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CM . . . .
Volume VII Number 21 . . . . June 22, 2001
Not since the 1930's have Canadian farmers and the farm economy been under such extreme
pressure: currency fluctuations, price volatility, the rise of multi-national agriculture cartels,
environmental peril, and technological change are challenges faced by today's producer. It takes
courage, considerable business savvy, incredible optimism, and sometimes, the luck of a really
successful gambler, in order to remain in farming and to manage a living from it. Farm Futures
is the story of four Manitoba farm families, their heritage, their present, and their speculations
about the futures of their multi-generational farms.
Each of the four families profiled has faced considerable personal stresses: illness, family
difficulties, and the inevitable "bad years" in which months of hard work are wiped out by storm,
drought, infestations, or insects. And, in each of the four families profiled, the members of the
current generation of producers have combined their knowledge of agriculture with an
entrepreneurial spirit in order to find new sources of income. Patrick Horosko does
custom-spraying and raises bees; Mike Taylor left his work as an engineer to work on his parents'
elk and bison ranch, the first of its kind in Manitoba; Michael Lamb helps his widowed mother to
continue to run the family farm, doing custom baling to earn additional income; and Paul Orsak
has expanded into the grain elevator business in order to be more profitable.
All of the families talked candidly about the stresses of farming and of how they manage the
dynamics of an inter-generational business. What emerges, however, is incredible respect for the
hard work of the previous generation and admiration for the current generation's ability to adapt
to the changes in agri-business. As for the future of the farm, all four of the current generation -
Patrick Horosko, Mike Taylor, Michael Lamb, and Paul Orsak - express concern about whether
or not farm business is the future for their sons and daughters. At the same time, each expresses
an undeniable satisfaction with the life he has chosen, despite its hardships, and hopes that
somehow, the farm will remain in the family.
Farm Futures provides an excellent perspective on the difficulties faced by this generation of
Canadian farmers. City-dwellers shopping in grocery stores forget about where all that food
comes from, and when we complain about its cost, we rarely think of the scale of price increases
faced by farmers paying for fuel, leasing machinery, and dealing with government marketing
agencies. We forget that farming is a business, with inevitable booms and busts, and more than its
share of uncontrollable uncertainties.
All of the farmers profiled in the video work in various regions of Manitoba, and the Prairie focus
is one of the limits of the film. Teachers and students outside the Prairie region might find that the
farms presented are quite different from those in their province. While the video includes many
sequences of work on the farm, it is not a documentary describing how farming is undertaken;
rather, the focus is on the people and their experience. Nevertheless, Farm Futures provides a
realistic contemporary portrait of Prairie agriculture. A useful supplementary resource for high
school students of Canadian geography, and worth acquiring for a school library resource
collection.
Recommended.
Joanne Peters is a teacher-librarian at Kelvin High School in Winnipeg, MB.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.
Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice
is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without
permission.
Published by
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - June 22, 2001.
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