The job of bolstering bees, quelling the farm and food labour crunch

This week on Between the Rows we hear from Melanie Dubois with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada on how farmers can support bee populations, and why it makes environmental and economic sense. Plus, Geralyn Wichers with the Manitoba Co-operator reports on a new farm and food national labour strategy, and we hear from one educator from Saskatchewan Polytechnic who hopes a new program will start furnishing some of these scarce employees. Hosted by Gord Gilmour.

[podcast_transcript]

Gord Gilmour: [00:00:06] Hello and welcome to another edition of Between the Rows. The podcast of Glacier Farm Media, I’m your host this week, Manitoba cooperator editor Gord Gilmour. In this edition, we’ll hear from journalist Geralyn Wicher’s about an effort to stave off the farm labor crunch.

Geralyn Wichers: [00:00:24] Having more work than workers has been a problem in agriculture for a really long time,

Gord Gilmour: [00:00:30] And we’ll speak with one Saskatchewan educator who hopes a new post-secondary program can fill some of these gaps.

Jamie Hilts: [00:00:36] Upon graduation, they’d be able to enter into the workforce in five or six different areas, all related into the field of agriculture.

Gord Gilmour: [00:00:46] But first, here’s a word from our sponsor.

Commercial: [00:00:49] Part of being a farmer is being an accountant and a mechanic and a chemist. You have lots on the go, so farm link, make sure grain marketing go further. We help you reach your financial goals with calculated sales decisions. No bias, just solutions and results. Plus, with our new app Grain Fox, we bring every opportunity right to your fingertips. Literally start seeing the returns that’ll get your family ahead. You’ve earned it. Farm Link Your work is worth more. Get started at FarmLinkSolutions.ca

Gord Gilmour: [00:01:24] And we’re back you’re listening to Between the Rows. I’m your host this edition, Gord Gilmour. Our next item is a glimpse at a multimedia project all of us at Glacier Farm Media have been working on over the past year. It takes an in-depth look at how we’re managing our genetic resources, how they’re being used to support our agriculture sector’s growth and some of the important issues being discussed. It’s called seeding the future. You can find the full project online by following one of the QR codes you’ll see in any of our publications, or you can go to this link. GFMdigital.com/seeding-the-future Once again, that URL is GFMdigital.com/seeding-the-future. There are few natural sites more becoming than a bee, slowly making its way from plant to plant gathering pollen and pollinating the plants. We’ve got an upcoming special edition of Between the Rows that will look at bees, and we’re previewing a small part here today. In recent years, these valuable insects have come under more pressure. Multimedia journalist Greg Berg recently spoke to a Brandon based researcher who says We can make things a little easier for our flying friends.

Greg Berg: [00:03:05] Melanie Dubois has a bee centric approach when it comes to her research. As senior, riparian and biodiversity biologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Brandon Manitoba, Dubois and her team are studying bees to better understand how populations are faring and how they can be supported. It’s important work as Canada has about one thousand species of bees, with more than a third of those in Manitoba doing the bulk of pollinating crops. But many of these bees and their counterpart pollinators vital links in our food chain are finding their efforts being challenged in a number of ways.

Melanie Dubois: [00:03:43] On the prairies, of course, the number of species changes from province to province. What was interesting is that when I started working on this, we would say that we had about two hundred and fifty different species of pollinator in Manitoba, but we’ve seen that increase to about well now well over three hundred and fifty species of bee. It’s not because there are more of them, it’s just that we’re getting better at finding them and identifying them. Bees aren’t the only pollinators. There are butterflies and moths. Syrphid flies, wasps all play a role. We tend to focus on bees, though, simply because they do the bulk of the pollinating as they are. They eat pollen and nectar for the entirety of their life cycle, so they’re not dependent on other types of lands. We’re losing our shelter belts at an alarming rate at which, you know, land prices are really high. There’s not a lot of land available and machinery is getting bigger and that puts pressures on those more natural areas that perhaps were left in the past, and it’s putting pressure on their shelter belts as that land goes into production. Shelter belts are really interesting because they they play a role in providing food if they’re a flowering shelter belt or if they’re a multi species shelter belt with undergrowth. But they also provide refugia or for them to move out of the fields when there is disturbance and tillage so they can survive in those field margins. And even if your shelter belt is not a doesn’t have a flowering component, oftentimes it can. It can provide a barrier from the movement of pesticides from the AG field into your more natural areas. So it yeah, a well-designed multi species shelter belt can really support your pollinators in a variety of ways. They’re very important.

Greg Berg: [00:06:00] Approximately 80 percent of bees on the prairies make their nests in the ground, but are worrying trend in an overall decline in bee species. As much as ninety five percent in at least one population of bumblebee is often due to habitat loss. It is here at the margins that shelter belts can play an important role in providing a safe, temporary space for bees whose daily activities are disrupted.

Melanie Dubois: [00:06:24] The type of habitat that they need, though, is habitat that provides floral resources throughout the growing season that is protected from pesticides and protected from tillage. Because having a life style that relies on undisturbed ground, sometimes that’s at a premium in the agricultural areas of the prairies. Overall, the causes of decline, we do have a fairly good idea that it’s, of course, habitat loss. So when I say habitat, I mean habitat that is able to both feed, shelter and protect them. There are issues with disease transmission from domestic herds, climate change with issues with unpredictable weather, freeze thaw cycles that impact the bees that emerge, say, in the spring or in the fall, and also more violent weather, which impacts their ability to fly and get food for their larvae. You know, in order to grow one little bee, you know, it might take up to a thousand trips to a flower to provide for that, that one little bee. And if we’re having gale force winds or super hot temperatures or things like that, that’s going to reduce the ability for that to provision that that one cell. We know that we need the pollinators, but it’s it’s that unknown factor of how do you maintain competitiveness and a profitable operation while making sure that you are not damaging your operation by removing those natural areas?

Gord Gilmour: [00:08:21] That was Glacier Farm Media’s Greg Berg talking to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Melanie Dubois about Canada’s bees. A snippet of an upcoming special edition of Between the Rows that you will be able to find at the Between the Rows page on the Glacier Farm media website. You’re listening to Between the Rows, the podcast of Glacier Farm Media, I’m your host this week, Manitoba cooperator editor Gord Gilmour. In recent months, there’s been plenty of headlines highlighting Canada’s worker shortage. The Agriculture and Agri-Food sector is no stranger to this pressure. It’s been facing a workforce challenge for decades. Recently, the Canadian Agriculture Human Resources Council announced a national workforce strategy for agriculture. Reporter Geralyn Wichers was covering that story and spoke to the council’s chair, Paul Glen. She joins us now to tell us about it. Geralyn, thanks for being here.

Geralyn Wichers: [00:09:26] Hi, Gord. Thanks for having me on.

Gord Gilmour: [00:09:28] So what can you tell us about the scope of this problem with agricultural employment and about the plan to address it?

Geralyn Wichers: [00:09:35] Well, the plan to address it is kind of the million dollar question at the moment. But I mean, having more work than workers has been a problem in agriculture for a really long time. Like how long? I’m not sure. But since Canadian fruit and vegetable farmers have been bringing in temporary workers since, like the Sixties, I presume at least that long those temporary workers were supposed to be a stopgap measure, and it’s ended up being a standby. So. Back in 2017, Manitoba had an agricultural worker shortage of about 1450, according to a Keystone Agriculture Producers Member survey. They predicted by 2029 we’d see a shortage quadruple and that was pre-COVID. I don’t know what the stats in Manitoba are now, but the Canadian Federation of Agriculture says Canadian farmers lost two point nine billion dollars in revenue last year because of a labor shortage that was made worse by the pandemic.

Gord Gilmour: [00:10:40] It seems like this is a problem that kind of goes well beyond the farm gate. What can you tell us about that?

Geralyn Wichers: [00:10:47] Oh, yes, definitely. I mean, if you’ve been looking at job boards or signs around town or watching the news, it kind of seems like everyone is looking for workers these days this month. Food and Beverage Canada estimated their sector was short about thirty thousand workers, and they said they expect that to double by 2025. Here is what Paul Glenn, who is the chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council, said. And I brought some of that tape from our discussion

Paul Glenn: [00:11:17] Is going to be very broad net. It’s going to encompass not only just, you know, agriculture, but the food and beverage manufacturing as well, the food and beverage industry, they’re suffering, you know, very similar job shortages, as you know, primary producers are. So I think it’s important that we work together to really find the real outcome. And then also, you know, looking into ways that, you know, the impact of technology and automation can be on the sector and hopefully attract new people that wouldn’t have thought of agriculture as an opportunity in the past, because really, it’s an exciting time to be in agriculture with all of you know, it’s all state of the art and the processing side. And course in the producing side, you know, it’s never been more exciting with all the automation that’s coming out. You know, there’s really just a lot of different tools and the different style of Jobs Act really didn’t have before or many. But now almost every farm, you know, needs to understand automation.

Gord Gilmour: [00:12:19] So it’s part of the problem here, just simply the wages that the sector you’re paying.

Geralyn Wichers: [00:12:23] You know, I used to work in manufacturing and in food processing, so of course my knee jerk reaction will be yes. But that’s probably not fair. And and it wouldn’t apply to farmers because I have no experience in that. Reporting we’ve done in the past suggested that farmers do lose workers to higher paying jobs, for instance. A story about a farm who trained their worker to get his Class One license so he could drive a semi and then the worker departed for a trucking job. I’ve also heard anecdotal evidence, especially earlier on in the pandemic, that despite having grants for summer jobs and summer students, things like that, people didn’t seem all that interested in taking on jobs that are truly grueling when a retail job or even at the time anyway. Some of the government benefits would pay similarly. So this is definitely something that Paul said that they would be looking at.

Paul Glenn: [00:13:24] And they’re also going to look at the compensation data as well just to see how we fare with other sectors as well, and just to really understand, you know, how our agriculture workers are compensated across Canada. You know, we really need to understand, you know, what is it, compensation that’s limiting people from coming to agriculture? Is it that they never thought about AG as being, you know, the, you know, that really economic driver for Canada? You know, as we come through COVID or are they just not regionally based and they’re not able to access some of these jobs because they’re in the city center? I think there’s a, you know, a bit of a trend that people are trying to move away from city centres. So this is, I think, an opportunity for agriculture to capitalize on some of these people that want to not be in downtown Toronto. And, you know, live in rural Canada and still have a great career.

Gord Gilmour: [00:14:16] One of the sources of labor that’s received the most attention has been the temporary foreign workers. Is that still going to be part of the picture?

Geralyn Wichers: [00:14:23] All signs say yes, that’s not going to be changing any time soon. And Paul said that they are definitely going to be factoring that into their examination of the farm workforce.

Paul Glenn: [00:14:32] Temporary foreign workers are told that agriculture is used for many, many years to fill that seasonal gap in production like Ag is never going to be going away from that. It’s just more or less to look at how we can incorporate a lot of the Canadian workers right now that aren’t in AG, in agriculture and really to attract them to the sector. Temporary foreign workers is testing. It’s going to be a continued thing and probably a higher demand.

Gord Gilmour: [00:15:03] All right. Well, thanks for joining us and taking the time to run us through the ins and outs of this challenge, Geralyn. My pleasure. That was reporter Geralyn Wichers was telling us about a new national workforce strategy that aims to address the ongoing shortage of food and ag workers you’re listening to Between the Rows, the podcast of Glacier Farm Media. I’m your host this week, Gord Gilmour. Further to the question of farm labour is the question of training those workers. As farms get more and more complex, they offer new opportunities, but also need new and better skills. That’s a real challenge for the sector, and one of Saskatchewan educational institution wants to address with its new program. Sask. Polytech recently announced a new agriculture and Food Production Diploma program that will provide what it calls foundational skills for those hoping to find work in the sector. Jamie Hilts, dean of Sask. Politics School of Mining, Energy and Manufacturing, joins us now to tell us about it. Jamie, thanks for being here.

Jamie Hilts: [00:16:18] You’re very welcome. I appreciate the opportunity.

Gord Gilmour: [00:16:21] So what is it that’s made Sask. Polytech come up with this new program for agriculture?

Jamie Hilts: [00:16:27] Well, there’s a realization on a couple of things, number one, that you know, Saskatchewan still has agriculture as one of its main economies and economic drivers within the province. Number two is that there’s a growing need in terms of having people that enter into the field of agriculture or the or the industry as a whole that have a good sound understanding of agriculture, but also are able to utilize the necessary technologies that are now available and an integral part of the overall food production agricultural systems, be it provincially, nationally or internationally. So one of the things that we really want to look at was being able to produce a program or create a program that would have upon, you know, a focus for students. Upon graduation, they’d be able to enter into the workforce in five or six different areas, all related into the field of agriculture or again, food production as a whole.

Gord Gilmour: [00:17:27] Which is an excellent segue way to my next question, which is what kind of jobs will these students be qualified for upon graduation?

Jamie Hilts: [00:17:34] Well, there’s five or six is maybe as many, even as seven different areas that we’ve looked at. Certainly that we would see graduates that would be able to go to work very effectively, productively and safely within, you know, the typical farm practice a little, you know, typical today is is, you know, fifteen thousand twenty five thousand fifty thousand acres. So we certainly see that that graduates would have a significant part to play in in large scale farming of that sort. But we also believe that our learners upon graduation would be effective working in such areas as farm implement dealerships, working with consulting companies, working with provincial or national research centers, working with commercial agricultural product sales, working within such areas as livestock feed on beef and or other forms of livestock operations. They could be working as well, even in the, you know, in the fields of or in the areas of a breeze and our beekeepers and horticulture and greenhouses. So quite quite a quite a wide variety of job opportunities. And again, all you know, already focus again on on, you know, the concept of food production.

Gord Gilmour: [00:18:58] And now why is there, in your view, the need for this kind of a specialized program? There are other agriculture education opportunities out there. And then of course, then there are others like tech play opportunities and so on. What is it that you’re bringing together in this spot that you can’t get somewhere else?

Jamie Hilts: [00:19:15] Well, I think, you know, it’s two or three things. Number one, you know, going back from a, you know, from a generational perspective, so to speak. You know, not that many years ago, you could find very qualified, capable and competent people to work within a variety of areas again within agriculture or food production as a whole. You know, small town, Saskatchewan, rural Saskatchewan and even and even the larger centres had people that, you know, had a had an opportunity to be exposed and experienced in working within that environment. Things have changed very, very rapidly in the last five to 10 years, or maybe even a little bit less in terms of the utilization of new technologies. It’s also, I think, a fact where there’s not as many opportunities for, you know, for I’m going to say youth of today or, you know, younger people today to have that experience that that some of us are a little bit older might have had, you know, 30, 40, 50 years ago are growing up on a family farm and so forth. You know, Saskatchewan again is still considered to be again a large producer of foodstuffs on a national level and a global level. But where where are the people going to come from? That’s going to be able to work within a very wide array of of positions again with, you know, within within agriculture as a whole? So so the focus that we did look at was again being able to prepare learners to again, you know, to be able to be familiar with such things as as soil, crop and agronomy, to be able to be understanding some of the finance aspects that go along.

Jamie Hilts: [00:20:57] Or, you know, agribusiness with, you know, with with farm components, opportunities for students to even learn about such things as, you know, agricultural history in Saskatchewan. But we also then put a bigger focus on the real applied learning aspect for a person to be able to deal with to gain that experience, understanding and confidence, even if he or she didn’t have an opportunity to, you know, to grow up on a farm or be exposed, you know, to, you know, to to the rural, more of the rural life. So in these cases, you know, students will have an opportunity again to to learn about how irrigation systems work. So have an understanding to work on pieces of equipment in understanding such things as fuel systems, hydraulic systems, lubrication systems on a piece of equipment such as a combine or a sprayer or a tractor. In addition to that, one of the things that makes our program, I think more unique than than most programs of this nature is that all of our students will actually have operational seat time where where they’ll actually be able to actually operate equipment to get a good sense of comfort. How to understand how the piece of equipment works with new technologies in terms of data gathering and the whole concept of precision farming. So when you pull all those kinds of aspects together? It does give a student an opportunity again to, you know, to understand from a business part of it, historical part of it, but the real hands-on learning aspect of it in terms of being able to work effectively again within a multitude of environments related to the, you know, to the agricultural industry.

Gord Gilmour: [00:22:34] And so then when will we be able to expect to see some of the first graduates of this program hitting the field?

Jamie Hilts: [00:22:40] Well, we we begin the program to be delivered in the fall of twenty twenty two and about three years after that. So sometime in the spring of twenty twenty five, we’ll be be, you know, have our first students that will be ready to be entering the workforce. Now, in addition to that, the program is a co-op program, so our students will have three different co-op experiences again, which allows them to take the, you know, the theoretical or some of the work that they’ve done from a hands on approach and apply it into an actual working situation, which again, I think really benefits both the learner and the employer in terms of the student can can see how what they’ve learned in the classroom or in a lab situation actually does apply in the in the world of work. And the employer gets an opportunity to actually see the skill sets and qualifications and background and understanding that that a learner can actually bring into his or her place of employment.

Gord Gilmour: [00:23:42] Well, that’s great. Thanks for taking the time to run us through that.

Jamie Hilts: [00:23:45] You’re very, very welcome. Thank you for taking the time today to speak with me.

Gord Gilmour: [00:23:58] That was Jamie Hilts of Sask. Polytechnic telling us about a new program that aims to educate a new workforce for the agriculture sector. That’s it for another edition of Between the Rows. Remember, you can also find us and some bonus content on YouTube by searching for Between the Rows podcast. Make sure to add podcast. Also do please check out our multimedia project Seeding the Future at GFMdigital.com/seeding-the-future. Once again, that address is GFMdigital.com/seeding-the-future I’m your host for this edition, Gord Gilmour saying so long and we hope to see you again next time.

Commercial: [00:24:56] Part of being a farmer is being an accountant and a mechanic and a chemist. You have lots on the go, so farm link, make sure grain marketing go further. We help you reach your financial goals with calculated sales decisions. No bias, just solutions and results. Plus, with our new app Grain Fox, we bring every opportunity right to your fingertips. Literally start seeing the returns that’ll get your family ahead. You’ve earned it Farm Link. Your work is worth more. Get started at FarmLinkSolutions.ca

[/podcast_transcript]