Farms and Farming in The Land Between

Written by Joel Sloggett

The Land Between (TLB) has been working to better understand, and emphasize the importance of, agriculture, food and the food system of TLB. One aspect of this project has been an analysis of available agricultural census data for TLB areas, to provide a quantitative perspective on what has been grown here, when, how, by whom, and to what degree. The most recent data available is from the 2016 Census of Agriculture and current analysis also covers census data from 2011 and 2006. Here are just 3 examples of statistics I believe are worth further discussion/investigation:

In 2016, 52.37% of TLB farms were primarily beef or hay farms (in 2011= 49.73%, 2006= 56.7%). The prevalence of beef farms in TLB holds true in each individual census subdivision of the region, other than: Gravenhurst has only 2 beef farms but 9 farms classified as hay, Bracebridge has more than twice as many hay farms as beef, Muskoka Lakes has 11 hay to 7 beef farms, and in Highlands East maple syrup tops beef, 10 farms to 9.  

The average age of TLB farmers, at 57 years, is 1.72 years older than Ontario overall and 2 years older than Canada overall. The average age in 2006 was 54, and 56.24 in 2011. This increase of 3 years is matched by the Canadian rate, and slightly greater than the 2.7 year increase for Ontario. In short, TLB farmers were already older than the Ontario average, and that average age is increasing at a greater rate. 

From 2006-2016, TLB has lost 983 farms (5300 to 4317), land in crops has decreased 50,419 acres (553,885 to 503,466), tame/seeded pasture has decreased 19,852 acres (97,522 to 77,670) and natural pasture has decreased by 90,567 acres (300,972 to 210,766). In terms of TLB farm types, primarily hay farms have gone down by 142 and beef has decreased by 649, while there has been an increase of 9 poultry/egg, 36 bee, 4 fur-bearing animal/rabbit, 132 soybean, 2 other oilseed, 23 wheat, 67 corn, 70 other grain, 23 vegetable, 7 mushroom/covered food crop and 13 fruit/vegetable combination farms. In the last 10 years, TLB has lost nearly 1,000 farms, over 50,000 acres of crops and over 110,000 acres of tame, seeded or natural land for pasture. New farms, or remaining farms searching for future profitability/survival are looking to soybean, corn, “other grain” or wheat as the answer, though poultry, bees, fruit and vegetable farms are seeing growth as well.*  

What Does All of this Mean?

Farming in the Land Between has come a long way from settler homesteads struggling to survive on a mix of whatever they could get to grow, via seeds from back home, or through local knowledge/relationships with indigenous people, and supplemented with a heavy helping of hunted or trapped wild meats. While farmers now have any number of options for input access, their choices beyond that initial stage in the farming process have been dramatically reduced. Demand for land to develop, intensified production practices, the export-oriented nature of Canadian and Ontarian agriculture, corporate monopolization of each stage in the food supply chain and overall shifts in food culture brought on by further human separation from the land, have combined to create a very limited number of choices for TLB farmers. 

To survive financially today, farmers must grow, specialize, or likely both. The idealized notion of the mixed family farming operation has been forced in one of two directions: follow what has become the traditional, strictly profit-motivated path and reduce the mix to one or two cash crops, and/or hay for livestock, or alternatively invest an incredible amount of time, planning and effort in a carefully marketed and managed cyclical farming process, that works with native conditions/ecosystems. This alternative route utilizes a synchronistic combination of livestock eating/grazing and providing manure, crop mixes that support each other and the land they grow in, minimized inputs and naturalized land for pollinators and/or the keeping of bee colonies. This second approach increases resiliency, biodiversity, effectiveness of ecosystem services and can then be capitalized on to produce niche/artisanal products that capture the added-value of how they came to be, within a growing segment of the consumer market making purchasing decisions based on more than just cost. Additionally, related agricultural products such as maple syrup, lumber, Christmas trees, etc., increase in marketability due to the farm ecosystem they are produced in, and the holistic (de-urbanized?) nature of many of today’s remaining small-to-medium sized farms presents opportunities for agricultural tourism, direct to consumer sales and other on-farm experiences, given proper controls/regulation. 

*All data come from the 2016, 2011 and 2006 Canadian Censuses of Agriculture. TLB includes only portions of some census consolidated sub-divisions (CCSD), the smallest census area measured. In cases where the majority of the CCSD resides within TLB boundaries, data was included in the analysis, and the outlying portion included is noted here: north/north-eastern Greater Madawaska, eastern Rideau Lakes, southern South Frontenac, southern Tyendinaga, southern Trent Hills, southern Selwyn and southern Kawartha Lakes. Though these areas are outside the boundaries of TLB, they are directly adjoining us, and thus their ecosystems, food systems and economies are closely connected. Saying that, the southerly nature of these included regions brings additional prime agricultural lands into this analysis that are not technically in TLB. Greater Madawaska had only 1,534 acres of land in crops in 2016, but Rideau Lakes brings 22,702 acres of land in crops, South Frontenac 26,430, Tyendinaga 15,150, Trent Hills 47,492, Selwyn 20,843 and Kawartha Lakes 168,272. Combined, that is a total of 302,423 acres, or 60% of TLB’s total land in crops in these CCSD straddling the boundaries of TLB. For total farmland, these CCSD combine for a total of 571,507 acres, 53.48% of TLB’s total farmland. The 2,302 farms in these areas in 2016 were 53.32% of TLB’s total.