How would you improve the agriculture in Canada?

How would you improve the agriculture in Canada? *Repost*?

• I have less use of pesticides, but what else could we do to improve agriculture (specifically farming) here? Um.. even if you're not in Canada I'd still love it if you ...show more

• Answer:

  I lived and worked in Canada for 11 years, and in my opinion the single most important thing Canada should do with its agriculture is FYF -- Feed Yourself First. Too many of Canada's crops are cash crops for export rather than crops for domestic consumption, which leads to a couple of long term problems. One is that Canada is dependent on the global market and foreign sources for a lot of food staples that it could grow and distribute locally, making it vulnerable to disasters or fluctuations in the market. After 9-11 and three days of no air traffic, the produce sections of our groceries were largely depleted because so much of our produce was imported from the States. Another problem is that by selling raw materials and basic ingredients to foreign markets rather than making a domestic industry out of turning them into value-added products, Canada misses out on a lot of revenue that it could be earning for itself. There are other important things, like holistic and organic farming methods and social justice for farm workers, but I think FYF tops the bill. Edit: DFZ, I don't know where in Canada you've been, but in Manitoba it's plenty hot enough in summer that the crops are not going to freeze regardless of how they're watered. ;-) In fact, overhead watering could help protect against frost in some circumstances. The length of the growing season is a serious issue in some areas, though, like Manitoba where it goes from very hot to very cold rather suddenly and then your season is over in a flash. In places like coastal British Columbia, however, the weather can be quite mild for much of the year, and the growing season is very long.