Indigenous producers discuss farming challenges in AIM Panel – Manitoba Co-operator

July 17, 2024

Farmers on the Ag in Motion Indigenous Producers Panel say there isn’t enough Indigenous agriculture today and there’s too much reliance on others for lifestyle.

Indigenous people have been farming for thousands of years—a fact that is often forgotten or dismissed. It’s ebbed and flowed over the centuries, with it growing during the slow disappearance of the bison on the plains and shrinking with Indigenous people being forced onto reserves. Today, the number of Indigenous producers is strong, but this demographic of farmers is waning.

Terry Lerat, owner of 4C Farms on Cowessess First Nation, said that it’s time to expand farming on the reservations and increase the independence of Indigenous people.

“I would like to say we have some advantages over anybody else because I think we are the largest landholders in North America collectively, the First Nations,” he said. “And we should be able to use our land, utilize our land to be self-sustaining as much as we can.”

Read More: https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/daily/indigenous-producers-discuss-farming-challenges-in-aim-panel/