Business viability | Small-scale farmers say governments could do more to support growers
Chris and Rachel Buhler run a small vegetable greenhouse compared to others in the country, but they’re on the big side for greenhouses in Saskatchewan.
The brother and sister are just starting out with their half-acre Floating Gardens near Osler, Sask., and their goal is to grow.
However, they don’t feel they’re receiving enough support from the provincial and federal governments.
“There’s a few things that we fall through the cracks on,” said Rachel.
“There are reps that are specialists in greenhouses, and we have access to food industry experts that work with different agencies, but in lots of ways, we do fall through the cracks.”
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Scott Brown, executive director of policy for the Saskatchewan agriculture ministry, said the government doesn’t make policy based on farm size.
“When we design programs and policies, we try to make them for all farmers in Saskatchewan,” said Brown.
“It seems to be the best approach that we can come up with, to try to make things generally available for everyone, and they can use it or not.”
He said the government takes this approach partly because defining a small farm can be tricky. Is it measured by the number of acres, or by income? How much income does a farm need to earn before it’s no longer considered small?
The provincial government doesn’t have a definition for a small farm, but the federal government does: annual sales revenue of less than $100,000.
By this measurement, small farms represent 51 per cent of all farms in Saskatchewan.
Very small farms, with revenues of less than $25,000, represent 23 percent of all farms.
The provincial government’s approach to policy making sounds egalitarian, but Chris Buhler said it might not be as straightforward as it seems.
“If you just have an even playing field for everybody, the advantage is going to be for people with more power in that system,” he said.
His sister said she is worried by the fact that the number of small farms is decreasing in Canada while the number of large farms is increasing.
“I think it’s healthier to have a society that has more people making a living than some people making a killing,” she said.
She’s also concerned about the trend toward very large farms because she sees problems in the environmental management of those farms.
“My belief is that smaller farmers would manage their land in a more environmentally sound way.”
Nettie Wiebe agreed.
A lifelong farmer and ethics teacher at the University of Saskatchewan, Wiebe said small scale farming is “absolutely necessary” to the province’s long-term health.
She said large-scale farms can be hard on the environment, the mono-cultures more often seen in larger operations can be a threat to food security and small-scale farms are an important way to maintain culture and create healthy neighbourhoods.
Brown said the government agrees that a diversity of farms is important to a healthy economy.
“It spreads our risk, so if you look at the impact of the farming population in Saskatchewan, that mix of diversity can provide strength in terms of weathering different kinds of scenarios.”
However, Wiebe said government support isn’t there in a tangible way.
“(Small farms) are being made less and less viable, and for the last 30 years the policy has been so hostile to us that it has become very, very difficult to make a living on a small scale farm,” she said.
Chris Buhler said he’s found the local government to be supportive, both through the rural municipality and the Town of Osler, and the provincial government has made an effort to be supportive. However, there are still gaps in support.
The Buhlers would like to see more support for innovation and experimentation in farming and more help for new farmers.
Statistics Canada reports that the average age of a farm operator in 2011 was 54, up from 52 in 2006. This trend, combined with the difficulty of starting a new farm, worries Rachel Buhler.
“It’s in Canada’s best interest to want to help new farmers start, and it is extremely expensive and hard to get into, but I don’t know what that policy would look like,” she said.
