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10 THE RURAL VOICE
John Beardsley
Making sense of the agricultural census
John
Beardsley is
a freelance
journalist
and crop
specialist
frith Huron
Bay
Cooperative.
The planting season has been one
of the best on record. I think this has
been the most positive news in
agriculture since the Paul Martin
government was defeated.
Getting a crop in and off to a good
start is the most crucial operation on
the farm. It has been said that a
farmer's time at planting is worth
hundreds of dollars per hour because
of how important it is to get crops
planted in a timely manner. Which is
why farmers are especially irritated
these days by surveys and salesmen.
Unfortunately this attitude has also
rubbed off on their feelings toward
the good men and women who are
trying to get the Agricultural Census
completed. The grassroots movement
has been openly talking about
actively boycotting the whole
process. One Farmer from Middlesex
County has said that information is
worth $250 and he doesn't want to
give away the information for free.
I'm not holding my breath this would
ever happen because of the precedent
it would set.
The census is not a new
phenomenon foisted on us by an
incl asingly heavy-handed govern-
ment keen on 'educing the number of
farmers in Canada. I read in the
gospel of Luke back 2000 years ago
in Bible times that "Caesar Augustus
issued a decree that a census should
be taken of the entire Roman world".
Two thousand years ago everyone
had to travel back to their own town
to register. We can fill out this census
on the Internet.
I understand the frustration
causing people to lash out at the
census because of the lack of serious
response from the government to a
very real farm income crisis. But the
data collected from this census will
show some of the dramatic changes
that have occurred in the last five
years.
Here is some interesting
information gleaned from stats
Canada's press release. In 1931 the
census — the first to specifically
record the farm population — noted
that 3.3 million of Canada's 10.4
million people lived on farms, a
whopping 31.7 per cent of the
population. Still more lived in rural
areas closely tied to the agricultural
sector. While the Canadian
population had grown to over 30
million by the 2001 Census, the farm
population had dwindled to only 2.4
per cent. This fact is a big reason why
we get ignored.
Farmers, a minority even in many
rural areas, still produce over eight
percent of the nation's gross domestic
product. Canada's 247,000 farms
have been producing more than ever
before. In 2001, only 346,200
Canadians identified themselves as
farm operators, a drop of nearly
40,000 since 1996. In Bruce, Grey
and Huron Counties, the last census
identified 11,170 people running
8059 farms. (Sorry Perth and Rainy
River I forgot to ask for your
numbers).
While the numbers of farms and
farmers in Canada has been shrink-
ing, the area of land in crops has been
growing. Between 1981 and 2001, a
17.5 per cent increase of land in crops
brought the national total to nearly 90
million acres. Farms in Ontario were
pan of this trend, working nearly
60,000 acres more land in crops in
2001 than 20 years before. This is an
impressive nine million acres of
cropland in Ontario.
While no one likes filling in
forms, failure to help collect accurate
information may actually shoot
farmers in the foot. If you have
already decided not to comply I
would ask you to reconsider.
Although census day was May 16,
Stats Canada will still accept forms
filled out now. In fact if you haven't
sent yours in you can expect a visit
from an enumerator. Some people are
concerned that the information will