If you are lucky, you will be able to take in one of the many country fairs held throughout Eastern Ontario at this time of year. These rites of summer do in fact offer something for everyone. Over the years, to draw in the non-rural types, agricultural societies have diversified programs, serving up all sorts of entertainment, competitions and “refreshments.” You can now find everything from a baby contest to a demolition derby at a rural exhibition.
And yet, livestock shows, field crops, home and garden contests are still main attractions at country fairs.
While the events are all great fun, and recognize those who are outstanding in their fields, they can also help to make the field-to-fork, producer-to-consumer connection.
In this part of the world, people do not be reminded that, as the signs say, “Farmers Feed Cities.”
But surveys have shown that while three in five Canadians view agriculture positively, the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity found that 91 per cent of respondents said they know little, very little or nothing about modern agricultural practices.
So, survey says, most consumers respect farmers; they just aren’t sure why they admire farmers.
Fortunately, about 60 per cent of Canadians say they want to know more about agriculture. Sadly, the other 40 per cent prefer to remain in the dark.
Like every other business, agriculture has been evolving. In Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry, the number of farms dropped from 1,464 in 2016 to 1,438 in 2021, according to the farm censuses conducted by Statistics Canada.
Those numbers reflect a national pattern. As a result of industry consolidation and aging of farm operators, across the country the number of farms dropped by 1.9 per cent from 2016 (193,492 farms) to 2021 (189,874 farms). The decrease in the number of farms resulted in a 3.5% decline in the number of farm operators reported from the previous census. In 2016, there were 271,935 farm operators; by 2021 the number decreased to 262,455.
At the same time, the number of female operators has increased for the first time since 1991. In 2021, there were 79,795 female farm operators, up from 77,970 in 2016. In 2021, 30.4 per cent of total farm operators were female, up from 28.7 per cent in 2016.
Credibility is a valuable commodity when consumers are persistently bombarded with massive volumes of bogus health claims and misinformation about everything. But skeptical shoppers tend to trust farmers to provide them with accurate information about their food. “Believability scores” are lowest for food processors, restaurants and advocacy groups.
Farming has never been easy. Intense weather and international trade wars are among the many factors that are beyond producers’ control. In 2022, when across Canada there were 28,000 unfilled jobs during peak harvest season, labour shortages caused an estimated $3.5 billion in lost sales.
Meanwhile, agriculture continues to innovate.
For example, the Ontario government is investing $7.2 million in 44 research and innovation projects that will be carried out through a partnership with the University of Guelph and Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario (ARIO).
Project examples include: Creating a carbon capture system to store and reuse carbon dioxide in greenhouses to reduce emissions, optimizing fertilizer management for winter wheat and vegetable crops in Ontario to reduce reliance on fertilizers and creating low-cost bio-graphene out of agricultural residues that can be used for electric batteries. Tests are ongoing to develop plastic alternatives to provide environmental solutions that reduce reliance on single-use plastic products. And there is work being done on developing a harvesting robot for tomato greenhouses. Another intriguing trial will look at using “wearable sensors and molecular markers for health risk assessment and targeted preventive practices in transition cow management.”
If the planet is still around by then, by 2050, global food production must increase by 60 per cent to cover the needs of a growing population, according to doomsayers. Earth can only stand so much stress. In the future, the world will not be adequately fed with “linear food systems,” which follow the take-make-waste model.
Some old ways are good ways. Many experts are writing scholarly papers that espouse circular food production, which is essentially traditional farming. Arable land is used for food production; what cannot be eaten by humans is recycled as animal feed; manure from animals fertilizes soil which in turn produces food. Minimize waste; optimize output. These are not new ideas. But they have gained new currency, as demand for food grows, and the number of producers, and acreage of productive land, continue to drop.
We are advised to accept a healthier and “more sustainable diet,” while trying to increase biodiversity and mitigate climate change. Maybe you could keep that in mind as you watch the beef show at a summer fair near you.
