We’re about to have an extremely expensive and difficult summer for farmers in many parts of Canada.
There’s always been unpredictable weather, of course – ask any grizzled old farmer, and you’ll get stories about hail, late frost, windstorms, floods and the associated pests and blights that can follow. But climate change is just making things more uncertain.
Then there’s the geopolitical issues hitting the economy that will impact farmers – expensive fuel and fertilizer, thanks to the war in Ukraine, expensive equipment thanks to the supply chain issues that are hangovers from the pandemic and shortages of labour. Those general issues are hitting every industry, but growing grain, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, dairy, and meats are a little bit more important than manufacturing video game consoles, for example.
Maybe some combination of technology and clever economics will mean that in a decade or two food will be cheaper, nutritious, and locally produced. Maybe we’ll finally figure out how to do cheap vertical farming, maybe genetically modified crops will provide a boom, maybe we’ll grow cruelty-free steak in vats.
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But we can’t guarantee any of those advances. In the meantime, we have to ensure that we have enough fertile land, resources, and labour to support the farms we rely on now.
This isn’t a matter of honking our support at folks with a “No Farmers, No Food” bumper sticker. It means serious political engagement with the problems of farming on every scale, from a local poultry operation to the wheat and corn belts of the Prairies and Ontario.
It’s not an easy problem, and unfortunately it’s not even one problem, it’s many, intertwined and sometimes making each other worse. But our leaders have to tackle it, because we’ve all got to eat.
– M.C.