Tuesday July 7, 2009, 5:38 am
“He’s got blue eyes and a rugged gait, steady work and a sensitive side that makes him appreciate the beauty of a big country sky. By many standards, Mario Bouthillier is a catch.

He farms two sprawling pieces of land in rural Quebec that have proven fertile soil for corn, hay and soya. But they haven’t proven fruitful for producing love.

“You could be the best person in the world,” the 27-year-old said on his farm recently, “but you remain a farmer. It’s the best job in the world to me, but there are still prejudices….”

“…..Women willing to sacrifice long hours to farm work are scarcer than they once were, and farming’s image has suffered over the years.

Young singles like Mr. Bouthillier are sprouting up all along Quebec’s lonely rural roads, causing not only heartache in the Quebec heartland but a threat to the survival of the province’s family farms.

Only a generation ago, a farm typically had a hard-working couple and a brood of children. Now it can easily be populated by a single male like Mr. Bouthillier, who has had several girlfriends but has yet to find his lifelong companion.

In less than 40 years, the percentage of young single farmers has doubled in Quebec, leaving one in four farmers under the age of 35 unmarried, according to Statistics Canada….”

‘When we were a Catholic society, the image of agriculture was held in esteem,’ Prof. Parent said from Quebec City. ‘Now it’s the opposite. It’s one thing if you’re an organic vegetable producer. Being a pig farmer is not exactly a winning formula when you show up at a bar.’…”

Note that difference! Women go for organic vegetable farmers and don’t go for pig farmers who run Confined Animal Feeding Operations. Which sort of farms and which sort of farmers will be soon be dying out due to lack of descendants and which will have flourishing farm families to carry their modes of food production into the future?

Read the whole story here on the Globe and Mail website.

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Tuesday July 7, 2009, 7:12 am
Touché . CAFO's do not appeal to a lot of women that I know. It's not about the hard work, or the long hours, or the sacrifices to our social lives.........it's about the treatment of animals on these farms.

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 7:25 am
Thanks Cowboss!

Tuesday July 7, 2009, 9:32 am
(Wry Smile) I guess the problem is the same everywhere. French TV has this reality show called "Love is in the Fields" (l'amour est dans le pré) where candidates vie for a chance to possibly find their soulmates among farmers (men and women farmers). Doesn't matter what type of farming it is, a lot pack it up and go home right smart quick when they see the work load... Sad, very sad. But a few have found happiness. Thanks Cowboss.

Wednesday July 8, 2009, 7:50 am
Family farms are far better than any CAFO situation. I hope these young men find good women to not only help with the workload but also to populate the farms with children who will follow along the farming of the land. Thanks for posting Cowboss!

Wednesday July 8, 2009, 8:08 am
Thank you for this posting Cowboss. Interesting & great news. The more arable land used by dedicated farmers -- the less arable land abused by factory farms

Wednesday July 8, 2009, 5:13 pm
thanks cowboss

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Sunday July 19, 2009, 8:47 am
Same here in Croatia.
We don't have family farms, more like really big vegetable gardens with one or two commercial crops.
Young women don't want to stay in villages. They are expected to
1. have a bunch of kids,
2. work for someone else 40 hrs/wk, and be payed for it,
3. on family land, they help on fields ( fields are men's job ),
4. vegetable garden, chickens, pigs and everything else around the house is women's job,
5. keep the household: cooking, cleaning, washing...,
6 tend to the children, older and/or sick family members,
7. be the lowest in family hierarchy - often the oldest man owns farm till he dies.
He can be a grandfather of her husband. Her husband will have to ask permission from "the boss of the farm" even to buy a car with money he earned elsewhere.
8. no sick days, no vacations, no free days,
9. no privacy, no opinions,
10. no freedom.
Women here have at least finished highschool, and they have other options.
And they go!