When I drove up the laneway to Adieu Farm near St. Jacob’s last month, the realization that it had been two years since I had been to any event or gathering with more than a handful of people, or stepped inside any kind of facility, hit me hard.
Two years.
The farm held an open house on St. Patrick’s day, and it was clear from the attendance that like me, there are many who are eager to get out and about again, and see what’s new. I believe it is the first open house in the province since the first stay-at-home order was announced in March 2019, or one of the first.
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More than 1000 people came to see the Frey family’s new dairy facility after a fire destroyed their original barn in July 2020. Such incredible attendance was of course due to curiosity, but being able to see the equipment and layout first-hand and talk to the Freys and service providers, as well as other farmers and community members – that’s what it was really about.
It was invigorating to see so many people smiling, talking and sharing.
Now that the province has lifted the majority of COVID-19 restrictions, we can all look forward to seeing each other once again ‘in-person’.
The first large agricultural meeting in the province with an in-person option was the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s (GFO) March Classic on March 22.
The emotion in GFO chair Brendan Byrne’s voice could be heard as he welcomed several hundred people at RBC Place in London and virtually.
“1099. That’s the number of days since the last time we were able to meet together here in this room at this event, face to face. I’ve missed you all. I think we’ve all been waiting for these words,” he said.
He added, “Today really does feel like the start of the next stage of our lives as we learn how to live with COVID. So here we are learning how to be in person with each other, again, finding new ways of connecting with each other, and understanding how the world will look with our newfound expertise of working virtually.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many industries, agriculture included, to take a hard look at how work gets done when disruptions to supply chains, product availability and costs are unpredictable.
But work continued, despite the disruptions.
Now that we are finally turning the corner in the pandemic, we are faced with the ramifications of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Despite these challenges, Byrne told March Classic attendees “we will find a way.”
Although we don’t fully know how the Russia/Ukraine conflict will affect our agricultural industry in the long-term, former 31st U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told March Classic attendees he is optimistic for the future.
His optimism stems from the fact that like Byrne, he knows that farmers will find a way to keep growing and producing despite these challenges.
Perdue, also a former governor of Georgia, has seen what farmers have had to deal with the past.
“You’re going to make it based on what you’ve done, what you’ve learned over the years that you’ve been doing this, you’re going to figure it out,” he said. His advice to attendees is to “sit back, hunker down and survive, and then you will thrive in that regard, because no one asked for help from people who may have no idea of the risk that you assume each and every year.”
Farmers still worked every day of the pandemic to provide food for Ontarians.
They did find a way, because they had to. And they will continue to do so.
