Photo Karen Graham.
The planting season is about to break, but how will it look when things wrap up? Agricultural markets are always volatile because they are influenced by so many factors. In addition to the usual concerns such as weather, input prices, and crop selection, this year, farmers face new issues stemming from the pandemic. A shortage of foreign works threatens the market garden harvest before seeds have been planted. Livestock producers face meat processing plant shutdowns coupled with historically low prices for pork and beef with little hope for higher prices on the horizon. The good news is there is a stronger desire to consume local food. In the long term, food security concerns fueled by the pandemic, could improve the domestic market for agricultural products, but if Canada loses between five and seven percent of its farms every year, what will that number look like at the end of 2020?