Farm trivia is not trivial
Fact: Food Freedom Day was February 8, 2020. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has calculated this day to represent when a Canadian household of average income will have earned enough money to pay their grocery bill for the year.
Farmers across our land can congratulate themselves for their role in providing consumers with safe affordable food. Keep in mind that most of the world’s population has to work far longer. In comparison to the global society, Canadians have a reliable, safe and relatively inexpensive food supply.
According to Statistics Canada, Census of Agriculture in Ontario, between 2001 and 2006, the average age of a Canadian farmer increased from 49 to 52 by 2016 the average age climbed to 55. So I'm no longer a young farmer, I am an average farmer in the age category. The take home message is the fact the age of the farm population continues to rise. A small bit of good news is the fact the number of farmers under 35 has slightly increased to 9.1% from 8.2% .
Fact: There were 193,492 farms counted in 2016, down 5.9% from the 2011 census, though on average farms are becoming larger with more land devoted to crop production. The Canadian census has tracked agricultural data in since 1966. The trend it shows is farm area is decreasing but as land use shifts, more fallow and or pasture land have been utilized for crop production, which resulted in a net increase to cropland acres.
The following is taken directly from https://foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/news-media/statistics-canada-releases-2016-census-agriculture
"Primary agriculture accounted for 1.5% of national gross domestic product (agricultural gross domestic product) in 2013. However, this percentage rises to 4.6% when agricultural input and service providers, primary producers, food and beverage processors, agriculture food retail and wholesale industries are taken into account (Statistics Canada. 2013. Special tabulation, based on 2013 gross domestic product by industry).
Agricultural operations in Canada employed 280,315 people in 2015. From a trade perspective, agricultural goods accounted for 2.2% of Canada's total imports and 4.6% of total exports (CANSIM table 228-0059, accessed April 13, 2017). In terms of value, almost one-third of Canadian agricultural production was exported in 2013 (CANSIM table 381-0033,accessed April 13, 2017)."
On a personal note, since moving to our farm, most of the neighbouring farms are no longer active. Some farmers have passed away, while others found it necessary to leave the land and lifestyle they had chose, to earn a “regular” wage” to support their family.
The take home message, farmers are getting older, there are fewer of them, and the land in production is shrinking.
I hope you find the numbers disturbing, I do!
Kingston recently hosted The Agenda with Steve Paikin. For more information, check out tvo.org/agendacamp. The focus was Ontario’s agricultural economies. A daylong workshop at Queen’s University gave participants an opportunity for city and rural dwellers to meet rural agriculture and to meet the agricultural economy head on.
The debate covered Ontario’s Agricultural Economy, with the byline “a global supermarket, changing demographics and a severe economic shock: the future of the men and women who work the earth.”
Guests included Bette Jeans Crews, President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture; Randy Hillier, Progressive Conservative MPP for Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, Partners with Rural Ontario task force; Peter Ruiter, a dairy farmer from Ottawa and Kim Systsma, a beef farmer from Athens. I hope you saw the broadcast, checked out the TVO Agenda web site or participated. If you did, I suspect you learned a few things.
I would like to bring a couple of issues to your attention out of the many discussed on the broadcast. The disconnection between people who work the land / grow food and the consumer is felt on both sides of that particular fence. As the agricultural land base shrinks, so does the number of want-to-be farmers. The problem then becomes how will we attract and keep new farmers. If young people are encouraged to go to school, get an education and work with their minds – who will farm in the future?
The AgendaCamp focused on thenext generation of farmers. From there we can ask the multi-faceted question - how are we as a society going encourage a green economy, rural growth and reverse the decline in farming?
Respecting our farmers and the food they produce should include the idea that farming is a business. Big or small, the farm business is our lifeline to survival. Most of us farm because we love what we do, not because we want to cause harm to the land or the animals. Owning a farm is about making a living and providing thoughtful stewardship of the land for current and future uses. Therefore, if you move to the countryside, treasure the sight of that slow moving farm equipment down the road – you are looking at a “growing” business in operation.
I suggest that we must value farmers, the workers of our land, and the suppliers of our food. Moreover, we must do it sooner rather than later.
Finally, I would like to share a comment by Geri Kamentz (OFA). “When farmers look at what’s going on around the world in just about every business, they are justified to be pleased with their chosen vocation. With banks collapsing everywhere and governments scrambling to prop them up, farmers have an unusual feeling of personal security – there’s always a job to do and food for the family.” I wholeheartedly agree I believe there is no better job than caring for our land, our animals and feeding people.
This has been updated since it was originally published in February 2009.
[Your Name Here] | Post a Comment | 1 Reference | Share Article
January 2009 - the beginnings
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2010 AT 4:40PM
I was raised in Prince Edward County on a small mixed farm. I loved the animals, the freedom, the pony I had and the miles we traveled together, the chance to drive the tractor and going for walks across the fields and into the woods with Dad. Like most children, I complained when I was told to weed the garden or help in the tomato field, doing most chores was something to drag your heels about. Working with the livestock and doing the barn chores though, was better than garden duty any day. In fact my childhood was similar to everyone’s around me. Most of us grew up on working farms. Time and dare I suggest, maturity has allowed me to appreciate my upbringing.
I grew up knowing farms. I knew that what you grew or raised was often what you ate. When I turned 13, I was old enough to work part-time on my cousins’ farm and help to prepare their canning factory for the fall packing season. Everyone grew and or preserved at least some of their family’s food supply. There was no doubt where it came from, no question of how it was grown or treated. You just knew. And if you did not grow it, you probably bought some it from a neighbouring farm. I don’t mean to suggest that our little island was so backwater that we did not shop at the local grocery stores, but most people had an innate understanding of the connection between the land and feeding their family.
Now fast forward to 2008. Who is growing what we eat? Do you know where your food came from? Or how it was grown? Or how the animals were treated? Then again, did you realize the steak in plastic wrap sitting on the sterile Styrofoam tray actually came from an animal? In the past year, food, toys, even pet-food have been contaminated by unsafe products that have entered manufacturing systems in places lacking Canadian quality standards. We have also seen large problems in vast corporations such that when a problem occurs, the scale is so magnified that the effect is felt across the nation.
It is now popular to talk about buying local. We are encouraged to get to know your farm producer. I am in favour of this. It has become a popular by-line, which should be second to the fact; society needs to understand the connection between the food on their plate and the land. I believe this means we need to think about our food supply chain; we need to think about what happens as we lose land to yet another housing or business development; we need to ask where is the next-generation of farmer is going to come from?
If you think the food on your dinner table comes from the local grocery store – you are probably correct. But have you thought about the long line of people that grew the crop, or process and ship it? Do you think about the final preparation of the item before it arrives on your plate?
I often wonder, as our society grows away from the land, who will value those of us who want to farm and care for the land. Some of us want to be stewards of the land and make a living doing so. Many farmers have to supplement the farm income with off-farm work. I often say that I work to support my habit. The call of the land, the need to produce something of value is so strong… I can not deny the pull – to do so gives up my heritage and my core values.
This becomes the perfect time for us to think about making changes. Global warming and increasing fuel costs will help to drive the “buy local” campaign. The 100 mile diet is talked about as if it is a rare and almost difficult thing to do. It may be difficult, perhaps not even 100% attainable, especially if you enjoy oranges and bananas. But we can feed ourselves from close at hand if we make a conscious choice. My husband and I like the fact that we grow much of the food served on our table. We raise the livestock. We know what has gone into the food on our plate. We are now finding more people who want to know how the food on their plate was grown or raised – it matters to them. I feel reassured that society will recognize and value the local farm producer. Perhaps the small farm will still have a place in the Canadian landscape.
this was originally published in February 2009