Gregor Robertson, Sustainability's Superman

Do we need a former organic farmer in City Hall?

by NADINE PEDERSEN

I am sitting in a teahouse on West Broadway with the man many believe will be Vancouver’s next mayor. Gregor Robertson, the MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, is wearing a button-up short-sleeved shirt, pressed pants, and loafers. His hair is a bit mussed from wearing a bike helmet, but this aside, he looks more like he’s just wrapped up a photo shoot for the summer issue of GQ magazine than cycled through traffic to a magazine interview.

The former organic farmer and co-founder of Happy Planet, one of B.C.’s most beloved organic food companies, is a unique, new-style political leader. Coming from the land of earth and vegetables, rather than the school of political spin, makes him an enormously appealing potential candidate in the minds of many who are yearning for something fresh and authentic. And rumours of a mayoral run are swirling.

For those who feel Vancouver is missing opportunities to continue to serve as an international beacon of urban sustainable innovation, Robertson’s potent mix of real-world business acumen and idealistic green vision make him a source of hope. In his relatively short political career he has emerged as one of the main opposition MLAs, proving to be an articulate advocate in the B.C. Legislature for small business, affordable housing, and promoting the concept that true economic prosperity can only be assured through care for nature.

Robertson is a fifth-generation British Columbian. Until he was 21, he planned to become a doctor. But despite family encouragement, an impressive academic record, and relevant experience working in hospitals and labs (including an undergraduate fellowship at Stanford University), his application to UBC’s medical school was rejected.

To his surprise, he felt a sense of profound relief. Realizing he needed to spend some time soul-searching, he and his wife Amy restored an old sailboat and set off on an 18-month-long honeymoon around the Pacific.

They eventually sold the boat in New Zealand, where they started working on farms, hoping to develop the same strong connection to the land as they had to the sea. It was here that two events conspired to change the course of their lives: Amy got pregnant, and Gregor got drenched by a cloud of herbicide while spraying a field.

The couple had already witnessed “horror stories” in the farming industry, but for Robertson, getting soaked was “a big awakening to the reality of industrial agriculture.”

“The feeling it elicited…it’s hard to describe the feeling. It just had a toxic feel to it.” At that moment, he says, he realized that “if I didn’t want it on my skin, what was I doing spraying hundreds of gallons across the landscape?”

Wanting to put down roots before their child was born, the couple returned to B.C. and purchased an old dairy farm near Fort Langley. Although there were few organic farms in B.C. at the time, the Robertsons knew they wanted to try farming without chemicals while raising their children, which soon included Johanna, now 16; Satchel, 14; and Terra, 12. (The Robertsons also have a 16-year-old foster son, Jinagh.)

“I realized there that what I thought was my calling to be a doctor all of a sudden sort of came full circle when we started selling incredible produce at farmers’ markets and to restaurants, and that we created this lifeline from healthy soil into the city,” says Robertson.

But it was a tough way to make a living. In 1994, Robertson and his friend Randal Ius began researching ways to create a business that would add value to his crops and those of other organic farmers.

They settled on making juice. The micro-business that started with carrots from the Robertsons’ farm soon expanded to include produce from other B.C. farms and eventually from organic growers around the world. Within two years, Happy Planet Foods had grown to the point where Gregor had to stop farming completely.

The company’s rapid expansion put an enormous amount of pressure on Happy Planet’s employees and on Robertson, who, as a self-described workaholic, missed spending precious time with his family, something he admits was a “painful cost.”

But even in times of precarious growth and employee burnout, the company remained committed to a triple bottom line—taking into consideration its environmental and social impact as well as its financial performance. As the company prospered, Robertson realized that he was becoming more and more drawn to the “ethical side” of the business, which included simple things like distributing juice to shelters, food banks, and community events around Vancouver.

He was also becoming more and more politicized, even travelling with Amy to the Battle of Seattle, the landmark anti-World Trade Organization protests in 1999.

“There was this sense of big corporations and big governments going the wrong way and that was reaching a turning point,” said Robertson. “The solutions side of it was that business and government needed to embrace sustainability. And I saw it happening in the business world, because it’s the only future that’s bankable in the long-term, but in 2001, when Gordon Campbell was elected premier…all of a sudden the B.C. government did this radical turn away from sustainability.”

Just as a cloud of Roundup had once helped shift Robertson’s perception of farming, watching the Liberals’ first six months in office profoundly changed his perception of politics.

“I hadn’t been very political or partisan before then at all. I had been focused on farm and business and community, and a broader movement toward sustainability, and had kind of gotten global in my thinking…Then all of a sudden, our B.C. government eliminate[s] the Environment Ministry, attacks the poor, and goes sideways. And that… was a political wakeup call for me.”

In a way, Robertson says, the decision to enter politics was not unlike the moment when he and Amy realized that in order to really make it as organic farmers they needed to reach out and connect with other farmers to build a larger movement.

“Once that shift happened in my mind, it was very difficult to think about juice and go through the motions of our humble business…It was all hands on deck for our democracy and for the future of my kids, basically.”

In 2005, Robertson ran as the NDP candidate in the traditionally conservative Vancouver-Fairview riding, beating his nearest opponent by 895 votes. Since then, he has put forward a number of initiatives that have boosted his political profile, including leading a successful campaign to protect affordable rental housing in Vancouver, ensuring distribution of a copy of Al Gore’s 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth to B.C. high schools, and putting forward a private member’s bill that would provide property tax relief to business owners affected by the Canada Line construction along Cambie Street (a motion that, at the time of writing, he felt had little chance of getting passed).

This fall, he’ll introduce legislation that mandates clear food labelling and the regulation of carcinogens, toxic chemicals, and genetically engineered foods.

“The sad thing is, it will get ignored,” he says. “The Campbell government ignores any good ideas that come from the opposition…It’s very frustrating and that’s the challenge of the system, the partisan nature of politics.”

Indeed, Robertson is highly critical of B.C.’s current political system, saying it focuses too much on the short term at the expense of the long term. However, he doesn’t see any other viable alternative to creating political change.

“To make political change we have to engage in politics directly, and voting once every four years, and writing the odd letter to a politician, isn’t enough. It’s as if we think the work of democracy was done a couple of hundred years ago and we can just go on cruise control now.

“But I don’t think that work is ever done: it relies on vigilant and passionate citizen engagement. And that means actually more people wanting to be at the table, more people to run for political office, to ask the harder questions, to bring new perspectives, and to demand the government take the most responsible path. If it’s left up to only those who are attracted to partisan politics, we’re hooped.”

And the rumours that Robertson will run for mayor? He doesn’t dismiss the possibility, but he makes it clear he’d prefer to remain in provincial politics.
“I think there is a lot of important work that can be done at the civic level, but most of the responsibilities and the power lie at the provincial level, which is why I have chosen to go there. So if I feel I can influence there, I’ll keep at it. And if not, then I’ll figure out where I can.”

<em>Nadine Pedersen is a somewhat cynical Vancouver writer who is refreshed by talking to people with hope and conviction. For more information on Gregor Robertson, visit <a href="http://www.gregorbc.ca" target="_blank">gregorbc.ca</a>.</em>

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