Media Clipping — Friday August.1st, 2008, The Chronicle Herald
People starting to notice the N.S. farmer
By Roger Taylor
Farming in Nova Scotia has never been an easy occupation, and these days it seems to be more challenging than ever.
Faced with rising operating costs and growing demand for land by property developers, some farmers might be tempted to sell for the real estate value of their property, pay off some bills and go to work for someone else.
When it comes to providing for a family, lamenting the loss of valuable farmland seems to be an indulgence left to city folk or those who haven’t tried to make a living working a farm.
But considering more and more people are interested in eating food raised and harvested within a short distance from their home, one might think Nova Scotia farming might be about to enjoy a new heyday.
It may eventually become a trend to eat locally grown food, but I’m told it is still too early to show any tangible benefits for the local farmer.
It is with the future in mind that some people are starting to express concern that Nova Scotia may not be doing enough to protect its prime farmland.
Jennifer Scott, an agro-ecologist with GPI Atlantic, an environmentally aware non-profit research group, released a report this week in which she suggests the province should do more to support farmers who want to stay on their land.
Not all farmland is equal, she acknowledges. Some is suitable for livestock or pasture, but there is a shortage of land most suitable for planting crops. The trouble is, the most fertile land is also the kind that developers like.
The aim would be to have all levels of government co-operate in creating programs to keep the most fertile land from being used for housing subdivisions. Scott says government should consider buying the development rights of endangered farmland or acquiring land conservation easements from farmers.
There is little doubt that producing our own food becomes more important as the price of oil rises and the cost of imported food increases. Buying the development rights and conservation easements, she says, would take fertile land out of the speculative real estate market and make such land more affordable to new farmers looking for good agricultural land.
What happens when government starts dipping its toe into a farmer’s business by providing easements and purchasing development rights? Will they have a say in what the farmer grows?
For example, a well-meaning government may want to prevent a farmer from using his most fertile land to grow sugar beets for ethanol production. That crop provides little in the way of food for human consumption, but it has the potential of providing a valuable payday for the farmer.
Ecologists oppose ethanol for fuel because it takes fertile agricultural land out of food production, thus having an inflationary effect on the cost of purchasing locally produced food.
There is a company called Atlantec BioEnergy that is reportedly planning to open an ethanol plant in the building last occupied by the railcar maker in Trenton.
Atlantec says it wants about 100 local farmers to produce 6,070 hectares of sugar beets. The crop would be converted into ethanol, which is traditionally mixed with gasoline and used as a fuel for vehicles.
About 45 jobs would be created at the ethanol plant, which would have an annual production target of 13 million litres of ethanol annually. Ottawa would reportedly provide a setup grant through Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
It isn’t difficult to understand the need to protect valuable farmland from going out of production permanently, but it is a dilemma for farmers and politicians alike.
If some people have their way, government will be even more directly involved with what goes on down on the farm.
Sharp increases in global fuel and food prices, much higher transportation costs, and warnings of major commodity price fluctuations have increased insecurity about our food supply and forced many jurisdictions to look at reducing dependence on imported food supplies. Does Nova Scotia have sufficient fertile, good quality farm land to feed itself? That’s one of the provocative questions examined in this report on the province’s land capacity, which is the third section of Part 2 (Resource Capacity and Land Use) of the GPI Soils and Agriculture Accounts.
Part 1 of the GPI Soils and Agriculture Accounts is the Economic Viability of Farming, and Part 3 (to be released in August, 2008) is on Human and Social Capital in Agriculture. The previous two sections of Part 2 (Resource Capacity and Land Use) are: Soil Quality and Productivity and The Value of Agricultural Biodiversity. Summaries of those reports can be accessed here.
This new study also examines long and short-term trends in the province’s farm land and estimates the total real estate and productive values of that farm land in dollar terms. It also assesses the quality of Nova Scotia’s farm land, including its susceptibility to water erosion and compaction. The new report is particularly timely in view of public debates in the Annapolis Valley about whether prime farm land should be conserved for growing food. Compensating farmers for loss of development rights is an issue that is addressed in the report.