By Derek Holtom
The CBC, ostensibly Canada’s national broadcaster, recently posed the question “Does Canada need family farms?” on their radio show 180. The question was posed to discuss the fallout from the Alberta NDP government’s Bill 6. The government and their supporters say the law will bring much-needed occupational health and safety regulations to farms, while opponents decry the bill as an attack on rural Alberta and the family farm.
It’s another divisive hit-job from the CBC, which is pretty much their standard MO these days. Their question might as well have been “Do we need people living in rural Canada,” because without family farms, there is no rural Canada.
In setting up their discussion, the CBC quoted National Post writer Colby Cosh, who himself has roots deep in the heart of Saskatchewan.
“If you go outside the purely domestic context and look at world history, having fewer people working in agriculture has always and everywhere been considered a sign of social progress,” Cosh told the CBC. Cosh also recently acknowledged he’d suffer the wrath of many rural Canadians for some of his opinions on rural life in Canada.
And that wrath is richly deserved. To the CBC and national media living in Canada’s largest cities — where they twitter on about the merits of cultural appropriation, run feature length stories on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s hairdresser and devote barrels of ink discussing how much money to invest in bicycle lanes — family farming might seem quaint and antiquated to them in 2015. But that’s only because they either lack the proper perspective, or have completely lost it.
Full confession – I grew up in Saskatoon. Not a large city, but a city nonetheless. My journalism career took me out of the City of Bridges and into rural hubs such as Dauphin, Man., Humboldt, and Swan River, Man. It was in these communities where I received my doctorate in rural living, though no framed diploma adorns my wall.
Writing and editing countless stories and putting together more than dozen agriculture supplements, I learned first hand the importance, and indeed the necessity, of family farms.
Those family farms are the lifeblood of rural towns. They form a symbiotic relationship with the other professionals in the community. Remove one ingredient, and all will suffer.
Without those family farms, who’s going to help the imperiled traveller in the dead of winter, run the curling rink, head up the service club or organize the summer fair? Where will the next innovation in farming come from?
There’s more to rural life and family farms than carbon emissions or “social progress,” and there’s something most definitely to be said about tradition, and about passing knowledge of working the land to the next generation. That can be hard to see from the lofty urban towers of our country.
If you’re still in need of convincing that Canada needs more family farms, not less, consider this: Regina journalist and author Darrell Davis notes in his great hockey book “Fire on Ice” that Saskatchewan produces the most hockey players for the NHL, per capita. And a good chunk of those come from rural areas, where pond hockey is still a thing.
The CBC posed the question “Does Canada still need family farms?” Of course they do. It’s a nonsensical question, though one urban elites enjoy discussing – with themselves, of course.
And if our national broadcaster if looking for their next topic, here’s one – “Does Canada still need the CBC?”
— Derek Holtom is the former editor of the Swan Valley Star and Times
