Today’s news may inform tomorrow’s crop choices
The tableau of a farmer wearing overalls chewing on a stock of wheat is simple and recognizable.
“Farmer,” your charade teammates would yell. For the nostalgic, the image hearkens back to a black and white time when all grandpa had to do was get out there, work hard and bring in the harvest.
Advances in agriculture have not outpaced the farmers for which they are intended.
There is a constant and justifiable desire among the ag community for improving our operations. Our hands still get dirty.
We’re still connected. Farmers are routinely typecast as lacking when compared to the nuance and sophistication associated with city dwellers. Perhaps it’s because there’s something outwardly simple about what we do — the crops we grow.
A farmer’s decision to grow, say, wheat and soybeans may seem quite simple but, trust me, it’s not. At least not in the classic definition of the word: constituting a basic element.
CBC ran a story shortly before Canada legalized marijuana with the headline “Why grow food when you can grow weed? Farmers face a difficult choice as legalization looms.”
To wade through the mess of what motivates a farmer to grow what he or she grows and come up with “it’s available, so farmers will feel pressure to plant it” is lazy thinking and damaging. It’s also false. Cropping decisions are, in part, a farmer’s public expression and they represent so much more than a cold, callous cost-benefit calculation. New crops and new varieties of old crops enter the market all the time.
Marijuana is not special. It’s unique, to be sure, but it is not creating buzz just because it’s a new offering that the Canadian government has labelled an agricultural product.
When edible beans (pulse crops) crossed the ocean and became an option for Canadian farmers, adoption took time. Varieties suited for our climate needed to be developed and farmers needed to become acquainted with how to grow them and how to sell them.
These decisions are not easy. To be an early adopter is risky and when times are tight — when, say, your neighbour has waged a trade war that has greatly affected commodity prices — farmers tend to grow what they know.
And we tend to grow what the area grows. Our area of Manitoba receives more heat units than other parts of the province. We can grow longer season crops and varieties. But other parts of Manitoba and Canada can grow things we can’t, due to heat, soil and moisture differentials.
The decision is also social. Where I live, the municipality held a plebiscite asking whether a dispensary should be allowed in the area. The outcome of the vote was an overwhelming “no.”
A farmer deciding to take the legal steps required to grow marijuana (and there are many) would also have to be fine with potentially doing something he or she knows is frowned upon in the community.
My decision to grow wheat and soybeans next year will be a public one. If I planted quinoa or did something else perceived as unique or novel on my land, that decision would be fiscal and social. People would talk about it.
Current commodity prices, anticipated commodity prices, weather patterns, the global production outlook and much more are all parts of the complex puzzle that is how a farmer decides what to grow.
We’ve got the green light to grow marijuana, kind of. Those licences are not easy to obtain and there’s only a finite amount of them. Farmers are keenly aware of the option, and may at some point make it a part of their operations, but cropping plans are made years in advance and are too complex to give preferential treatment to a newcomer and outlier.