Photo by Barrington Farmers’ Market
Do you love Nova Scotia’s farms? We’re in a “use them or lose them” situation. In this article, we’re sharing the disheartening numbers on farming in Nova Scotia and what it would look like if we all spent a quarter of our grocery budget on local this summer.
We wish we could report better numbers, but the data shows that…
Farmers are struggling in Nova Scotia:
- Between 2016 and 2021, Nova Scotia saw the largest decline in farms across all Canadian provinces, losing 21% of its farms (source). The national average for that same time span was a 1.8% decline in the number of farms.
- Between 2011 and 2021, farm acreage in Nova Scotia declined by 29% (source).
- Since 2017, Statistics Canada reported that Nova Scotian farms have, on average, run a deficit (source). In 2024, the average deceit was -41,738.
- For more on this data, please see the Growing at Home Report by Ecology Action Centre that FMNS contributed to.
We know that our local food system and producers are struggling. We cannot shy away from this reality. Now is the time to act.
What does this look like?
Here’s a thought experiment: If every adult in Nova Scotia spent $21 a week at the farmers’ market, that would be a $131,794,320 investment into local farmers and producers.
Here’s how we got this number: The average adult in Canada spends about $336 on food a month. (Note: Everyone is different, but this is the best data we have from Canada’s Food Price Report. The average adult spends $4031.83 on food a year, which would be $336 a month.) If there are about 784,490 adults in Nova Scotia (source), and we spent a quarter of that grocery budget at the market for July and August, that would be a $131,794,320 investment into local farmers and producers. We know this is not possible for everyone due to barriers like food insecurity and accessibility, but for a lot of Nova Scotians, this is within reach.
In this example, that could look like getting your groceries at the market 1 week out of 4, or spending about $21 at the market each week of the weekly $84 budget.
As citizens, it’s really easy to feel helpless when groceries and the cost of living are so expensive. What power do we have in changing these factors that are so beyond our control? What is in our control, for many of us, is who we choose to support. If you want to build a more resilient, community-oriented local food system, please join us at the market this summer.
