BONNYVILLE – With Canada’s Agriculture Day taking place last week on Feb. 22, Canadians have been rallying around local producers and their products.
For some, celebrating the day meant posting a selfie holding a fork along with the hashtag “Forks up for Canadian Ag,” for others it means sharing meals with only Canadian sourced produce.
For the Bonneau family, however, it means raising awareness and educating the public on the current strains felt by Canadian producers.
“Canada Agriculture Day is a huge thing. I feel it should be bigger, but I find it really flies under the radar all the time, which is very frustrating because it really affects everybody. If you look back, agriculture has always been the driving force of Alberta,” said Guy Bonneau.
Operating Charlotte Lake Farms, located between Bonnyville and Fort Kent, Guy and Léona Bonneau, with the help of their son Ben, and daughter Catherine, run 150 cattle on about 1,000 acres of rented and deeded land used mostly for pasturing.
In the last few years, the Bonneau family has also rolled out a Farm to Table program for their beef products while continuing to promote awareness of Canada’s cattle industry, which has included participating in events like Open Farm Days.
“Part of our decision was ‘Hey, let's sell locally, and people will know where it's from.’ At the same time, there is also the whole education component,” explained Léona.
Guy continued, “People realize that you eat every day – you need agriculture and so you need that connection with your producers.”
A large component of educating non-producers has revolved around the reasons behind product pricing and even more education on how long it takes to grow an animal.
“A lot of people think they can just fill an order. Well no, the animal is standing on its hooves in a pen. The way we raise our livestock, it can take 18 to 24 months,” elaborated Guy with a chuckle.
But there were greater drivers impacting the family’s move to expand the farm’s scope. They wanted to shorten the supply chain and reduce the amount of their products lined up for export.
“When we were bringing our animals to the auction markets, we were finding out that our animals, if they were good quality, were going to the (United) States,” said Guy. “That bothered me a lot because we are putting a lot of time and effort into choosing our bulls and picking good cows and then those economic benefits translate to a little bit more money at the auction, but not really.”
Teaming up with a family-run butcher shop in Vegreville, Charolette Lake Farms has been able to offer high quality beef products to residents in the Lakeland and beyond.
“The significance for us, I think, is that we are able to provide an excellent world class product locally,” he said, speaking to the decision to change up operations and sell directly to consumers.
Starting with only four animals per year going to the Farm to Table program, the farm now holds back roughly 12 of its steers.
Although the move to sell final products directly to customers has translated into far more work for the family, they say the practice of connecting with community members is not only economically satisfying, but also very socially satisfying.
“It's nice to be able to know that we raise our animals with good care, good feed, and excellent welfare. We take really good care of them, and it comes out in the quality of our product and local people can appreciate and see that,” Léona said.
And while most of their cattle still go to auction, with only a small percentage held back, it does make a huge impact for the Bonneau’s and their operations.
Supporting local despite rising costs
To maintain food security in Canada there must be a change in the mindset of the consumer to ‘Let's buy Canadian,’ they say.
“We're all trying to survive. So that's why we are always looking to buy something cheaper... it's just part of who we are. But at the same time, it affects everything around us, and we don't even realize it until it's too late,” said Guy.
In many ways the pandemic and resulting supply chain issues connected to shortages of truck drivers and COVID-19 outbreaks shutting down large processing plants have highlighted how fragile the global food chain system is.
“Any little hiccup throws a wrench into the system and then you are left with empty shelves. We also saw this with the BC fires and the flooding and how all of a sudden, some store shelves are empty of meat or some produce,” said Guy.
But that is only one of the side effects caused by the pandemic. The other is product inflation, which has been worsened by last summer's drought across most of western Canada and the Prairies, and the carbon tax, they say.
Many of the products used at Charlotte Lake Farms to raise cattle have tripled.
"Our fertilizer is more than double what we had to pay last year. Our hay is three times what we normally have to pay,” said Léona.
Guy continued, “I know it's a big deal for some families – that has to be – and we see that even in our little business where some people would really like to buy from us, but they just can't seem to afford it.”
“This is when you're going to see farmers start to disappear, even our neighbor has sold all his cattle, because it's going to financially ruin people,” added Léona. “I feel sad for the industry, but at the same time people don't realize this is what's happening.”
Although she says it sounds harsh, an anticipated six per cent added to Albertan’s grocery bills so far this year only scratches the surface of what many producers are currently facing with their own supply costs.
“Your economy is derived by what is going on in your area,” added Léona. "The small communities that are disappearing are because people have gone to bigger centers. But in reality, those little communities could still continue to thrive because if they supported each other, the people would still be there.”
By staying connected to the community and other producers, the Bonneau family hopes that their 111-year-old farm will still be viable and thriving in the next 10 to 20 years – ready for the fourth generation to carry on.
