Down to Earth: The Crisis in Canadian Farming

Ron Goldsmith is a professor of Geography at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute.

During her tenure as an agricultural commentator on, CBS’s “Radio Noon,” Carol Giangrande developed a strong belief that the unique problems and qualities of Canadian farming deserved more thorough elucidation than could be provided within the radio-interview format. Down to Earth is, in part, a response to this belief, and an attempt to explore the question of what it means to be a Canadian farmer in the 1980s.

Down to Earth is presented in three major sections, each consisting of a number of chapters. Part I, “The Farmers,” presents interviews with operators of various types of farms in different regions of Canada. The interviews provide a range of opinions about problems and strengths inherent in Canadian agriculture and also illustrate a good deal of warmth and common sense toward farming as both an enterprise and a way of life. It is impossible to determine the degree to which those interviewed are typical in their attitudes, but the section is enlightening nonetheless.

Part II, “The Problems According to the Farmer,” approaches a good deal of the same material as does Part I, but thematically and analytically rather than regionally and anecdotally. Individual chapters deal with the banks, the world market, agribusiness, and Canada’s “cheap food policy.” For those familiar with agricultural issues in even a cursory fashion, there is little new information or insight to be found in this section, but the material is presented in a manner that enables the previously uninformed reader to gain access to a complex set of questions.

Part III, “Goals and Solutions,” presents a somewhat random overview of a limited number of potential solutions to current farm problems. Individual chapters deal with the role of agricultural networks and co-ops, the organic farming alternative, and the relationship between urban dwellers, the urban-based media, and farm problems. The chapter entitled “The City and the Media” should be of considerable interest to those Canadians who live in urban centres but rely, as do we all, on a healthy agricultural sector for our survival and economic well-being.

Carol Giangrande has not given us — nor did she intend to — a particularly insightful analysis of farming per se. To gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of modern agriculture in Canada, the reader would be well advised to read Garry Fairbairn’s Will the Bounty End? (Western Producer Prairie Books, 1984). The real merit of Down to Earth lies in the fact that its author has made a creditable attempt to place farming in a broader socioeconomic context. Soil, chemicals, and crop management are not the stuff of this book; rather, it tells us of mortgages, high interest rates, and low product prices. More importantly, though, it begins to tell us how it must feel to be a farmer in these frustrating times. For this, the author is to be commended.