OCTOBER 2022
CELEBRATING 143 YEARS AS CANADA’S PREMIER HORTICULTURAL PUBLICATION
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BUCKING THE BABY BOOMER CENSUS
Growing older means growing smarter and more productive
Chris Sopuch is one of the 22,735 farmers that’s identified in the 35 and under category in the 2021 Census of Agriculture. He moved back to the Marshland Gardens’ family farm in Bradford, Ontario at the onset of the pandemic. He’s one of the new generation of farmers committed to horticulture. Photos by Glenn Lowson.
KAREN DAVIDSON The Canadian Census of Agriculture is a beast of information, its belly ready to be dissected. Tired headlines read that farmers are getting older – and yes, the cohort of farmers aged 55-plus now numbers a high-water mark of 158,790 according to the 2021 statistics. Put another way, 60 per cent of Canadian farmers are in the silver-haired club. But they are definitely not falling asleep at the wheel. In 2021, Canadian farmers eclipsed the federal export target of $75 billion with a record $82 billion in farmgate sales. Agriculture is being transformed with data-driven insights and automation and Canadian farms are becoming more productive in the process. And although this fact might not be captured in the headlines, farming is increasingly attracting a younger age demographic and female farmers. Take Chris Sopuch for example. Putting a positive spin
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on conditions during the pandemic, the 29-year-old came back to farm with his dad Dan at Bradford, Ontario. Sopuch’s undergraduate degree in forestry had stood him in good stead as an employee of the Alberta ministry of agriculture, forestry and rural economic development. For four years he drew on his passion for the land, working with ranchers. But in the end, he was drawn back to farm 200 acres of carrots, onions and celery at Marshland Gardens. “I’m a farmer,” says Sopuch. “I’m a grower, a manager, a plumber, a sprayer – whatever the day demands. Automation is making farming easier, especially with the challenge of accessing labour. We are actively looking at weeding robots in the Holland Marsh.” With a mobile phone in his pocket, Sopuch literally has the world in his hands. Recent global events – the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – have upended traditional norms of how agricultural inputs are sourced and when they are to be delivered. He’s ordering inputs earlier to pin down prices so that he can forecast his
production costs. “It might mean there’s less money for capital investments,” says Sopuch, “But it’s better to know in advance. I’m in farming for the long haul, so it’s important to look beyond the farm.” That’s why he was all in to apply for the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program. He sees the executive program as a gateway to impact the future of agriculture. During the group’s travels throughout Ontario, Washington DC and Louisiana, he notes common themes: land loss due to urban encroachment, difficulties in accessing labour and ever-rising input costs. “There’s no simple solution to get paid properly for what we do except to tell our story to consumers,” says Sopuch. “We’re stronger in telling that message through organizations such as the Holland Marsh Growers’ Association.”
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