Farmers Weekly, a publication in the United Kingdom, recently posted an article called Events That Shook Farming. The criteria used in selection were not explained, but the three listed relative to agriculture in England could also be on a Canadian list.
1. War, which transformed agriculture, particularly during and after the Second World War. Farming gained new importance as part of the war effort, and post-war programs encouraged land purchase and development. It also fostered government supported research.
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2. BSE, which transformed the beef industry. In the U.K, says Farmers Weekly, discovery of BSE “led to the precautionary slaughter of 4.4 million animals and cost an estimated 5 billion euros in consumer safeguards.”
In Canada, discovery of BSE cost millions in lost trade and continues to do so. It may potentially cost even more in safeguards through SRM removal and traceability. The industry here still has not recovered.
3. The changing political landscape, which affects almost every aspect of agriculture. In the U.K., effects described by Farmers Weekly have few parallels with the Canadian experience. Nevertheless, politics govern so many aspects of agriculture that it is impossible to separate the two.
If we were to compile a uniquely Canadian list, what events besides the three above could be described as ones that shook farming?
I’ll suggest a few:
4. The Great Depression, which curtailed prairie agricultural production and, perhaps more importantly, altered the psyche of farmers so drastically that it has affected attitudes and politics ever since.
5. The demise of the Crow Rate rail transportation subsidy, which has affected development of livestock production, farmer profitability and crop diversification, to name but a few results.
6. The development of canola, now a major crop on the prairies and vital as a source of edible oil and biofuel.
7. The development of genetically modified crop varieties, their uptake with prairie farmers and the potential they represent.
8. The drastic cost-cutting measures of federal governments in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Those are some of the obvious ones. What do you think? What’s on your list of events that shook agriculture?
