Agricultural & Environmental Education

Opaskwayak recently purchased the Pete’s Potatoes property to the west of The Pas. The entire Pete’s Potatoes property is classified as prime agricultural land. The Master Plan proposes building and expanding the agricultural use for this site, using it to build local food sovereignty and a new food education centre for Opaskwayak, with the goals of training Opaskwayak members to become skilled in agriculture and eventually being able to feed the entire community at any given time with food grown on Opaskwayak lands.

The plan envisions the north part of the site as a showcase for a variety of crops: with corn, beans, sunflowers and—of course—potatoes on one side of the Golf Course Road and strawberry and raspberry U-pick areas on the other. Solar panel arrays, showcasing new green technology, will separate each crop area. Greenhouses and a potato processing plant will provide agricultural education and food processing year-round. Further south, demonstration barns will give visitors the opportunity to see animals such as poultry, horses, and bison. The site’s convenient location near the Town of The Pas and Opaskwayak IR 21E will make this site a regional tourist attraction for sustainable agriculture in northern Manitoba.

Donfield Farms is another large area of farmland recently acquired by Opaskwayak. The Master Plan proposes a wide variety of such large-scale agro-industrial uses and livestock operations on this site, including barns and grazing areas for bison, cattle, horse, hog, and poultry. It also includes indoor growing facilities for hemp / cannabis and other uses.