Young people need to experience farming
NIAGARA VOICES
I hold a resounding pride in my roots and the many families who’ve helped build Niagara’s tender fruit industry to what it is today.
Celebrations like the Niagara Wine Festival remind us of our local history, however, as agricultural spaces shrink the gap between the people and farmers is widening. What happens when we no longer have local farmers to raise our glasses to?
I cherish my farming heritage. Both my grandpa and great uncle were Grape Kings and my dad followed suit working both a full-time career while maintaining his farm. However, with increased foreign product and the red tape in getting produce on grocer shelves he’s been forced to remove 80 per cent of his crop because there’s not enough customers. And he’s not alone. Unfortunately, the farms being passed down the bloodlines are dissolving because our valuation towards farming is thinning. Developers are quick to help a farmer out with a sale. Take a good look around; the best farmland is growing cities not food.
Certain perceptions alarm me about farming’s future. I’m reminded of a co-worker whose nine-year-old daughter genuinely believed bacon came from the grocery store. She had no idea it comes from pigs raised on farms. And please, I’m not faulting anyone avoiding where the tumbleweeds blow but perceptions like these once matured are why farmers struggle. People don’t understand where their meals come from. Who can blame them? Grocery store shelves are never empty so why worry how our food gets there?
As a kid farming wasn’t the common denominator among my peers. In an effort to fit in I rolled my eyes and down played my heritage. I was embarrassed that I drove machines with rims the span of one’s snow angel rather than the size of a dinner plate. I wasn’t popular because weekends meant chores not arcades at the mall. But I’m grateful for the lessons my parents taught me through farming and I make a conscious effort to buy local. So how do we stop the erosion of farming and sustain our future?
Parents, we must step up. Young people need to experience farming. And I mean more than just a weekend pick-your-own adventure. Witnessing the fruits of your labour and learning how to cultivate the actions necessary to achieve results are not inherent skills, they’re taught. This requires patience and perseverance. It means getting dirty and sometimes you have losses. You don’t get rewarded just because you tried. Real life doesn’t work that way either. No one’s boss says “thanks, here’s a promotion for trying.” One step forward would involve the community hours required by students to graduate. Having a percentage of those hours reflect farm experience would be a start.
Believe me I get it, the media doesn’t glamorize farming. Shovelling manure isn’t sexy, what’s there to ‘re-tweet’ or ‘like’ about that? But someone has to do it. We have to eat. We need nutrient dense foods not ones bulked up with water and ripened in a shipping container. We have the means to grow what we need here if we support it. If we continually let price dictate our purchases and relinquish farmland for other development farmers vanish and our reliance on foreign markets and their prices skyrockets. It’s irreversible,
But Philpott is not the only one playing fast and loose with the truth here.
Other groups seeking intervenor status include the B.C. Health Coalition — a unionsupported pro-medicare advocacy group — and Canadian Doctors for Medicare, an organization run by Dr. Monika Dutt, a failed federal NDP candidate. Like the governments of Canada and British Columbia, these groups are well-funded, have extensive access to some of the top constitutional lawyers in the country, and seem more interested in protecting the interests of whoever is funding them than those of ordinary patients.
As for me, I’d like to see the judge presiding over the case ask each of these intervenors a simple question: “Have you, or any one in your family, ever engaged in queue jumping?” I’d then follow that one up with: “Have you, or any one in your family, ever been assessed or treated at a private medical facility — either here in Canada or somewhere else?”
The answers to these questions are important because they speak to the very heart of this matter. If you can’t or won’t be up front and answer these questions honestly, then you have no business acting as an intervenor at any point during Day’s constitutional challenge. To do so would make you a hypocrite. farmers aren’t hatched overnight.
My perspective may be old school but I’m actually part of the Millennial generation. Younger generations are often criticized but they have lots to offer and let’s be honest they’re already setting the pace. They’re tech savvy and seek output with minimal input. The future of farming depends on resourceful mindsets. Bridging the gap means being an informed consumer and actively nurturing local assets. Maybe the danger of losing our roots will encourage more folks to venture where nature’s music isn’t played from an app, instead where it’s just always on. Lindsay Bell is an innovative workplace wellness specialist and human resources professional passionate about creating healthy and engaged workplaces that enable organizations to optimize their best asset, their people.