Small-scale agriculture in Quebec today faces many challenges, from financial difficulties to physical injuries, illnesses and depletion. As profitability fails to keep pace with rising farmland prices, subsidies for farm businesses are no longer effective.
In an article published on ledevoir.com, Stephanie Wang, an organic vegetable farmer and sociology graduate, questions the need to foster sustainable farms to ensure the survival of small-scale farming. Faced with the financial, physical and psychological difficulties faced by farmer-owners, she proposes a solution: invest in collective sustainable farms, legally protected through an agro-ecological social utility trust (FUSA). This solution would guarantee the continuity of production and avoid maintaining a model reserved for the most privileged and innovative. It would also promote a sustainable agriculture, perennial and of proximity, essential in the context of the ecological crisis and the need to ensure access to healthy food for all.
In this context, there is a growing need to create long-term farms, collective farms that will succeed in protecting the land, building resilient and sustainable soils, while offering young farmers an interesting alternative to individual models. The time has come to rethink the way our societies approach agriculture and promote collective models of agricultural enterprise to build a more sustainable and equitable future for all.
Follow the link below that gives us a little more information on this potentially salutary approach (content in french only).