MLA raises the alarm on future of N.B. farming after 404 farms shutter between 2016-2021

Concern about the future of farming in New Brunswick reached the legislature this week after Green Party MLA Kevin Arseneau informed the house that 404 farms shuttered between 2016 and 2021.

That’s about 18 per cent of the total amount of farms in the province.

According to Statistics Canada, seven per cent of farmers in the province are under the age of 35, another concern of Arseneau’s.

“I feel it's a crisis, to be honest. I mean, if any other sector saw no succession? Just think about, you know, if only 6.7 per cent of our nurses were under the age of 35, that would be a major crisis,” he said.

The province is about seven per cent self-sufficient when it comes to vegetables, excluding potatoes, according to an action plan submitted by N.B.’s Department of Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Fisheries.

At 73, farmer Dave Walker says he’s exiting the industry, but he is concerned about what the future of food security holds for his grandchildren.

“If Highway 95 through Maine were to close for any period of time, or the Trans Canada from west of us were closed, within a very, very short period of time people would be going hungry here,” he said in an interview with CTV Atlantic.

Walker and Arseneau, as well as the Agricultural Alliance of N.B., believe more investment in education is critical for the future of farming.

Arseneau raised the issue in the N.B. legislature Thursday, saying too many small and medium sized farms are having to close under “crushing farm debt,” and large farms are becoming the norm.

Reporters asked Premier Blaine Higgs if he’s concerned, too.

“There's an element of, is a business profitable or is it not?” he said. “And if our program was to go over and try to subsidize every business that's not profitable, I mean, that's a pretty slippery slope for a government to follow.”

Arseneau called that a short-sighted outlook.

“I think it's not looking at what, you know, the sacredness of food and the fact that everyone is eating three times a day,” he said.

Walker says several agricultural support laboratories – soil, feed, dairy, and tissue – have closed over the last decade or so. He takes that as a sign that agriculture isn’t seen as a priority.

“I have forestry land and the support for the forest industry in this province is absolutely amazing. It's amazing. And I look at agriculture and I think, well, what a poor sister agriculture is,” he said. 

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