N.B. farmers say push to buy local yields mixed results

Threats of U.S. tariffs, expected to hit beginning on Tuesday, have driven Canadians to look for local food options, but in New Brunswick those options can be difficult to find. 

"We're self-sufficient in New Brunswick," said Joel Lamarche, president of the Agricultural Alliance of New Brunswick, an advocacy group for farmers.

"The only thing is, we're going to eat a lot of potatoes, drink milk and eat maple syrup because that's what we produce here."

A local food strategy was set up by the province in 2021 with the goal of increasing the percentage and variety of food produced locally, but some say it's failed to have much of an impact. 

The local food strategy arose out of the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as supply chains began to crumble and New Brunswick's lack of food security was put in stark relief. 

Lamarche is complimentary of the concept but said it will take a more concerted effort, with funding to back it, to begin chipping away at the deficit. 

Programs like those in Quebec to help subsidize lime and provide funding for greenhouses, to help expand the season, are sorely needed, he said. 

"It's been lacking for 30 to 40 years," he said. "There's a lot of work to be done to bring us back up to speed."

According to the local food strategy, just seven per cent of vegetables consumed in New Brunswick in 2020 were produced here. That number rose to nine per cent in 2022.

"The impact hasn't been as significant as we'd hoped," said farmer Jon Howe.

"They meant well behind it but I think we need a much higher investment into that program to actually push that forward."

Howe, the owner of Sunden Farms, produces lettuce year-round from a facility just south of Moncton, with a specific goal to displace imported product.

"We're trying to match that price of the import with our product, that way it becomes less painful ... Right from the small to the large grocery chain, take that imported product off the shelf and replace it with ours," he said.

Howe's facility is what's known as controlled environment agriculture, a form of hydroponic farming where everything from the composition of the air to the wavelength of grow lights are controlled.

Howe said this type of farming can be a major piece of the puzzle moving forward, to ensure that more local variety is grown and available year-round in a province with a very short outdoor growing season. 

"A lot of our vegetables do come from south of the border," he said.

"We need to once again look at our food security and say, well maybe it's about time that we start investing in our [controlled environment agriculture] and our other greenhouse crops and even our ability to grow more in the summer months."

Howe also argues that local vegetables hit shelves faster, meaning they're often more nutritious than produce shipped from outside of the country.

It can also be difficult for farmers to access the larger market in the province. Large chains used to purchase from a greater number of producers, but now want sufficient quality to supply stores across the regional market. 

That means going from farmers markets to supermarkets can be a tricky and capital intensive transition. 

Green Leader David Coon said he believes that the government can play a role in directly supporting local producers.

He wants to see "clear procurement targets for schools and hospitals and other government institutions for local food, which will help boost the market."

Agriculture Minister Pat Finnigan is very familiar with the challenges faced by producers in the province, spending decades as a farmer in the Kent County region. 

He said the changes in distribution models and packaging standards has squeezed smaller producers. 

"That's why we've seen so many smaller farmers that didn't fit in just drop out. We've lost a lot of farms in the last 10 to 20 years," he said. 

"We have to find a way that we can fit in and get that product to the consumer."

Finnigan said he is hoping to work with producers and distributors to ensure that more local product makes its way to the shelves. 

Ultimately, Howe's pitch is an economic one, arguing that if we all have to spend money on food, it's better to do so on things coming from our backyard. 

"When you go to the grocery store and spend that $20, that money isn't coming back again. It isn't being reinvested in our community again," he said.

"So when you buy from somebody like us, it's being reinvested, it's creating jobs, it's creating expansion, it's creating opportunities for our local communities and building stronger communities."