Farming In Canada

Former president George Washington once said, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man,” (George Washington Quote). Since Washington’s presidency, countless advancements and developments within the agricultural industry have allowed the United States to grow, develop, and become one of the most prosperous countries in the entire world. Nevertheless, this prosperity is also marked by several key historical events, such as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, which have caused the core values and traditions that this great nation was built on to slowly disappear. Today, the majority of Americans have no knowledge, understanding, or appreciation for the agricultural industry, causing them to take for granted the basic necessities they rely on each day. This disconnection has created a gap between producers and consumers, which is known as

Times have changed, and so has the family, the community and our environment. And these changes have impacted our lives and earth immeasurably. This is where the factor greed comes in to play, the need for more. This need for more called for extensive measures, measures like fertilizers, pesticides and equipment to work the ground and harvest the crops became necessity. Agriculture became a booming business that did not and still does not promote the well-being of the employee nor the individual let alone the family unit and community. Since 1950 an average farm size has doubled, but the number of laborers decreased substantially and the number of small local farmers has been cut in half. Farmers have been forced to become more efficient and there 's been a reliance on greater chemicals and technology, which has become very extensive and expensive. Sadly, what has been short term expansion has become a long-term threat (Trautmann, 2012). This greed driven increase has led to subtle damaging ramifications that most people are ignorant to. Their needs are being met as quality is being forsaken. Our environment is being squandered. Selfishness abounds.

After learning about the statistics of how much agriculture consumes our planet, I was appalled to see how destructive it is. Jonathan Foley put into perspective the increase and rapid demand for food. Agriculture alone consumes 40% of our land surface, 70% of our irrigation system, and

To conclude, our current way of agricultural life is not sustainable. The article “What’s for supper” has made me realize that if I hope for a better future for generations to come I should support a locally sourced lifestyle. This article is an eye opener to me and proved to me the importance of supporting locally grown produce. Locally grown produce supports the environment as well as jobs for people in the community. The current system takes a toll on every species on the planet. Humans are overproducing on a massive scale and are wasting close to half of our supplies and

The rising costs of land and the simultaneous costs of water make it so 30% of farm households have negative income. The cost of sustainability, such a new tilling methods and access to water, also strains farms. This often leads to farmers self-exploiting themselves to try to generate the most crops possible and cultivate their land to the fullest extent.

All across america, cows are confined to crowded, almost prison-like cells, with little to no regard to their health. They are forced to eat food that includes such ingredients like manure, cement, or even cow brains. This is one side of farming, but there is another. This farming has cows and other animals living how they would in nature, across rolling hills and bright green grasses. This is the essence of Local Sustainable farming. As defined in Michael Pollan’s award-winning commentary about the food we eat, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the Local Sustainable Food Chain, one of four possible food chains, is characterized by not using pesticides, treating animals humanely, and sustainably creating healthier organic food. Out of Michael Pollan’s food chains, the Local Sustainable Food Chain is the best for America as it is much less harmful to the environment and lets animals live in their natural states.

As an unhealthy culture of obesity continues to spread through out Canada the life style that many practice continue to worsen and influence the young around us. The shifting of our basic norms, values, practices and beliefs about healthy eating have not been challenged by anyone openly. The need for the federal government and the health minster is

Migrant agricultural work in Canada has been practised in Canada for over forty years, to help support and benefit Canadian farmers (Brem, M., 2006). Unfortunately, allowing the migrant agricultural workers in Canada permanent citizenship is a sensitive and controversial outstanding issue. Canadians who oppose the option for migrant agricultural workers to be granted paths to citizenship complain that these workers are not Canadian by birth, that the migrant workers intentions are to just take pre-existing Canadians money, the migrant agricultural workers are looking for a “free pass” into Canada or they presume that migrant workers put a burden on services paid for by taxes. Proponents for allowing migrant agricultural workers paths to Canadian

Pollan goes on to explain how the evolution and change in our food of choice and diet of choice has significantly impacted our environment. Bringing up the different types of farming; factory farming, organic farms, industrial farms, grass farms, and mixed farms and the different beliefs and systems each of those farms have on their property and how they choose to farm their stock and the impact each of these systems has on the enviornment. Pollan visits multiple different types of farms and explains to us the different pros and cons each farm uses to take care of their produce and animals. A common theme has found

Food insecurity is an issue seeing growth in Ontario which has an impact on thousands of people annually. It is defined as when an individual does not have adequate or sufficient access to healthy, nutritious food which prevents him or her from maintaining a healthy and active life.Some causes of food insecurity includes low income or unemployment, location, gender, race, physical or mental illness or disabilities and more. From the research I have done, nearly 10 percent of all Ontarians have suffered from food insecurity at least one in his or her life. As we learnt in class,  few programs effective with the creation of a solution for the problem such as Northern Food Canada. Though benefits of Northern Food Canada exist, there were flaws

For decades now the nation of Canada, our country has been a home to millions of immigrated citizens, due to the civil disorder, persecution, and/or simply for a better income and way of life. Canada proclaims multiculturalism, which demonstrates to these immigrants vision Canada will provide each and everyone of them a safer environment in which their home countries could not provide them. Since 1966, Immigrants and workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) have been a huge part of the Canadian history (CBC News 2012). The SAWP program brings in around 25,000 to Canada annually, says Kerry Preibisch, a professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Guelph. Sixty-six per cent of those workers are employed in

I believe that farming has the biggest economic, social and environmental impact on Canada. My first reason why is that Canadians spend a lot of money on food. Canada spends 4.6 billion dollars on food and that helps the industry. Think about what you buy in a month, we are always eating so we buy groceries a lot. We need food to survive so we are always buying it and that’s because of farming. It also creates jobs for Canadians. This is a very important job and pays well because many companies need farmers in order to have their companies. Take superstore, their company is created on selling food so the company will need the farmers to run. Lastly it is healthy for the environment because it is a renewable resource. If the land is used properly

Doughlas Lawr’s article, Agricultural Education in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: An Idea in Search of an Institution is based on the development of agricultural education in “the science of farming” during the 19th century Canada. His article focuses on whether there was a need to correct the farming practices in Ontario and if agricultural education would be the right answer to improve farming conditions as well as the economic development of the whole country. According to Lawr, brining scientific methods of production to the farmers through agricultural education seemed a good way to strengthen the province's basic industry. However, this new institution did go through many ups and downs that Lawr’s article further elaborates on.

Agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically over the centuries. Since the 1960’s large commercial farms have been leading in sales. As a direct result of their success we, as a society, have access to affordable food. However, the success of large farms has lead to many negative impacts such as increased usage of resources and decreased diversity in crop fields. This begs the question, what can be done to reduce the negative impacts of large farms. One solution growing in popularity is sustainable agriculture. The idea of sustainable agriculture is to create farms that need little to no outside help from irrigation, pesticides, or fertilizers. Sustainability can be achieved in many way through

Lack of a national emergency food organization in Canada affects health negatively. When accessing food banks an address is needed, leaving those who live in absolute poverty without access to basic necessities. Food banks are useful for individuals who are receiving welfare benefits as it helps to provide families with additional food to help them through the month. One of the issues regarding social assistance is the lack of access to fresh produce, due to the fact that it is not affordable and therefore people on social assistance are forced to consume high carb diets resulting in the overall decline of health (Raphael, 2007). In addition to private donations if food banks were funded on provincial or federal level, perhaps the overall health of Canada would improve.