Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Food and drink: Making hay for our priceless farmers

Or: where did those chick peas and Brussels sprouts come from?

Hawaii calls it Lei Day and marks it by celebrating local culture and passing around flower garlands. The English build Maypoles, the Germans light bonfires and the Greeks, along with a lot of other Europeans, still mark May Day by celebrating workers.

Since no one has bothered much with May Day in Canada and it traditionally has been a combo-celebration of the springing to life of nature after winter's end along with recognizing the contributions made by hard-working people, I hereby retroactively proclaim May 1 Hay Day - the occasion on which we pay tribute to our farmers, keepers of just about everything we eat.

To kick off our first annual Hay Day, I bring you, in the fine tradition of Harper's Index, the following statistics that may open your eyes a little to the rich agricultural fabric of Canada, starting with the farms in our own backyards. Most of the numbers are based on Canadian census, done every five years.

Number of farms in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) growing potatoes in 2006 and 2001, respectively: 17; 23

Number of farms in Greater Vancouver growing potatoes in 2006 and 2001, respectively: 70; 67

Factor by which the number of hectares given over in 2006 to potato growing in Greater Vancouver exceeds that of the SLRD: Nearly 8 times greater

Number of farms growing potatoes in Prince Edward Island in 2006 and 2001 respectively: 412; 468

Rank of PEI's potatoes in farm cash receipts: 1st

Ratio by which the number of hectares given over to potato growing in Alberta exceeds that of PEI: More than 3:1

Ratio of the number of Alberta farms growing wheat vs. the number growing dry peas and beans: 28:1.

Number of farms growing potatoes in Ontario in 2006 vs. number of farms growing tobacco: 904 vs. 643

Number of farms in Canada growing tobacco in 2006 and 2001, respectively: 649; 1,146

Ratio of decline in land area given over to growing tobacco from 2001 to 2006: Less that half

Percentage of Canada's tobacco farms that are located in Ontario: 99 percent

Percentage by which the total number of farms dropped in Canada 2001-06: 7.1 percent

Percentage by which the number of larger farms, with gross farm receipts of $250,000 or more (at 2005 constant prices), increased in the same time period: +13.8 percent

Percentage by which the number of smaller farms, with gross farm receipts of less than $250,000 in receipts, declined from 2001-06: -10.5 percent

Increase in the average size of a Canadian farm in the same time period: From 676 acres to 728 acres

Number of hog and pig farms in Canada in 2006 vs. 2001: 6,040 vs. 7,388

Number of goat farms in Canada in 2006: 978

Rank of Ontario in growing soybeans: 1st

Value of Canadian farm cash receipts from organic farming in 2000: $600 million or about 1.5 percent of all farm cash receipts

Percentage increase in the number of organic farms from 2001-06: +9 percent

Number of organic farmers in Canada in 2006: 3,555 working 546,000 ha of land

Number of hectares in B.C. in certified organic production in 2006: 13,002, down 3 percent from 2005

Total farms reporting growing vegetables in Canada in 2006, not in greenhouses: 9,499

Total number in 2001: 9,829

Number of farms growing vegetables on Vancouver Island and in Powell River and Central Coast areas in 2006 and 2001, respectively: 498; 486

Ratio by which the number of farms growing vegetables in Greater Vancouver exceeds the number of vegetable farms in SLRD in 2006: 13 to 1

Total greenhouse areas in use on Census Day in 2006 and 2001, respectively, in Canada, by square metres: 22 million; 18 million

Number of farms reporting greenhouses in Greater Vancouver in 2006 and 2001, respectively: 277; 321

Total area of those farms in 2006 and 2001, respectively, in hectares: 3.2 million; 2.8 million

Factor by which the number of farms with greenhouses in Peace River district exceeds the number of farms with greenhouses in SLRD: 3:1

Percentage of the 38 million maple tree taps in Canada that are found on farms in Quebec: 91%

Number of farms with maple tree taps in Alberta: 3

Number of farms with maple tree taps in B.C.: 32, 25 of them on Vancouver Island

Total number of maple tree taps reported in B.C. in 2006: 2,241

Rank of B.C. as provincial mushroom grower: 2nd, after Ontario

Percentage of Canadian farms growing blueberries that are in B.C.: 30 percent

Percentage of Canadian farms growing blueberries that are located in Greater Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley: 23 percent

Number of hectares in B.C. producing asparagus in 2006: 91

Number in Alberta: 15

Number of farms in 2006 growing ginseng in Canada and in Ontario, respectively: 289; 252

Number of ginseng farms in B..C: 22

In the Thompson/Okanagan: 21

Number of farms growing Brussels sprouts in Canada in 2006: 363

Rank of B.C. in Brussels sprouts growing: 3rd, after Ontario and Quebec

Rank of B.C. in carrot growing in 2006: 3rd, after Ontario and Quebec

Sources: Statistics Canada Census Reports 2001, 2006; Canadian Agriculture at a Glance, 2004; Government of Prince Edward Island Agricultural Report; Canadian Organic Growers' Certified Organic Production in Canada, 2006.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who, as a kid, loved feeding the pigs weeds on her uncle's farm in Peace River.