Ongoing problems related to tainted foods coming from China underline the need for Canada to make its own food supply one a top priority.
Few are as aware that “Canada needs to become self-sufficient once again”, as David Honey, President of the Niagara Landowners Association.
Canada is blessed with the richest agricultural land in the world, with enough farmland to feed our entire country, plus several others at the same time.
Yet the hardworking Canadian farmer is headed for the endangered species list.
“Last year, we watched the abrupt demise of our grape juice industry when the Cadbury juice plant in St. Catharine’s closed its doors,” Honey told Canada Free Press (CFP) last night. “With no market for their produce, Ontario grape growers were forced to rip out over 3,000 acres of vines. The meager government funding they received only covered a fraction of the cost of this destruction, and no replant program was ever offered to put that now-barren land back into production.”
That this could happen in the aftermath of Ontario grape growers having gained international recognition for its coveted ice wines only emphasizes the scope of the tragedy.
Now just one year later, comes another devastating blow to Canada’s hardworking farmers—the closure of Cangro—the last Canadian canning factory east of the Rockies. Compounded with last year’s Mott’s closure, this disaster is expected to force roughly 250 farms in the Niagara Peninsula into bankruptcy, plus put into peril all of the companies that sell equipment and product to these farmers.
A dust bowl fate for Ontario farmers is happening at a time when the American economy is headed toward recession.
The death of the farm is a growing trend with 10% of Ontario farms having gone out of business since 2001, and well over 6,000 acres of prime land in the legendary Niagara Peninsula alone now lie barren and unused.
This is a made-in-Canada story that should be shouted from the rooftops. Our not so long ago thriving farmland lays barren.
Generations of family farmers couldn’t have foreseen that within their lifetime, Canadians would be forced to rely on other countries to provide us with the majority of food that we eat.
“Now, instead of purchasing high-quality Canadian-grown produce that was the boast of the world, we’re expected to buy shoddy imports grown thousands of miles away—in countries with questionable agricultural practices, where we have no control over what food is sprayed with or grown in, nor how it’s even handled or packaged,” says Honey.
The decline of Canadian farms is an epic story that stars the interference of government and big business shoving farmers aside.
“Canada’s crushingly complex legislation has forced many large corporations to move their processing plants out of the country, plus made it easy for food to be imported into rather than grown in Canada. They made it difficult for Canadian farmers to transport their own produce from one province to the next.
“Government legislation has also driven up the cost of local produce, allowed large food marketing chains to exclude Canadian products whenever they wish, and are even endorsing misleading labeling practices that make foreign-grown food appear Canadian-made.”
The Canadian farmer, whose proud job was to bring the best of the fields to the Canadian table, has been all but cut out of a centuries old profession.
“We cannot assume that other countries will also provide us with the food that we need—nor that we will always want what they’re offering (think Avian flu and SARS).”
But this is a homemade tragedy that can be halted by intervention.
“We can become self-sufficient—if Canadian citizens demand it,” says Honey.
“CanGro needs to remain open. If no buyer is immediately present, it should be purchased as a cooperative, with our government providing bridge financing.
“Canadians need to insist on local produce and Canadian-made products, and insist that Canadian-grown food be processed and sold in Canada once again. Positive solutions are out there. We just need to demand them.”
The proud Canadian farmer is as much a part of the Canadian landscape as the maple leaf. Bring the farmer back where the Canadian farmer belongs, out in the field, not stored on the shelf as a relic of the past.
Judi McLeod——Bio and Archives
-- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.
