The U.S.-Canada trade tensions are a wake-up call to tariff-proof our farming future
Like many Canadians, I’m trying not to buy groceries from the U.S., but some items are easier to source locally than others. Lettuce is tricky. I recently ended up spending about eight dollars on a modestly sized bag of organic arugula because it was the only leafy green I could find that was made in Canada. My salad that night was superb, but small. Roughly 90 per cent of our leafy greens are imported—many of them from California. Our climate isn’t exactly favourable to lettuce growing. One of our best hopes for lettuce independence is to use greenhouses much more than we do now. Indoor growing provides protection from climate disruptions, as well as tariff fluctuations. |
The first fully automated lettuce greenhouse facility is in King City, north of Toronto. Its founder and CEO, Jay Willmot (above), is a third-generation farmer with a fixation on food sovereignty. His outfit, called Haven Greens, is capable of producing up to 10,000 pounds of lettuce every single day. Willmot spoke to Ali Amad for Maclean’s about automated farming, the withering effects of U.S. trade tensions and why this crisis is a wake-up call for Canada to get growing. Visit macleans.ca for more coverage of everything that matters in Canada, and subscribe to the magazine here. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s |
In Dubai, Aaisha Memon enforced rigid rules on her children. In Canada, she realized that would just push them away. “My older children say I’ve gone soft, but I don’t see it that way,” she writes in this essay for Maclean’s. “I’ve simply come to understand that, in the grand scheme of things, these rigid rules won’t matter as much as my love and support.” |
This federal election will be the most transformative in a decade. For the first time in years, there’s a chance that the federal Conservatives will take power—and CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to fix what he calls a “broken” Canada. Here’s a look at who stands to gain in Poilievre’s Canada. |
Sheri Block left Toronto for the promise of endless skies, soaring mountains and accessible homeownership in Calgary. It didn’t take long to realize she’d made a mistake. “I’d caution anyone who is tempted like I was that there may be unexpected sacrifices,” she writes in this essay for Maclean’s. |
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