When It Comes To National Security Our Farmlands Should Be Our First Line of Defense

A Commentary by Chris Wojnarowski
In times of geopolitical stress, a country that loses its ability to produce its own food, make things and control its energy & resources, ceases to be a sustainable nation.

Food is at the top of the list of these national security issues, and it would be in everyone’s interests to take this subject seriously. As a nation dependant on trading internationally for food, we are irreversibly heading into the jaws of a major calamity.

Recent devastating droughts in the United States, Mexican and Chilean farm belts will likely result in the cessation of seasonal food exports to Canada. Political turmoil in places like Argentina, Ukraine, and the Middle East, normally able to feed themselves will strain and possibly overwhelm the international supply chain.

There may come a point where certain foods will not be available at any price, and supermarket shelves begin to resemble those of Stalinist Russia. It would not be a stretch to see other trading partners reflexively ration their exports.

In such a situation, what would happen if say China decided that it would no longer be in their national interest to export food produce? It is a matter of record that Chinese government has foreseen the coming global food crisis, and has mandated state agencies to purchase large areas of arable land in Africa to secure food supplies to ship back to China. And China has the means to defend such food supplies. No conspiracy. Just good government looking after their citizens.
What if food production becomes “weaponized” by a hostile power? What if the only food available to Canada is with-held or hyper-priced as is the case of Russian exports to Ukraine?

Canada’s existential needs should mobilize a sense of urgency in our Provincial & Federal governments to reassess their punitive policies of marginalizing non-urban agricultural communities in pursuit of their own political agendas. Urban voter blocks that have come to expect that food comes in a package from nicely lit supermarkets. The oh so clever elites have created a culture of contempt for the “low class dirty farmer” that feeds him. Our farm youth are not blind or deaf to this. Farming is no longer an aspirational form of employment. They rightly feel stigmatized and flee family farms in droves. The tragic loss of our farming heritage is a logical result.

Agricultural policy cannot be spun on a dime like war-time manufacturing – it a lagging enterprise requiring serious lead times. They should do so before we are confronted by food shortages, rationing with the resultant civil unrest.

Chris Wojnarowski is a Niagara, Ontario resident who has had well-researched and thought-provoking commentary on a host of issues published and posted in area newspapers and other media venues for a number of years. Niagara At Large is pleased that he has accepted an invitation to post the commentary above, on an issue that is near and dear to NAL’s heart, by the way, on our site.
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