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By Reanna Braeker and Alfons Weersink Average farm size in Canada has fallen! In the 2021 census it was only 809 acres, down from 820 acres in the previous census in 2016. Steady increase in farm size before last census The decline is the first observed in the last 100 years as illustrated in Figure 1. Average farm size was only 200 acres in 1921 and steadily increased with each census until the most recent one. The average farm grew by nearly 10% between every 5-year census

By Reanna Braeker and Alfons Weersink Farm numbers in Canada have been falling since the Great Depression and the numbers continue to fall according to the latest census. The changes in farm numbers over the last 50 years are illustrated in Figure 1. In 1971 there were over 366,000 farms, however, by 2016 there were approximately half that number. While the numbers continue to fall, the rate of decrease has slowed in recent years. What is a Farm? When looking at the stats on

The COVID pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated long standing issues with respect to labour in the food system - both on farms and in food processing. This is often presented in the context of a threat to food security but in reality the issue is more critical for farm security than food security - that is we are not seeing issues with respect to food access for Canadians (or North Americans) but there is pressure on farm viability and profitability. While the food secur