Blueberry controversy sparks debate on Higgs agricultural policy

Dramatic aerial images of large-scale blueberry farming on the Acadian Peninsula has sparked a renewed political debate about the Higgs government's agricultural policy.

The Opposition Liberals have called for a moratorium on further expansion of the growing sector into a former military field, something Progressive Conservative agricultural minister Margaret Johnson has rejected.

At the same time, Green MLA Kevin Arseneau has linked the blueberry controversy to the shrinking number of locally owned farms in the province and the current government's support for industrial-level production.

"This government continues, like successive governments, to put a lot of thought and energy into intensification of production, not the diversification of production," he said in the legislature this week.

"What's going to help to feed New Brunswickers is the diversification of production."

Expansion plans by Oxford Frozen Foods on the Acadian Peninsula gained new attention earlier this month after Radio-Canada aired striking drone images of the company's existing industrial-scale blueberry farming.

The company has bought up several blueberry farms in the region, and critics say its growing presence puts downward pressure on prices paid to the remaining local growers.

Arseneau cited Statistics Canada data showing that one in five locally owned farms closed their doors in New Brunswick between 2016 and 2021. 

That means a dwindling base of local farms and a growing role for larger corporate-owned operations, he said — an assertion backed by statistics from the National Farmers Union.

"We're losing small farms," said the NFU's executive director in New Brunswick Suzanne Fournier.

Arseneau recently introduced a motion calling for more help from government to support local products, something Premier Blaine Higgs said this week he was reluctant to subsidize because farms are subject to market forces like any other businesses.

"It's the supply and demand concept. Business speaks for itself in terms of can it be viable or can it not be viable?" the premier said.

"To say that the government should try to fund all kinds of different small farms — that could be a pretty tall order."

Johnson spoke in the legislature and to reporters the same day about the New Brunswick Local Food and Beverages Strategy, launched in 2021.

It includes a plan to get more local produce in provincial schools, hospitals, long-term care homes and jails.

Johnson says farm cash receipts are up, despite the dwindling number of farmers. She attributes that trend to aging farmers with children unwilling to take over. 

"What happens in that case when you're at the end of your career and you want to go on and do something else, you tend to sell off your farm to a larger farm," she said.

Fournier said other factors are also pushing farmers out, including labour shortages and more frequent extreme weather.

She said while farm revenue is up, net income is down, a reflection of farmers needing to use more of what they bring in to pay their bills.

The province has been trying to get younger farmers into the sector by working with banks to educate them about financing options. 

Arseneau said that's not enough to reverse the trend of corporate consolidation exemplified by the growing Oxford Foods presence in the peninsula's blueberry sector.

Nova Scotia-based Oxford's potential expansion onto an 18,000-hectare parcel of land that used to be a federal military firing range has stirred local opposition from hunters and four-wheeler drivers.

Arseneau's motion called for "completely stopping the destruction of the Tracadie shooting range."

The drone visuals of Oxford Frozen Foods' operations this month led the Liberals to call for a moratorium on expansion in the former firing range. Leader Susan Holt said she supported the sector but wanted a pause there so local communities could reach a consensus.

A spokesperson for Oxford Frozen Foods did not respond to a CBC request for comment Friday.

Oxford bought the former Mega Bleu processor in the region in 2003 and has ramped up its operations with support from PC and Liberal governments that have given them access to Crown land.

The company opened a 40-million-kilogram cold-storage facility near Saint-Isidore in 2016. 

Johnson said opposition to development on the former military range isn't universal.

"I think we've got a very vocal group that is anti-blueberry on the Tracadie range because it is their playground, historically," she said.

"But I think there is a population on the Acadian Peninsula that is also interested in developing the blueberry industry. Now they may not be vocal." 

Higgs said this week that the consolidation of blueberry production by Oxford was worthy of support because it's a good example of a "niche opportunity" made possible by ideal soil conditions in the northeast.

"I think that whole view is connected: more growers, more sustainable growers, more access to market, more access to supply. And it's all good." 

Amid the closure of provincial borders during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Higgs government touted food self-sufficiency as a goal, to make New Brunswick less vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.

But Higgs said supporting small, unprofitable local farmers for the sake of it would be "a pretty slippery slope for any government to follow on any sort of routine basis."

Arseneau, however, isn't calling for subsidies for money-losing operations, but for measures to stimulate more demand for locally grown products in the province, including firmer buying targets for the provincial institutions under Johnson's program.

"Baby steps. Baby steps," he said of the program as it exists now. "But it's not enough."