Farm Workers

International Workers’ Day: NFU Speaks Out Against the Expansion of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and Calls for Justice for Migrant Workers

On International Workers’ Day, the National Farmers Union is in solidarity with all who contribute their labour to feeding our communities and who collectively struggle for labour justice.   This May Day the NFU’s Migrant Worker Solidarity Working Group highlights our concerns regarding the federal government’s recent expansion of the low-wage migrant worker program, and Read more

Flexible Support— Consistent Income Needed for Farmers to Continue Their Essential Work

The interconnectedness of Canadian farmers’ income security and the climate crisis cannot be denied; yet, neither issue is being addressed with the urgency it warrants. As two young people in agriculture, a farmer and farm worker, we are deeply concerned for farmers, who feel the dual pressure of declining income and increasingly extreme climate conditions. Read more

Statement on United Nations International Migrants Day

The National Farmers Union (NFU) stands in solidarity with all migrant workers on International Migrants Day. The NFU calls on the Canadian government to extend permanent residency status to all those who grow our food. In April 2021, former Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister, Marco Mendocino, announced a Temporary Policy to enable up Read more

Time for Western Premiers to “Do The Right Thing” Regarding Agristability

Swift Current, SK—The National Farmers Union (NFU) is urging the western conservative premiers in Saskatchewan and Alberta to put aside the political posturing and “do the right thing” in order to get crucially needed aid to drought-stricken farmers. The NFU is urging the premiers to accept federal offers to increase coverage within the AgriStability program Read more

Manitoba Cattle Farmers Face Rising Costs from Drought & Government

Brandon, MB—Manitoba cattle farmers are facing higher costs and may soon see falling prices.  Farmers may be on the eve of a severe cost-price squeeze. The NFU today sent a letter to the Manitoba Minister of Agriculture detailing the problem and outlining some solutions. The drought is driving up feed grain and hay prices and Read more

Canadian Farms Hammered by Heat and Drought; Climate Change Will Make Such Events More Frequent and Damaging

Saskatoon, SK—Across BC, the Prairies, and western Ontario, intense heat and lack of rain are withering crops, pastures, livestock feed, orchards, and vegetable fields and drying up water supplies.  The results are devastating.  More than three-quarters of Canadian farmland has been impacted by drought. Arzeena Hamir and her husband farm in the Comox Valley on Read more

Farmers Can’t Do it Alone. What we need to fight the climate crisis. 

In inspiring numbers, young farmers are taking to the land to act on climate – but we know that our individual zeal, commitment, and fighting spirit will not be enough to achieve the drastic reduction in on-farm emissions that we so desperately need. “I can make my own individual actions but what we really need Read more

From the Frontlines: Notes from young farmers in the face of the climate crisis

The climate crisis is the greatest threat facing agriculture today.  As farmers, our livelihood is the land, and that puts us on the frontlines of the climate crisis.  As young farmers in particular, we are grappling with the onset of the climate crisis as a warning sign of what will come to define our lives.  Read more

Why I Farm: Reflections on my absurd career choice 

By Laura Fash I never thought I would be a farmer. A lifelong urbanite, my closest encounters with agriculture were my grandpa’s stories about growing up on a dairy farm and blasting by backroad acreage on my dad’s motorcycle. I had zero interest in rural life and couldn’t keep a cactus alive, let alone crops.  Read more

Op Ed: Farmers’ Mental Health has Economic Roots

Charlottetown, PEI The Island Minister of Agriculture, Bloyce Thompson said this past week that more Island Farmers are reaching out for mental health support through the PEI Farmers Assistance Program.  He noted that the number of calls in 2019 was 140, increasing to 293 in 2020. Minister Thompson said navigating a hot dry summer during Read more