The “great migration” of farm
children to off-farm jobs has fueled the Canadian economy for more than a
century, according to a new report from the Agri-Food Economic Systems consulting company in Guelph
which is headed by Al Mussell and Doug Hedley.
Three million Canadians have made
that transition in the last 80 years, the report found, and the migration was
particularly strong during the 1950s and 1960s.
Society benefitted from this
migration of hard workers with good educations and skills.
Farm-gate food prices remained low,
yet farm revenues increased and farming families have moved into Canadian
society’s middle-income range.
‘If some farms today are seen as
excessively large, or ‘industrial’ by some, it is because they have evolved
organically as part of this process on an independent, free-enterprise basis,”
the report says.
The
migration and transitions were not always easy and there were “countless
personal struggles,” says the report.
Farmers
have adopted new technologies and Canada adopted new policies and public
institutions to ease the transitions,” the authors say.
And
it’s not over.
It
is an “ongoing process of social, economic and technological development.
“It
is a demanding and difficult process and one that has yielded enormous benefits
to all Canadians, not just those connected to farming or the food industry,”
they write.
But the Canadian economy can no longer count on huge numbers of farm children to fill jobs. Eighty years ago a third of the Canadian population was living on farms. Now it's two per cent.
