Agriculture was the foundation of Manitoulin Island communities and culture, for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, with the family farm forming its footings. But the rising cost of farmland, equipment, fuel combined with the often Miprecarious state of profitable returns on farm produce are coming together in a near-perfect storm that threatens the existence of the family farm.
Would-be young farmers are being priced out of the market by deep pocketed land speculators who have discovered agricultural land to be a safe and sound location in which to park money in these troubled times. Much like the escalation in residential property casts that has locked many young families out of the dream of home ownership, those who wish to continue their farm lifestyle can no longer afford to enter the market.
The beneficiaries of this land inflation are the large corporations which already control much of the agricultural output of the nation. Not that agri-corp industry is evil, or if so, it certainly falls into a category of “necessary” evil as the economies of scale help to keep the cost of production down. But the rising cost of agricultural land has to be covered by someone—and that someone is, inevitably, the consumer.
As the consolidation of agriculture into ever-larger corporate operations has benefits, it also helps to accelerate the consolidation of wealth into the hands of an ever-shrinking oligarchy that technology has made possible like never before.
This is an issue whose impact stretches far beyond the farmgate and into each and every household, no matter how far removed from the fields in which our food is produced.
There are programs out there to assist young farmers in following their heritage and dreams, but those programs fall far short of what is needed to ensure that a new generation of farmers can follow in their parents’ footsteps. As a result, the family farmer might feel quite at home on an endangered species list.
A quick glance around the Island at the average age of our remaining farmers will confirm the obvious, they are quickly aging out—many quite literally dying out.
The bumper stickers/memes exhorting the viewer to “thank a farmer” for the food on their table may soon be replaced with “thank a corporation” as the number of traditional “farmers” dwindles out of existence.
The equation surrounding the decline of the family farm is complex and there is no “easy fix” for this ongoing trend, but just because finding solutions to an issue is challenging is no reason for society to simply throw up its hands and walk away saying “there is nothing to be done.”
The removal of the carbon tax from farm inputs would be a start to helping to make farms more sustainable, while most of the benefits from such a move would land in hedge fund pockets, it would also make the business case for smaller scale farming more solid.
It is long past time for society to recognize the growing endangered status of the family farm and take steps to find solutions. This is not a trend confined to the shores of Manitoulin Island, but rather one that is taking place from sea to shining sea. A concerted effort must be undertaken to find solutions—and not ones that create a new class of serf beholden to faceless agri-corps for their land.
The federal and provincial governments, together with the agricultural associations should set up a national inquiry into the decline of the family farm and consultations aimed at finding those solutions—while there are still farmers left to thank.
