Farmers in Crisis

NS: Nova Scotia farmers are in ‘crisis’
By Chris Shannon, Transcontinental Media

Source: Cape Breton Post, Jul. 28/10

[SYDNEY, NS] – Farmers across the province are in “crisis” with incomes dropping drastically and fewer young people entering the profession.

A report released Tuesday by the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture is a joint project with the Ecology Action Centre. It indicates that although total farm cash receipts have grown by 11 per cent from 1971 to 2008, net farm income has plummeted 80 per cent over the same period. In 2008, farmers in Nova Scotia didn’t have a net income.

“Support for new farmers, existing farmers, I think that would be our real challenge to make farming economically viable here in the province so that young people want to get into farming,” says Marla MacLeod of the Ecology Action Centre and co-author of the report, Are Nova Scotians Eating Local? The report took a close look at the cost of food and what it might take to make a more locally based food system.

Based on a survey of household spending conducted by Statistics Canada, Nova Scotians spent about $2.6 billion on food in 2008. The report’s authors estimated that in 2008 Nova Scotians spent 13 per cent of their grocery budget on food produced locally. In 1997, it was 17 per cent.

The study examined more than 60 products and found that, on average, the food products were travelling nearly 4,000 kilometres from the farm to the kitchen table.

“There is potential for reducing transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by switching to locally grown foods, provided they’re produced by methods of similar or increased energy efficiency compared with imports,” MacLeod says.

Joe King, manager of the vegetable division at Eyking Farms in Millville, says he has seen improvements in retailers keeping more locally grown products in stores across Cape Breton.

“There’s more ‘buy local’ over the last two years,” King says.

He says grocery chains such as Sobeys ship Eyking’s lettuce, cabbage and turnip to a main distribution centre in Debert, outside Truro, before returning to the island for sale in stores.

Among the report’s key recommendations is the need for consumers to ask their grocery stores, restaurants and institutions if they buy local. Farmers should “forge new, unconventional” alliances between health, environmental, social justice and anti-poverty organizations, the report says.

It also cites the need for retailers to begin competing to offer consumers more local options, and those companies should look to replace imported food items with ones that are easily grown in Nova Scotia.

The government should break down barriers related to provincial and federal meat inspection, and develop and adopt local, sustainable procurement policies that include targets.

In the beef industry, more than 90 per cent of the beef eaten by Nova Scotians is imported from elsewhere in the country, the report states. It says local beef production has “great potential” for improving soil quality and rejuvenating rural communities.

On average, 1.14 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions are created from trucks used in the transportation of every kilogram of imported beef. The report says the cost to the environment in beef imports is estimated at $30 million a year.

“People have gotten used to taking the first thing they see in the grocery store as opposed to shopping around to find some product that’s local,” says Donnie MacNeil, a beef producer in Point Aconi who sells his products directly to the customer.

A new seller at the weekly farmer’s market in Coxheath, MacNeil says it’s been historically cheaper to produce beef in central and western Canada due to lower grain costs. He says higher fuel prices will likely make it easier for small businesses to compete and make a profit.

“It’s going to get to the point where it’s just going to cost way too much to transport food. It’s going to make it a little bit more competitive for us with such a short growing season to compete.”