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PEI Food Security Network Farming & Fishing: The current scene, root causes, and action planning
Workshop: November 15, 2010 Report
Workshop Coordinators: Josie Baker, Marie Burge, Cooper Institute. Presenters: Pamela Courtney-Hall, Irené Novaczek, Jake Bartlett. Listener and Synthesizer: Jane Ledwell (with thanks for her major work on this report)
(Note: the designations “L” and “R” identifiy the table leaders and recorders) Canada World Youth Volunteers: Vita Alwina Daravonsky Busyra (R), Yohan Fonataba, Desman Husen, Jordon Kay (R), Frederique Paquet, Colin Walmsley (R) Other Participants: Ina Berg, Harrison Blizzard, J’Nan Brown (L), Peter Bulger, Irene Burge, Nancy Clement, Jack Cutcliffe, Leo Garland, Donna Glass, Susan Hawkins, Koorosh Hesami, Kiyomichi Horita, Rita Jackson, Maureen Larkin, Dave MacKay (R), Leah MacLeod (R), Ian MacPherson, Gilles Michaud (L) Margaret Prouse (L), Tony Reddin (L), Akbar Sadat, Ahmed Siah, Peter Southward, Wendy Southward, Sophie Tang, Jennifer Taylor, Debbie Theuerkauf (L), Flora Thompson (R), Kevin Veitch, Ellen Veitch, DanDan Wang, Jim Wicks (L). 1.0 Introduction
What will our Island be growing? These are the questions we’re sowing. Where are we at? Where have we been” Where are we going?
Tony Reddin and Canada World Youth participants opened the workshop with a song,
“Nasty Weather,” that was written coming out of a previous food security event.
Marie Burge welcomed participants, with a special thanks to the volunteers from Canada World Youth. She reviewed the background of the workshop in relation to the Food Counts Project, a project of the University of Waterloo in cooperation with the University of Prince Edward Island. She explained that at the last PEI Food Security Network workshop, the participants, divided according to the three working groups of the PEIFSN, identified priorities among the Project indicators as these pertained to the goals of each working group. The Production and Distribution Working Group organized today’s workshop on the indicators for food production in order to contribute to creating a baseline for the condition of food production in PEI. The hope is that the other two FSN working groups would design a workshop based on indicators relevant to their work. There is a modest funding support, as was the case for the current workshop, from the Food Counts Project. With the luxury of time available to sit together and discuss the issues, the goal of the workshop is to help each other find the proper words for the issues we’re facing in food production. We want to identify the issues and also look at why they are happening the way they are. Our naming the problems is essential to the next step, which is identifying actions that can come out of our discussions. Marie summed up the workshop goal as examining anxiety and creating hope about food production issues.
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Marie explained that Canada does not have a people’s food policy. Among all the industrialized countries, we are alone in this. We respond to crises only. When there is no policy to protect the production of food, there is no food security. We are not a sovereign country without food sovereignty.
During the workshop, there would be presentations on fishing and farming and data sets related to these industries. After going through this information, table groups will ask some key questions.
• How did we get to this condition? • What is our message? • How can we get it across, and in what form? • Who would we tell about that?
2.0 Table Talk Warm-Up
Participants responded to a pre-workshop question: What news about food did you hear in the last six months? Some examples from the tables:
• Lobster pricing is down from the five-year average • A new cookbook on cooking local food is prominent in the news this week • The word “agriculture” does not appear in the most recent Speech from the Throne • The Speech from the Throne only supports fishers to borrow more money from the banks • McCain’s foods is combining three bakeries into one in Southern Ontario • Mariner Seafood Inc. is bankrupt • Food comes in from other countries and sometimes has contamination • An article in a journal compared protections in US and Canada for access to seafront for
fishers: Canada does better than the US on this • The details of the closing of Minegoo Fisheries on Lennox Island are not known, except
that the bank will take remaining assets, not other creditors • Stories on diabetes and obesity are still prominent in the news
3.0 PEI Fishery
The Current reality The root causes Our message: how to communicate it and to whom
3.1 Presentation: Ocean Health and Fisheries Around PEI (Irené Novaczek)
We are not alone in Canada in seeing fisheries in trouble due to fishing indiscriminately, overfishing, and use of major industrial fishing fleets and big heavy draggers that damage habitat (especially in inshore waters where most fish species exist).
Increasingly, we are seeing dead zones. New ones are appearing as pollution and nutrients from the land cause algal blooms, for instance. Global climate change is changing ocean circulation patterns and causing suppression of oxygenation of surface layers of the ocean.
Diseases, tumours, and cancers are arising in fish as a result of toxic pollutants. Acidic, warming oceans are breaking down the calcium carbonate in shellfish shells.
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It has already been noted in Europe that fish that are used to cold water will go north (groundfish, herring, and other traditional species). This trend will also happen here. This has deep impact on fishers who are geared up for fishing particular species.
In Atlantic Canada, the 1992 closure of the ground fishery closed off fishing bottom-of-the-sea species, and we lost the world’s largest fishery. The fish have not returned. It is now understood that political interference affects fisheries, that we have seen no limits on fisheries for political (reelection) reasons.
In the Northumberland Strait, we have seen our own fishery collapse. In 2006 consultations along the strait, researchers found some species lost, with no commercial fishery viable; other species almost gone, in decline, or missing; even species missing that weren’t even fished and that are scarce for reasons unknown.
Concerns include less ice around the Island in the winter and increases in coastal erosion – rocky bottoms become sandy, muddy deserts with nowhere for lobsters to hide.
On the North Shore, in 2008-2009 research with Women for Environmental Sustainability, fishers reported that the lobster fishery is mostly still okay, but that is all that is left, and the bottom is going out of prices for lobster at the same time as costs rise.
Everything is connected. We can visually see our fields going into the sea. Our people are connected to the sea not only for livelihood but also for mental health (walks on the beach) and for our culture and identity.
There is great uncertainty in the fisheries. Where fishers gather, we see “furrowed brows, urgent talk, and hunched shoulders.” People are afraid and overwhelmed. They don’t know what will work to help the fisheries. In the meantime, how does a fishing family support itself? 3.2 Presentation: Data on Fishing Industry in PEI (Jake Bartlett) See attached file 3.3 Questions and Comments from Participants How come mussel prices are not up in 10 years?
Competition in the market is the likely factor. There is only so much that people will pay. Look at the price per plate in restaurants, and you will see a large increase, but middlemen are absorbing this increase. The price to producers has been relatively steady. What should mussel growers do to work on issues with invasive species?
Expenses increased to producers due to invasive tunicates slowing mussel growth. They treat them with lime or other cleaning methods. It is much extra work and expense to haul in the socks and return them to the water. But even this work is not enough, because the competitions with the tunicates means the mussels are still small. Is this linked to the warming of the water?
No. The first tunicate species are thought to have come with the Svanen and other gear during the building of the bridge. The species have come in by shipping and caused by lax regulations and enforcement around hull cleaning and disposal of bilge water. Eradication is a huge problem once a species is established. In one example of eradication from Australia, they killed everything in a harbour to knock out a species. In PEI, species have been carried from harbour to harbour even by a barge operated by the federal government. Everyone has to clean
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their hulls well: pleasure boaters and everyone. There is a gap in public education on the necessity for cleaning. As a result, if tunicates are not everywhere now, they will be soon. About the marketing of mussels: Why do we pay more here for local mussels grown in PEI than is paid elsewhere?
It is hard to break into local high-volume grocery stores. The few large stores have a lock on the market and can pay what they like and set the prices they like. This situation is a problem for other food producers as well. You mentioned a research project with Women for Environmental Sustainability. What was this?
The report, At the Table: Exploring Women’s Roles in the PEI Fishery, is available here: www.upei.ca/iis/files/iis/ATTJuly27screen.pdf Is there a slide showing the income of fishery workers compared to CPI? The average farm family income in Canada is now negative. Is it the same for fishers?
Statistics Canada doesn’t keep income in the industry separate from other household income. The income from the product amount is available for fisheries. The basis is amount per fishing enterprise in fishers’ earnings (cost of helpers subtracted as an expense.
There is inspiration from Maine, where the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model is being adapted for Community Supported Fisheries. Irene has more information available. The brochures show the power of positive promotions of fishers and their work. 3.4 Fisheries Table Talk
Participants in small groups discussed some of the underlying causes of the current reality in the fisheries. Examples of comments from the tables are:
• A deliberately provocative question: Are our producers less efficient? Is that why we are in this “situation”?
• Our farms are not failing, our economic system is. The farmers and fishers are working as hard, and the product is as good.
• What is alarming about the lobster industry is the absolute control the buyers seem to have over prices.
• The proposal for European free trade, and the threat of control of the fisheries from Europe is an ugly spectre.
• In Portugal, there is an abundance of fish on the menus, as if there were no crisis in the fisheries, but in fact Portuguese fishers buy coastal African fishing rights and raid the resource there and elsewhere.
• There is no way to control the 200 mile limit. Decisions are being driven politically, by dealing with other countries. This means no control over our own resources or the rate they are being used.
• Tuna that was caught here and released under our regulations is caught and eaten elsewhere.
• The industrial model is still active, despite fewer fish, so the inshore fishers suffer. • There is money available for building giant draggers: this is seen as a benefit, through an
economic lens, but why does that lens not see the devastating unsustainable practices?
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• On a dragger that ten men can run, what happened to the other 190 workers that once worked on a boat run by 200 hands?
• There’s interest in going to direct, open markets and having the community support producers directly, but regulations for food safety are limiting the products allowable for sale.
• What is happening in the fisheries is in tune with what is happening in agriculture. • Farmers’ markets developments and other markets for local people to buy direct are
important to make it possible for people to support local products. • International examples of outdoor markets might be less limiting than the small indoor
markets like the one in Charlottetown, because there is more space for everyone. • People are producing their own food, even in urban settings. • It is hard to read the small print on fish labels to find out, for instance, if the processing
was done in China. Frozen products are preserved and then can be transported by sea relatively cheaply to China for processing where labour costs are low.
• A key question: Do we challenge our behaviour as consumers or work with producers and consumers to bring them closer together and build relationships on the local level?
• PEI is an excellent place for a pilot project on building relationships between consumers and producers.
• Many consumers want the cheapest, most convenient foods. How can we change the model so real costs are included in the assessment? How can we think regionally to consider what money spent locally will generate in the economy?
• When cod is shipped through China, the costs of fossil fuels need to be considered, and the costs involved with invasive species. We need to rethink these factors together.
• In 1958, the new North River Causeway was considered such a “success” that we built lots more. In the last ten years, we have begun taking them out because of all the problems causeways have caused. In the 1970s, without digging, I could get enough clams for supper. What has changed?
• Another provocative question: What if we’re not in trouble? We have lots of space to produce fish, and the fish can be fed to produce cheap, healthy protein. We have more mussels, more supply. So what is the problem so far as source is concerned?
• Who needs to receive this message? You could argue the consumer does: where food comes from and who makes money from it.
• A change of laws can be done in a minute by Executive Council (for example, land laws such as buffer zone development). There is constant erosion of laws under pressure from developers, unless there is consistent, strong resistance.
• Land use is a major issue: inroads get allowed into protected areas. • Global climate change is the biggest issue. • Government did not listen to fishers and does not value their knowledge and way of life
and its connection to spirituality: close to the earth and the sea. • When we don’t value the fish, we also don’t value the fishing people. This results in
stigma and class perceptions and distinctions, an attitude that fishermen “are all sort of stupid, aren’t they?” This is a discriminatory attitude.
• One participant told a story of a conversation with tourists. She explained that some local fishers had dropped out of school to fish. The tourists said, “There’s nothing wrong with
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that. They are apprenticing.” The participant realized she had never thought of it in so positive a way.
• The patronizing attitude of fishers being “poor things” goes back to lack of value on their education as fishers and connects to undervalued trade.
• Does organic food need to be more expensive? Increasingly, the answer is no. Prices are evening out as the market opens to more and more people. Non-organic food is underpriced; it is not that organic food is overpriced.
• It is within our power to choose NOT to release poisons and nutrients into the sea. We can stop. We might even save money (in the long term). People just don’t believe this is possible.
• A participant made an analogy. He said his father had a bulldozer. Not many people need bulldozers. They are big and expensive to make, and they cost a lot. A carrot is not a bulldozer. Why do we need a big corporation to market and sell carrots? Everyone needs to eat, everyone needs lots of food, and it is not expensive to produce a carrot.
• IRAC regulates the price of gas, but not the price of fresh vegetables. There is no regulation on price. The CRTC regulates Canadian content on the radio and television, but there are no content laws for how much of the food we buy must be grown and processed in Canada.
3.5 Fisheries Table Talk Synopsis
A theme that came up across many of the discussions was BUILDING NEW RELATIONSHIPS to create a new model for the fisheries. This project to build new relationships could include
• Respecting the interrelationship of fishers and the governments that represent us as we create regulations and policies.
• Developing the interrelationships of eaters and producers though new purchasing practices and new eating behaviours, such as more local markets, more farmers’ markets, and more promotions for local food and economies.
• Taking as a base the right to livable incomes for producers and eaters. • Examining the interrelationship between us ands the ecosystem that sustains us and
sustains aquatic life: enacting environmental and sustainability measures, and supporting fishing on an appropriate scale.
• Valuing fishers, fisheries skills and knowledge, community wisdom, and our own comprehension and expression as a community of our way of life – which is deeply connected to food and fishers.
The table talks identified that there is a role in this relationship-building for each of us, and we bring our multiple roles and identities as food producers, eaters, educators, activists, citizens, voters, community members, family members, fishers, farmers, health promoters, and/or other roles that shape the way we live and eat with other people in society.
One final observation: At the tables, people could not talk about fishing without also talking about farming, a good lead-in to the afternoon discussion of agriculture. The afternoon session began with another song, a PEI adaptation of Take Me Home, Country Roads.
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4.0 PEI Farming
The Current reality The root causes Our message: how to communicate it and to whom
4.1 Presentation: Farming in PEI: the Current Crises (Pamela Courtenay-Hall) Procedural fairness is easy when there are just two parties: in dividing a pie, one cuts the
pieces and the other chooses. It is harder when there are many people interested in pieces of pie. At lunch, a discussion of dairy farming led to the observation that supply management
makes the dairy industry secure. But is supply management secure? The most important question is access to healthy food, and access has to include financial,
geographic, physical, and social access to food. With the closure of the PEI hog plant, we now truck hogs to the mainland, but many
farmers went out of business right away, and now there is worry about the beef plant. We have a closely integrated food system on PEI. If you take the manure created by animals out of the system, that is a loss of nutrients that even affects vegetarians.
If we look at farm efficiency, the output per unit of land is very high with organic agriculture. However, the output per unit of labour is not as high with organic production because of high labour costs. There are questions of scale and where the farming is done (regionally/globally). Less considered is the farm output per unit of environmental degradation: loss of soil and soil fertility, chemical pollution generated, non-renewable energy used, health costs, and cultural and community costs.
Farmers are producing food on 1970s and 1980s prices, but paying 2010 expenses for inputs. Pamela asks the rhetorical question: What industry is more efficient than this??
Another key question is who will produce our food in the future? Sons and daughters are not carrying on farming. There is too much physical strain, too many long hours, too low pay. Many farmers are glad their children choose not to farm, due to the awesome amount of work and the challenges. We are losing more than knowledge about farming: we are losing virtues associated with the value of farm work.
Some of what is lost in the transition from small scale to large scale farming: -‐ understanding of microclimates -‐ knowledge of soil and wildlife -‐ ecological integrity (one of the first things lost to industrial-scale farming is hedgerows
and the biodiversity in them) -‐ loss of connection to the people who live these experiences -‐ food biodiversity, of seeds that are viable at the small scale but not feasible at the global
scale Another factor is that land prices are too high for people who do the work of farmers, leading
to serfdom or neo-feudalism. Vertical integration is advantageous for corporations but not for farmers. It is telling that vertically integrated corporations want to own fossil fuels, trucks for transport, fertilizers farmers use, chemical inputs to make crops grow big and fast – but they don’t want to buy potato farms. That’s the part that doesn’t earn a profit. That is the part that is left in farmers’ hands. The farmer nominally owns the land and so owns the debt.
As we move to a globalized system, all these problems and even more increase, especially
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under the influence of global climate change. 4.2 Data on the Farming Industry in PEI (Jake Bartlett) See attached file 4.3 Questions and Comments from Participants What is the current status of the beef plant?
It is considered stable – until after the election next year. Why are farmers not more involved in processing to have more value in the system?
This is the kind of question best discussed at the tables in groups. Is there research into the profitability of soy?
There are about 50,000 acres of soy this year. The grain statistics ended in 2006, so no up to date stats. We can see barley dropped by half since the closure of the hog plant. Soy beans have come and gone about three times in the last number of years. A very small amount is grown for oil production. Mostly soy protein is for livestock, and the crops are needed to fill out the crop rotation. There is an advantage in PEI that there is GE-free soy, and there is current work taking place for securing markets for GE-free soy. I am surprised to see the amount of land in production.
The amount of lost farmland is not as steep a decline as the loss of farms and farmers. Scrub forest and spruce are back up to 50%, but these are poor quality trees. A lot of land has been paved. A lot of houses have been built on former farmland. What is the intensity of yields like under industrial agriculture models, in terms of pounds per acre?
There is higher production per cow in the dairy sector. The situation for crops is mixed. Some crops show better productivity at the small scale. What needs to be accounted for is the longer-term effect of loss of soil and soil fertility, which leads to eventual loss of productivity gains. One study showed greater productivity gains for manure compared to chemical fertilizers. 4.4 Farming Table Talk
Participants in small groups discussed some of the underlying causes of the current reality in the fisheries. Examples of comments from the tables are:
• We haven’t yet seen the full impact of the closure of the hog plant: One grain elevator operator has said that one, single hog farm purchased $300,000 in barley a year from the elevator.
• A farmer said: “I really don’t know why the profitability went out of the individual farm operations. I lived it, but I can’t answer the question.”
• Thirty years ago, taking $35,000 a year out of a $100,000 farm operation was enough for a good life. We had our own meat, our own milk, and our own vegetables. In 2008, taking $35,000 a year out of what is now a $600,000 farm operation is harder to take out and requires more input.
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• The buyer has the upper hand, except in the supply managed sectors, but they are still trending down too.
• GM makes cars, and they set the price; farmers produce carrots, but they don’t set the price.
• The price of transportation is too low. This makes it “cheap” to move product from anywhere, with minimal cost. However food transportation is very inefficient: for example, it takes 91 calories of fuel to move 1 calorie of wheat in the US (Barbara Kingsolver).
• Moving from small farms to large farms to corporate holdings was the federal plan, and it “worked.” Government changed agriculture through grants and loans and money. This showed it “worked” – so it is possible that we can make change again, in the opposite direction. We could go back to small, organic farms.
• The loans and grants that transformed agriculture were for big tractors and other big technologies. Only people willing to take on a certain amount of risk went that route, which means that the system of loans and grants rewarded risk-takers and big thinkers. It also resulted in mega supply, so prices went down, which meant the same work got done – for lower prices.
• There was overlap between the consolidation of schools under the Comprehensive Development Plan and the consolidation of farms. This plan came about after the province almost went bankrupt.
• One participant said, “There’s only one farm left on my road, a mixed farm.” • Good farmers often learned from their parents’ practice, but didn’t finish school. There
should be agriculture taught in the schools, and there should be free education for farmers. • It is staggering how much farmers already know about farming, economics, and politics. • The old practice of supplementing farming with fishing, the old link with the fishing
industry, has gone by the wayside, and with it have gone things like using fish waste and mussel mud on farms as fertilizer.
• The government has legislated crop rotation, but seven year rotation would be even better and is what is needed for many organic farms.
• There is education and wisdom being lost, things our grandmothers knew that we learned from them: about plant families, crop rotations, and the best ways to grow foods.
• Small, diversified farming requires an economy that responds to community needs with tailored products that support agriculture. When we relied on small farms, we also relied on blacksmiths to provide custom-made equipment.
• Small-scale farming is not enough. We have to add a different knowledge-base to achieve feasibility. Not many people want the life of a small-scale organic farmer. It is too different from society’s image of “success.”
• Individuals have to define the terms of their own success, and the reality of small-scale, cooperative model successes need to be shared.
• People want their children to get an “education” and to seek a profession. Prestige does not reside with food production. We need to raise the prestige of farmers.
• We need to change society to recognize interdependence. • We need to respect farmers for producing our food – not Ronald McDonald.
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• Foodways in Afghanistan: there are traditions to respect food, value food, to ensure it is not wasted but is served with reverence. “In Afghanistan, we pick up food with two hands, just as we pray with two hands, with reverance.”
• Our food culture and food production are not linked. The same (few, processed) foods are available every place in North America. Every grocery store has the same, same, same.
• In China, a 3,000 year poem learned by every child reminds eaters that every grain of rice is valuable because someone’s labour put it on the table.
• There are a lot of barriers to small-scale processing and a lot of hoops to jump through if you are a small-scale processor.
• Young organic farmers need support to be able to access land. • An all-organic Island would be a boon for tourism, but there would be other boons, as
well. For instance, we could produce organic honey, and this would be a global honey industry. There would be many incremental opportunities coming from going organic.
• We just can’t let the farmers who bought into the industrial model “die.” We need to reverse the Comprehensive Development Plan step by step – but the transition back will be harder.
• Transitioning back will require rethinking and reversing trade agreements and resisting European free trade.
4.5 Farming Table Talk Synopsis
There was a lot of commonality in discussions around the tables. Some of the action points in common included the following:
1) Identify the current industrial agriculture model as a problem. To do this, we need to start with what we have in common: everyone eats and lives in the environment. We are also linked by economies, but by much more than just economics.
2) Recognize the role government policies played in creating this model – then make government policies work towards change.
To do this, we need to resist further erosion (such as European free trade), roll back and reverse negative industrial development and replace 1970s Comprehensive Development Plan with a new Comprehensive Sustainability Plan for PEI.
3) Educate, cooperate, and celebrate. To do this, we need education around all aspects of food from production to eating. We need to focus on the values around food. We need to engage and value youth. We need to incorporate farmers’ knowledge and wisdom about food, farms, environment, economics, and politics into planning. And we need to restore reverence for food and for our human life together that is sustained by that food.
5.0 Towards Action
In a final plenary session, participants developed some guidelines and suggestions for action to address some of the major crises in farming and fishing.
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Some general approaches -‐ Less energy could be spent on directly combating globalization and more attention could
be given to forming comprehensive alternative movements (for example, a system of fair trade for food)
-‐ Need to find funding for food security/sovereignty education (for example the Stonyfield organic yogurt community challenge grants: a working group can apply. This idea will be presented to the FSN coordinating committee).
-‐ FSN members and supporters encouraged to continue a commitment to education and social development for action.
-‐ FSN can continue to re-affirm its dedication to co-operation replacing competition in all relationships involved in the food system.
-‐ Public rallies are probably not very useful in getting political points across (unless large numbers show up and are sufficiently adamant)
Specific Action-for-Engagement Areas
-‐ Go into schools: prepare and implement programs relating to the current food system and new alternatives in process, with emphasis on the power of young people to bring about positive changes for their Now and for their Future (taking advantage of World Food Day).
-‐ Continue and expand the program with community schools, which was designed and initiated by Margaret Prouse with the Food Access Working Group.
-‐ Make early plans for World Food Day/Week similar to the Kitchen Table Talks carried out this year as part of the Peoples Food Policy Project.
-‐ Engage more community people of all sectors in finding sustainable solutions to the farming and fishing crises; people generally don’t know what food sovereignty is.
-‐ Find more productive ways to have a voice in provincial government and to influence the development of cooperative models.
-‐ Use all creative avenues to let government know that people, other than producers, are concerned about short term vision such as is the case of the Atlantic Beef Products Inc., plant in Borden-Carleton. Serious decisions could be made in a matter of weeks.
-‐ Get involved as community groups on the dialogue on land use as per the Thompson Report, (mentioned in the Throne Speech) and the Boylan Report (J’Nan Brown to investigate the openings for this).
-‐ Community Supported Fishery: dialogue with the PEI Fishers Association about partnering with the PEI Food Security Network, learning from the experience in Maine of fishers and consumers working together to create a new model for the PEI fishery. (Irené Novaczek, Margaret Prouse, David MacKay and Rita Jackson will work on this).
Other Community Engagement Proposals -‐ Social Networking: This is a tried and true method of reaching a percentage of the
population which otherwise would not be engaged. Maybe create a “fan page” for the PEI FSN (Leah MacLeod to look into this).
-‐ Breakfast Television program on local food and on preparation skills. -‐ Maybe use Sobeys/Superstore kitchens for training on local food preparation. -‐ Engage more seniors, living in seniors’ facilities, in the concerns about farming and
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fishing and about healthy, easy food preparation (Flora Thompson will take this initiative). -‐ Make public the information and plans from today’s workshop, including the report and
media kits. (The PEI FSN Coordinating Committee will be responsible). -‐ Theatre: take advantage of the artistic talents in the community: playwright, Todd
MacLean, who already has a play about food. (Tony Reddin to look into the possibilities) -‐ High School Drama festivals: PEI FSN could provide an award and encouragement for the
production of a piece on farming and/or fishing. -‐ Stand-Up Comic show on food (Marie Burge to make check on this with Patrick Ledwell)
The next PEI Food Security Network Workshop Proposal: that the two working groups, Food Access and Food Costing combine to organize a workshop early in the new year, based on the appropriate Food Counts indicators. (Ann Wheatley and Margaret Prouse will take this suggestion back to their working groups).
6.0 Evaluation Twenty-one participants completed the evaluation form. In general they were very positive about the workshop The vast majority gave high ratings to the following:
- understanding the objectives of the workshop - better understanding of the situation of the Fishery in PEI - better understanding of the situation of the Farming in PEI - clarity of the data presented on the fishery and on farming - the success of the table groups in accomplishing their tasks - identifying root causes of the current farming and fishing situations.
The majority also gave high ratings the following, but about 20-25% indicated that these required more clarity and/or more work:
- the background of the Food Counts Project - development of policy messages about the farming and fishing - creation of a do-able action plan to change farming and fishing policies.
Key things learned Participants listed the following as their learnings from the workshop:
- how corporate profits negatively affect farming and fishing - why there is a difference between the production costs to farmers and fishers and the price
they receive for their product - clear data on farming and fishing - how important it is to know the issues - how to better use data to create messages, to tell our stories, to promote attitude and policy
changes - root causes of the decline of farming and fishing in PEI–now clearer about why farming
and fishing are in crisis - the value of communal decision-making processes - the urgency of supporting the Island beef plant and making it accommodate grass-fed beef
and other alternatives
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- the disturbing destruction of sea beds and the northern movement of fish - variation of lobster prices by region in PEI - that the amount of land in agriculture is decreasing - a world perspective.
Liked best about the workshop
- group discussions (table talks); the synergy created in these; lots of time to talk; excellent participation
- good workshop plan; Jane’s synopses of the table talks was super - clear, helpful data and situation presentations on farming and the fishery - positive attitude and dedication of the participants to find and implement solutions - Well done!! Good job!! Wonderful meal. Great chocolate cake
Suggestions for improvement - slow down the data presentation (and more explanation) to give time for absorption - involve more farmers and fishers - clear questions to guide the table talk - make these workshops better known to people - plan more workshops especially on policy and developing action plans
Farming & Fishing: The current scene, root causes, and
ac5on planning
Mr. Jake Bartle,, Dr. Irené Novaczek & Dr. Pamela Courtnay-‐Hall
November 15, 2010
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500
Clothing Food
CPI for Clothing vs Food
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Transport Food
CPI for Transport vs Food
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
Health & Pers. Care Food
CPI for Health & Personal Care vs Food
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
RecreaRon, Reading & EducaRon Food
CPI for Recrea5on, Reading & Educa5on vs Food
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Tobacco & Alcohol Food
CPI for Tobacco & Alcohol vs Food
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Energy Food
CPI for Energy vs Food
0.00
25.00
50.00
75.00
100.00
125.00
150.00
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
CPI PEI Food Yr 1997=100 Lobster Prices
PEI Lobster Prices vs CPI Food; 1997 = 100
PEI Lobster Fishery
2006 – Fish Harvesters Income (Average A[er Taxes)
• South Shore: $7,000 -‐ $11,000
• North Shore: $63,000
2008 on: 25% Decrease in Shore Prices
CPI PEI Food Year 1997 = 100
Graphed Against Canada Industrial
Price Index Products (1997 = 100)
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100 Fish Products
CIPI for Fish Products vs Food
9%
28% 30%
33%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
15-‐24 25-‐34 35-‐44 >45
Canadian Fish Harvesters by Age (2000)
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000 1982
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1999
2000
2008
2009
Fishers & Helpers
Vessels
Lobster Licenses
Seafood Plant Employees (maximum)
Fisheries Employment
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50 1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1999
2000
2008
2009
2010
Federally Inspected Plants, # Provincially Inspected Plants, #
Fish Processing Plants
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100 1961
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
Groundfish Pelagic & Estuarial Molluscs & Crustaceans
Fish Landings in Million Lbs
0
25
50
75
100
125
150 1961
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
All Fish Sea Plants
Fishery Landings in Million Lbs
0
40
80
120
160 1961
1963
1965
1967
1969
1971
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
Groundfish Pelagic & Estuarial Molluscs & Crustaceans Sea Plants
Fish Landings in Millions ($)
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
40000
45000
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
Oysters Mussels Finfish
Aquaculture Landings in Thousands of Lbs
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35 1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
Oysters Mussels Finfish Total
Aquaculture Landings in Millions ($)
CPI PEI Food Year 1997 = 100
Graphed Against Canada Industrial
Price Index Products (1997 = 100)
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Ca,le CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100
CIPI for CaRle vs Food
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Hogs CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100
CIPI for Hogs vs Food
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Meat Products CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100
CIPI for Meat Products vs Food
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Dairy Products CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100
CIPI for Dairy Products vs Food
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150 1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Vegetable Products CPI PEI Food Yr 1997 = 100
CIPI for Vegetable Products vs Food
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2006
Number of PEI Farms
0
10000
20000
30000
40000
50000
60000
1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2006
Farm Popula5on on PEI
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000 1931
1941
1951
1961
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
<35
35 to 54
55+
Number of PEI Farmers by Age
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300 1921
1931
1941
1951
1956
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
Total Farm Land in Thousands of Acres
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
< $10,000 $10,000 to $25,000 $25,000 to $50,000
$50,000 to $100,000 $100,000 to $250,000 $250,000 to $500,000
>$500,000
Number of PEI Farms by Gross Receipts
Number of Farms by Farm Size in Acres (<240)
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
5500 1931
1941
1951
1961
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
<10 10 to 69 70 to 129 130 to 179 180 to 239
0 50
100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650
1931
1941
1951
1961
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
240 to 399 400 to 559 560 to 759
760 to 1119 1120 to 1599 >1600
Number of Farms by Farm Size in Acres (>240)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Wheat Oats Barley Mixed Grain Rye
PEI Grain Crops by 1000 Acres
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Soybeans Silage Corn Vegetables Fruits
PEI Other Crops by 1000 Acres
0
40
80
120
160
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Hay Pasture
PEI Hay & Pasture by 1000 Acres
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Total Grains Potatoes Hay
PEI Crops by 1000 Acres
0
100
200
300
400
500 1921
1931
1941
1951
1956
1961
1966
1971
1976
1981
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
Total in Crops Pasture Summer Fallow Other Land
PEI Farm Land Usage by 1000 Acres
0
5
10
15
20
25
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
Dairy Cows Beef Heifers Steers Bulls Calves
PEI Livestock by Thousands of Animals
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
1986
1991
1996
2001
2006
2007
2008
2009
Total Ca,le Hogs Sheep
PEI Livestock by Thousands of Animals
0
100
200
300
400
500
1986 1991 1996 2001 2006
PEI Poultry by Thousands of Animals
Per-Farm
Source: NaRonal Farmers Union; The Farm Crisis & Corporate Profits Report; November 30, 2005
-‐50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400 1947
1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
Total Cash Receipts Total Net Income
PEI Farm Cash Receipts and Net Income in Millions ($)
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
220 1947
1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
Potatoes Ca,le Hogs Dairy
PEI Farm Cash Receipts in Millions ($)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Wages Paid FerRlizer PesRcides
PEI Farm Inputs in Millions ($)
-‐60
0
60
120
180
240
300
360
420 2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Total Expenses Net Income Total Cash Receipts
PEI Farm Expenses in Millions ($)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700 2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Total Cash Receipts Farm Debt
PEI Farm Cash Receipts and Debt in Millions ($)
Selected farm gate and retail prices (not adjusted for infla5on)
Source: NFU; The Farm Crisis, Bigger Farms, and the Myths of “CompeRRon” and “Efficiency”; November 20, 2003
• almost gone: winter flounder, spring herring, eels
• in decline: scallop, lobster, mackerel, smelts, oyster reefs & quahog beds
• missing: conch, Irish moss & kelp beds
• lost : cod, hake, halibut, haddock, gaspereau, skate
• changed water currents & temperatures
• rapid coastal erosion • hard bottom & fishing
gear covered in dirt • water thick with
sediments
• lost shellfish, seaweed & eelgrass beds
• pollution & fish kills • invasive spp • clam cancer • toxic plankton blooms
Not just land and sea, but also people and the sea.
“It’s part of our culture; it’s part of who we are” (WES research report 2009)
What does this mean for food security on PEI?
