Global warming a double edged sword for northern Ontario says Hajdu

Dec 04, 2023

Global warming is such a huge topic nowadays, and crops that could only be growing down south are now starting to be grown in the north.

The minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Initiative for northern Ontario is Patty Hajdu. She told BayToday recently that there are positives and negatives.

"Through the Canada Research Council, the federal government funds a lot of research on how agriculture is changing across the country, including in northern Ontario, and climate change in some ways provides an opportunity to grow things in northern Ontario that we've never been able to grow before."

She says the growing season also can be longer, but it also makes it more challenging.

"What we're hearing from farmers across the country is that climate change is presenting an enormous challenge in terms of the kinds of drought that some regions of the country are seeing, the kinds of flooding that often can happen, and the unpredictability of weather that makes it harder for farmers.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

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