ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – CBC commentator and columnist Rex Murphy once brought the house down in a speech to an Ontario agribusiness crowd by suggesting that as a Newfoundlander, he was ill-suited to speak about agriculture.
“I’ve always understood agriculture requires three basic ingredients – soil, sunshine and water,” he opined. “We offer only one of those.”
Lots of rain, in other words, but precious little soil or sunshine.
Cathy Dunderdale likely wouldn’t appreciate the humour.
Newfoundland’s new natural resources minister responsible for agriculture enthuses about food production as a growth centre in the provincial economy, which is growing at twice the rate of Canadian growth. It is one of two Canadian provinces (British Columbia is the other) predicted to make money this year even without government support.
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“I’m sure you’ve heard of this place called The Rock and that doesn’t sound too agriculture friendly,” she told a July 27 meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture board of directors. “Nothing could be further from reality.”
Supply managed commodities make up 75 percent of the industry and the government has launched an aggressive five-year plan to buy land and lease it to farmers.
“Our farmers need more land to expand,” she said. “There is a shortage right now.”
Kevin Aucoin, a retired provincial agriculture bureaucrat, and Jo Shawyer, a retired geography professor from Memorial University, also might not appreciate Murphy’s humour.
They are active members of the Agricultural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, key creators of the program that has identified 13 farms that have been in the same family for more than 100 years, and keen storytellers about the province’s farming history.
They don’t go this far back but Newfoundland likely housed the first agricultural establishment in North America during the years that the Vikings had a fishing settlement at L’AnseÐaux-Meadows around 1000 AD.
But farming officially began on the island after 1813 when the British government decided that settlement would be allowed after insisting for decades that Newfoundland was to be a fishing spot only. Undoubtedly, many squatters already had started farms after deserting the navy or fleeing the fishing industry, but they were not recognized.
Military commanders also were granted “gentlemen’s estates” where gardens were planted.
Early farms, called plantations, mainly consisted of gardens.
Immigrants from the British Isles became the main farmers on the east end of the island. Scottish and French settlers from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia became the mainstay of the more attractive west coast areas.
Over the next century, farms were developed that included root crops, vegetables and some livestock and dairy.
It was a peculiar aspect of Newfoundland agriculture that most livestock farmers let their animals roam free on crown land, mingling with other animals.
“We really didn’t have fences until the 1970s when the rules began to be created by municipalities,” Aucoin said.
Construction of a railway across the island early in the 20th century created the ability to move produce to domestic markets.
“Many call that period in the 1930s the golden age of agriculture,” said Shawyer.
Over the years, various government support schemes have tried to help sectors of the industry, but they often collapsed.
Since the 1970s, supply management has stabilized some sectors, making the province self-sufficient in table milk, eggs and broiler chickens. There also is a small wine industry, based on local berries. There are a few attempts at food processing, but most of the island’s food is imported.
Newfoundland now claims more than 600 farmers, higher than several years ago, although as many as 200 of those are estimated to have gross farm revenues of less than $10,000.
Shawyer said farm numbers became an issue after Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949 after a close vote.
Before confederation, the colony claimed 3,000 farmers. After joining Canada, the government-recognized number of farmers dropped to 1,200. The rest simply had gardens.
In the acrimonious debate that followed, no doubt the anti-confederates quickly blamed Canada for destroying more than half of Newfoundland’s farms.
“It was an issue,” said Shawyer.
