A food security expert is warning the negative effects of the COVID-19 on Canada’s agriculture sector could outlast the coronavirus pandemic.
Sylvain Charlebois, scientific director of the Agri-Food Analytics Labs at Dalhousie University, said Ottawa must do more to help. “I don’t think that the food security of Canadians is compromised right now, but we could actually see many, many farms disappear as a result of COVID-19,” he told Global News.
Charlebois said the coronavirus pandemic is damaging the ability of farmers to stay in business. He said Canada loses between five and seven per cent of its farms every year and that the pandemic could cause that to double.