Farmers growing concerned about future following another wicked weather event

Some Nova Scotia farmers are growing concerned as another weather event swept through the province last week, causing damage to many of their crops.

“This is our crop of winter greens, so there’s probably seven different types of greens here,” Kevin Graham said as he looked over his wilted crop in Canning, N.S., on Wednesday.

All of Graham’s crops have been lost. The wind from last week’s storm tore apart the greenhouse they were growing in.

“I think around 9:30 we were hitting over 100, over 130 kilometre an hour winds here and I think it was probably sustained for a little while,” says Graham.

“When I got up in the morning I was shocked by what I saw. The whole thing had imploded, folded in on itself. It’s a steel frame structure and it just bent everything.”

The farmer of 27 years has one greenhouse that is still standing, and filled with lush wintergreen. Graham says it’s not enough to make up for the destruction of his other plants. He estimates the storm caused about $50,000 in damage from the loss of crops and his greenhouse.

Kevin Graham inside his remaining greenhouse, which is full of wintergreen. (CTV/Jonathan MacInnis)He’d like to see the government step in and help with the recovery.

Without help, Graham admits he might be done farming.

“At this stage, I should be retired and I don’t particularly want to because I love what I do, but at my age it’s kind of hard to come back from it,” says Graham.

A big part of Graham’s concern is the storm wasn’t a one-off event. A series of bad weather, including a hurricane, polar vortex, and heavy rain throughout the summer that flooded fields, has a lot of farmers on edge.

“Three times we tried to seed the broccoli and never got a crop out of it, it just kept rotting,” says Graham.

“I’m not the only one, it’s widespread in the farming community. A lot of us have really struggled and suffered this year.”

Graham says farmers are left to ponder whether or not they can continue a way of life that has been in their families for generations.

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