The Toronto Star and author Margaret Webb continue their sure-to-be-controversial series on agriculture in Canada with an article on small farms supplying local markets.
Webb says a group of young farmers near Montreal are pursuing their dream and building a new way of doing business for Canadian agriculture by working together through a worker-owned co-operative.
The article explores the differences between this venture and the more garden-variety commercial farms and argues that the numbers don’t back up the conventional farms.
The author also points out that the farm community over the past few decades has meant larger farms, fewer people and a rapidly aging farm population.
Webb also argues that the existing government policy doesn’t support reality. It’s aimed at helping the children of existing farmers enter the field when few want to, and ignores new entrants with few if any historic connection to agriculture.
