So far, this year has not been one for the books in terms of farming. It’s been shit, to put it plainly, and looking at the long-term forecast, things aren’t improving anytime soon.
Depending on crops, growing seasons and periods differ for farmers here in Ontario, as well as everywhere else in the world. Some start earlier in the Spring, others later on, towards the summer months, and some as late as fall based on the type of crop and the weather it thrives best in. Some forms of crops grow year-round.
We desperately need rain here in Southern Ontario, as do a lot of other places here on planet Earth. Take a look at what is going on in Europe, for example, with record-high temperatures and tumultuous wildfires.
I heard on the news the other day that the month of June in Ontario broke records in terms of ridiculously high temperatures – records that haven’t been challenged to this degree for 15 years. If you’re someone who continues to deny the existence and further the escalation of global warming and climate change, do me a favour and shove your head in a wood chipper.
On top of drought, dry crops and fields, farmers are also facing unprecedented challenges pertaining to rising costs to tend to their crops thanks to inflation. With a bonkers increase in fuel prices, chemicals, equipment and labour, farmers are struggling to get by, and the issue continues to worsen.
To provide you with just one example, allow me to explain the concept of irrigation. We irrigate crops when we haven’t had rain, and to do so we use a tractor to power the irrigation gun (basically a huge ass sprinkler with a lot more water). There is also a pump, which runs off of diesel, to pull water from our pond and push it through pipes to get to the gun. This means that the tractor powering the irrigation system and the pump are running for hours on end, burning diesel.
Take a second to attempt to fathom how much that works out to, cost-wise, in regards to fuel alone.
I really don’t think the general public has any idea how difficult it is to produce food and other essential crops right now. Those of us who are involved in the agricultural realm are fully aware, but we aren’t the ones that need to be informed seeing as we are living it. Educate yourself and others and be mindful of how trying it is to be a farmer right now the next time you’re stuck behind a tractor on a road.
ontheedgeofeverything 
