Canada: From the Ground Up
We learn about Arlene’s journey from working in the film industry to being a Gaia College Diploma graduate and launching her organic backyard urban farming business, BUFCO.
By Brenlee Brothers
Gaia College
Excerpt:
After 30 years working in the film industry, Arlene Hazzan Green switched paths completely. She decided to turn her love for gardening and working with the earth into a vocation.
With the intention to ignite passion in people by helping them grow their own food and reconnecting them with nature, the Backyard Urban Farm Company (BUFCO) was born. The Toronto based organic vegetable landscaping company builds, installs, plants and helps maintain edible gardens for both residential and commercial clients in the greater Toronto area.
BUFCO actually sows seeds for urban folk who either don’t know how, or don’t have the time to do it themselves. Their garden team will lovingly care for each plot throughout the season; returning as often as needed to water, weed and harvest.
When Arlene and her husband Marc Green started the company in 2009, Arlene had already been a vegetable gardener for many years. “I was doing it as a hobby; just as fun and enjoyment and also as a way to get my young son connected with nature more than anything,” she said.
At the time, she was working in the film industry as a writer and director, something she had been doing for many years. “I was feeling less and less enthusiastic about the kind of work I was working on. The really good projects seemed very few and far between and television was going through a really big transition.”
