Agriculture

Agriculture and Rural Development used to be pretty well synonymous. This has changed over the years as fewer of the population are involved in farming and a larger percentage of the agricultural and food production process has shifted to an urban base.

One of the biggest changes in agriculture is the globalization of markets making for cheep food available year round and produced out of country. The drop of subsidies owing to free trade rules, has meant that Manitoba farmers have had to shift to a mentality of "value added food" in order to make ends meet. This has meant , for example, the feeding of grain to animals and the shipping of this "value added grain" product elsewhere rather than shipping raw grain.

One study found that two factors were common to all good farm operations in the prairie region

  1. good land (therefore less cost for expensive land supplements)
  2. off farm employment (in effect paying for the privilege of providing inexpensive food to others).[]

It is still an open question whether the larger farms are really all that more efficient. _____ noted that the shift has been from ten calories of energy in for every calorie out to exactly the reverse with modern farming.[] One wonders just how much longer such a practice can continue.

The toll on farm families has been very great, as the existence of "farm crisis stress phone lines" bear witness.

Further Resources

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