. This is when we brought on Natasha and Elysia Vandenhurk, daughters of one of the three farmers. They were able to build that connection and establish our products in the marketplace.”

Rosengren is a third-generation farmer, with a passion for sustainable agriculture to ensure the viability of the land for years to come. Armed with his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from USask, he pioneered intercropping methods in 2004 and has since become recognized for his contributions and insights on regenerative agriculture and soil health.

“Canadian agriculture is not perfect; we acknowledge that we can always do better and we are always learning and trying to do things better,” he said. “However, with Canadian agriculture, we have always strived to do our best with a multi-generational long-term view, prioritizing the health of the soil and the environment.”

He also says that his time at USask continues to prove invaluable and many of the lessons he learned, both in and out of the classroom, are still relevant today.

“[My education] made me confident enough to share ideas with other farmers and have the hard discussion needed to have a successful partnership and start a company like this,” said Rosengren. “It also taught me to think critically. So, yes, we likely did enter the business a bit naively about some of the challenges we would run into, but we knew that we didn’t know everything when we started and we had the courage to do it anyway. And third, university taught me the value of connections. 

He also says that the people he met while in university have continued to provide much needed support for both him, his farm, and Three Farmers.

“When we started Three Farmers, each of us three had a different skill set and network. Together we could make better decisions and accomplish more,” he said. “University was a great experience, meeting so many people, the great profs I had, and all the other ag students. It really provided a great foundation for a life of continuous learning.”

Article originally published at https://agbio.usask.ca