What is left to hope when we have cut into the fat, then into the flesh and we now know that, barring a miracle, we will have to move on to the bone? This is the existential dilemma that torments the Quebec agricultural community, whose anger is rising these days, echoing those that are already igniting Europe.
Their shocking slogans give the measure of an indignation which must be taken note of. “Our end will be your hunger,” it reads. “Agriculture, as a child, we dream of it; as an adult, we are dying,” we decipher on another. Further on, a joke recalls the bitterness of the pandemic “It’s going to be fine”, since reviled: “It’s been two years since I took a vacation, but everything is fine”. Really ?
In truth, nothing is going well in the meadow. Our feeding environment must deal with less than 1% of the Quebec budget for 8 million mouths to feed. Difficult to produce strong children with starving direct subsidies. At 5%, Quebec is far from the average of OECD countries (11%) and the staggering 50% granted by countries with a climate similar to ours, such as Norway or Iceland.
This fragility did not bloom this spring, of course. Almost a year ago to the day, we were already worried in the editorial about the fate reserved for our “hard-working farmers”. We noted in passing a truly staggering figure: the third party then feared “not being able to cover [ses] financial obligations”.
Sometimes the worst happens. Net income for Quebec farms continued to fall despite warnings. Amputated by a painful 50% in 2023, they are expected to plummet, according to current forecasts, by a cruel 86% in 2024. It is no longer viability that we should worry about with such a collapse, but survival. .
We experienced other outbreaks of fever: sometimes it was the milk that turned into pudding water, sometimes it was the chicken that took a nosedive or the market gardener that drank the cup. Each time, we took the blow and adapted our actions to the piece. It’s different this time. The crisis is global, multifactorial and everyone is suffering at the same time.
Reckless rise in production costs, galloping inflation, exploding paperwork, weakened succession, overwork, psychological distress, labor in an insoluble puzzle, undue pressure on agricultural land at spiraling prices, unfair international standards, etc. . The context has become so explosive that it no longer allows the slightest risk. Some thus reduce their sails, others fall back on safe values. When they don’t throw in the towel.
Our pantry is already frugal and poorly balanced: reducing it and depleting it in this way can only suffocate it further. Our “silo” model — whose main levers are based on reaction, intensification and concentration — has become unsustainable. When we know what is hanging over our noses with the climate crisis, it is even a tragedy.
According to COP28, the vitality of tomorrow’s agricultural model relies on the agility of the average farm. This is also the opinion of the Jean-Garon Institute, which is concerned to note that it is precisely the average farm which is “the big loser in this headlong rush”. All this when we should rather be working harder to secure our food sovereignty and develop parallel models.
Quebecers will have their part to do. There is beauty and goodness in Quebec agriculture, in its seasonality, in its quality too. But the surge in favor of local foods during the pandemic fizzled. His decline today hurts a lot.
It is fortunate that the Minister of Agriculture has not stood still in the meantime. Its reform and consultations have the merit of asking the right questions, even those that are annoying. A luxury if ever there was one, André Lamontagne no longer even has to defend the indefensible. His government ended up uttering the words “in crisis”, which it had forbidden itself to say.
He now has to convince his boss that his ministry, so frugally endowed, deserves better, and to discuss with Ottawa the portions that concern him. Certainly, an emergency fund ready to be activated and the immediate and personalized support of more than 2,600 companies deemed to be highly at risk feature well in its arsenal. But the battle requires more. The Union of Agricultural Producers is calling for an “agricultural financial shield”. The idea appeals: a cap is essential if we want our approximately 30,000 agricultural businesses to survive the immediate danger.
But this is only a step, the rest will be even more important. Everything will have to be questioned: quotas, standards, models, labor, paperwork, ownership, sustainability, lark! Feeding our world is not a fad, it is a necessity. A facade renovation will not be enough. This is a social project – economic, but also identity-related – in its own right.