As a Canadian farmer I struggle to grow my operation because there are 100s of other farmers lined up in front of me, champing at the bit to do the same, with not enough resources to go around. I could more than double the size of my operation without breaking a sweat. I spend most of my days working in tech because there isn't enough farm work to do. In fact, nearly half of all farmers in Canada have an off-farm job, with 68% of them working full-time off the farm.
Those who have bitten off more than they can chew likely think we need more farmhands, but they could also downsize and let other farmers pick up the slack.
As the environment policies kick in many farmers won't agree so someone has to take over.
Similar to what's happening in cities where companies can't find people as many people left, Toronto, so all your retail is immigrants. If someone grew up here 20 years ago and was making minimum wage they could buy a house, that same job doesn't even pay for a bachelor today, they have no incentive to stay.
Some of the policies that are passing will reduce your profits significantly and someone from another country will be willing to work for less.
What's the difference between a farmer and a farmhand? Like, why do you work in tech instead of being a farm hand on your surplus time? I assume since you are experienced, they'd offer you a good salary? Or is the matter not that they need farmhands, but more that they need cheap labour to exploit?
A farmer owns a farm business. A farmhand works for a farmer.
While it is not completely unheard of for farmers to also be farmhands, there is difficulty in that the farms will generally share the same busy seasons. Meaning that your employer will want you on the job most especially during the times you will want a vacation to work on your own farm.
For me, it is also questionable how much I want to help out the competition. While farmers are generally good spirited and try to work together for a greater good, there is still only so much resources to go around, and I want to see my business thrive. I'd jump in and help in a pinch, but to make it a career...
But it is also true that tech will pay me more than other farmers will. That certainly seals the deal.
That's what I'm getting at a little bit. Everybody wants to be the business owner and then demand that cheap labour should materialize, ready to work for them. Ideally working just during the season when they're needed and then get lost.
They need a constant stream of desperate people to abuse in order for that business model to work out - and I guess that's why farming historically has been the main industry for slavery. Or a family business where the profits of cheap labour one day ends up in the hands of the labourer when he inherits the farm.
> Everybody wants to be the business owner and then demand that cheap labour should materialize, ready to work for them.
I don't know if the labour is cheap, exactly. Tech is kind of an outlier among few other careers in the level of pay. I expect being a farmhand would still be my second best choice in terms of pay opportunity.
Of course, being the owner is more fun. The thrill of the gamble is like no other.
What for?
As a Canadian farmer I struggle to grow my operation because there are 100s of other farmers lined up in front of me, champing at the bit to do the same, with not enough resources to go around. I could more than double the size of my operation without breaking a sweat. I spend most of my days working in tech because there isn't enough farm work to do. In fact, nearly half of all farmers in Canada have an off-farm job, with 68% of them working full-time off the farm.
Those who have bitten off more than they can chew likely think we need more farmhands, but they could also downsize and let other farmers pick up the slack.