ABSTRACT

Financialization of agriculture has been a hot topic of analysis, especially since the food price spikes of 2007–8. How has this played out in Canada? This is difficult to determine given that financialization remains an understudied area in Canada – which is in part explained by it not having become politicised, as it has in a country like Australia. That is due in large part to the fact that foreign ownership of agricultural land in Canada has not reached critical proportions. Why is that? Other countries, like Australia, are more geographically proximate to land purchasing nations like China the countries of the Middle East, whose sights have been set on ensuring sufficient caloric intake among their populations. In short, Canada is more isolated from the mainstream than many other nations with abundant arable land. As well, the country hosts a system governing production in dairy, eggs and poultry called ‘supply management’. This system discourages foreign ownership of production primarily through not yielding to what critics would call appropriate economies of scale. For example, the average poultry layer farm in Canada is 22,000 birds while the average dairy farm is about 80 cows – both perceived as being far too small to encourage any agri-business takeover. This passive blockage of foreign takeover of these sectors has served the country well, as will be demonstrated in this chapter.