Warden of Hastings County, Rodney Cooney.(Photo: Quinte News)
We live in a world where convenience rules and that trend directly affects our local farmers.
Hastings County Warden Rodney Cooney attended a workshop on Monday night put on by Harvest Hastings in conjunction with Carleton University.
The university is doing a study on the future of farming in Hastings County.
The workshop noted what many local farmers already knew including that the number of farms are declining and that the average farm in Hastings County is 25 acres or less.
Cooney says there were a number of key messages at the meeting but one of the biggest takeaways was the 5 and 5 rule.
Something that surprised him, was hearing that in the United States, many people don’t even use pots and pans because there is very little cooking actually done.
Cooney says Ontario is trending that way but is nowhere as severe.
Another takeaway is trying to get the consumer to buy local. He says they’ve been trying to do this for the last 50 years.
Cooney said the workshop didn’t present anything they didn’t already know but when it was in number form it was surprising to see.
He said it’s hard enough for farmers with 300 acres to make a living so those with 25 acres or less are being hit even harder. And most of the farmers here take a loss.
Cooney says Carleton University is about a third of the way through their study to see what the trends are and where they are going.
A highlight though, was hearing that the trend of people turning to real food is slowly turning in Eastern Ontario.
