BSE! Get A Job?

On May 23rd 2003, the discovery of BSE in the National herd shocked the cattle industry and forced Canadian cattle farmers to re-evaluate their livelihood strategies. When farm incomes dropped in the wake of BSE, the availability of off-farm employment contributed to the resiliency of many farm households.

For some farmers, off-farm employment represented an exodus from agriculture into a more secure wage-earning position. One farmer explains, “I think I will quit this loosing business and get a paying job so I can raise my family with dignity.” Yet, part-time off-farm employment is not necessarily the prelude to complete farm exiting. It has rather become a crucial condition for the very continuation of the farm.  Indeed, off-farm income was used as to sustain many farms throughout the BSE crisis.

Those that held off-farm employment going into the crises tended to fair better than others. One farmer observes, “these folks were impacted by the BSE crisis but having off-the-farm income(s) they did not feel the full effect of the crisis.” Some family members sought to increase off-farm work hours while others had to seek off-farm employment for the first time. Balancing farm loses with new or ongoing off-farm income may have prevented or delayed bankruptcy.

Although the availability of off-farm income appears to reduce the vulnerability of farms, the longer-term implications are less certain. A farmer from Alberta remarks, “my son and grandson had to go trucking off the farm and still are. As a result the farm and family suffer from neglect.” The stress associated with working (in most cases) two fulltime jobs, one on and one off farm, can resonate through the family in ways that are often underappreciated. Clint Cavers from Manitoba explains, “I trucked long-distance during tough times and missed a lot of the first years of my youngest daughter’s life.”

An increased reliance on off-farm employment may also result in less attention to on-farm needs and decrease farm efficacy. In other instances, new skills can be gained in the labor force that can then be applied in new innovations on-farm. Cavers later took on employment at a local abattoir, in part to learn about meat processing. He subsequently opened a meat-shop on his own farm and has since developed a successful direct-marketing business.

Statistics Canada data indicates that the average Canadian farm household in 2006 derived 80.2% of their household income from off-farm sources. Although the agri-food industry as a whole is incredibly profitable, farm families are generally unable to sustain an adequate income from the farm alone. BSE only exacerbated a longer farm emergency that is underpinned by a cost-price squeeze that robs farmers of their return on investment. Off-farm employment offers important opportunities for farmers to subsidize the farm operation, however, only acts as a band-aid solution to issues of farm viability. Structural changes that lead to a fairer distribution of profit within the agri-food system and those that address farm income are more appropriate avenues for providing sustaining solutions to the farm crisis.

This blog post is based on findings from a study that included a survey sent out to 9,600 producers in AB, SK and MB and 32 in-depth interviews.