Saturday, November 26, 2022

Sask. farmers, researchers worry investor-bought land 'empties out the countryside'

About 2% of land controlled by ‘non-farmers,' and that 

trend will continue: academics

Farmer Terry Boehm is concerned about the future of his community and other farming towns as the price of land creeps up. (Sam Samson/CBC)

As Terry Boehm sits on a tractor-powered snowblower on a cold winter day and clears a path to his shop, the grain and seed producer thinks about a more important path: the one his town and its young farmers will travel moving forward.

Boehm comes from a long line of farmers near Colonsay, Sask., starting from when his great grandfather arrived more than 100 years ago to the area, about 50 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.

Saskatchewan, a resource-rich province, makes up about 40 per cent of Canada's farmland. Family farms like Boehm's own the vast majority of it, but researchers say large agriculture companies or investors who rent out farmland now control about two per cent.

Boehm, who has long advocated for farmers' rights, and researchers say this trend could speed up rising costs and force smaller, local farmers to expand or get out of the industry altogether, which could ultimately lead to fewer people in small rural communities.

"This is creating a situation where farmers are really the cash cow to be milked on every teat," Boehm told CBC News. 

Boehm says if fewer people are involved in agriculture, it’ll be more difficult to sustain services such as schools and hospitals in small towns. (Sam Samson/CBC)

More investors 

André Magnan, an associate professor in the department of sociology and social studies at the University of Regina, said that in the last decade and a half, more institutional investors, private investors and corporations have become interested in owning farmland in Saskatchewan.

"The amount of land that they own across the board is not huge in terms of percentage, but in certain cases they may own tens of thousands of acres or even more sometimes," he said.

Most communities are withering. There simply aren't enough people.- Farmer Terry Boehm

Magnan said buying farmland is used as a strategy to diversify a person or company's portfolio and to hedge risks such as inflation.

While it's a good investment, it's a blow to small towns, Magnan said.

"What we're finding is that ownership is in fewer and fewer hands and that has a really tangible effect on local communities. It empties out the countryside," he said.

He and Boehm worry that if fewer people are involved in agriculture, it will be more difficult to sustain services such as schools and hospitals in small towns.

"Most communities are withering. There simply aren't enough people," Boehm said.

"Just being able to have enough people to be engaged in the day-to-day requirements of operating in a small community, it falls on less and less shoulders."

Katherine Aske, a field co-ordinator at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Farm, was recently part of a research team based at the University of Manitoba looking into how farmland tenure is changing on the Prairies.

She said the market value of farmland in Alberta is now completely disconnected from how much farmers can make on the land through producing.

"This is a massive problem," Aske said.

"As farmland prices rise, this becomes more of a pervasive problem because fewer and fewer actors or people are able to purchase land at all."

Katherine Aske recently researched how farmland tenure is changing on the Prairies. (Sam Samson/CBC)

Land ownership rules

Saskatchewan's land ownership rules changed almost two decades ago. Until 2003, people had to live in Saskatchewan to own land in the province. Now, ownership is open to Canadians or Canadian companies that are not publicly traded. 

"It's really since those rules were changed … that you've seen investor groups and other wealthy individuals acquire quite a bit of land," Magnan said.

"With a lot of inflation I expect to see a lot more interest in purchasing farmland by non-farmers."

Saskatchewan still has some of the strictest land ownership rules in Canada. However, the province does grant exemptions — many on the condition that owners rent out to locals.

Annette Desmarais, Canada Research Chair in human rights, social justice and food sovereignty at the University of Manitoba, said renting land can have its problems, including landlords not taking care of the land enough or creating strict rules.

"What if you wanted to start farming organically and you were renting land from an investor who's not interested in organic farming? Your autonomy to make decisions about how you want to farm are going to be affected," Desmarais said. 

A farm tractor is silhouetted against a setting sun near Mossbank, Sask. Until 2003, people had to live in Saskatchewan to own land in the province. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

One of the largest investors in Saskatchewan land is Robert Andjelic, who rents out more than 225,000 acres.

He said tenants bid on his land and therefore control the prices.

"If you get 10 bidders, they're the ones that dictate the price," he said.

Andjelic said renting offers farmers a chance to start or grow their careers without the risks of ownership — as long as they take care of the land.

"Land is our bread and butter. We have to take care of it the best we can, return the nutrients and everything else back to it, and not just mine it. We farm it, not mine it. If they mine it, they're not going to be my tenant," he said.

Policy changes 

Canadian farmers and academics, including Desmarais, are fighting for protections against agricultural monopolies amid concern that investors will make up an even larger chunk of the land ownership base. 

"Assuming that most people would want to see many more farms, many more opportunities for young farmers to be able to access, then you develop policy to make sure that that happens," Desmarais said.

Some researchers say provinces should hike taxes to discourage vast land ownership. Others want caps on how much land one operation can own.

But the province's agriculture minister says the Saskatchewan Party won't go down that road.

"If someone wants to come along and offer me X-amount of dollars for my property, that should be my choice to have the right to sell it," David Marit said in a recent interview with CBC News.

"But if the government puts a policy in that says 'no, you can't sell it to him because he's hit his cap,' and you have to sell it to someone else, you know what you've done? You've controlled the whole sale of land."

Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit says he doesn't support putting a cap on the amount of land that any person or company can own. (Matthew Howard/CBC)

When asked if he's concerned about the harm to small towns and disappearing farmers, Marit said "we're just seeing evolution in time."

"The community I came from 15 years ago lost a school too, as well, just because of people moving on, you were seeing this intergenerational change in farming," he said.

"That just seems to be what's happening."

As for farmer Terry Boehm, he said he does want to sell or rent his land when he gets older. He is adamant on keeping his town alive.

"You can't control everything. My preference would be to sell to a local farmer that's still living in the area or to a younger person that wants to start up in agriculture," he said.

TD Bank pauses Canada Post loan program weeks after national expansion

A loan program delivered by Canada Post and Toronto-Dominion Bank has been paused weeks after the partner organizations announced plans to expand it across the country.

A spokeswoman for TD Bank confirmed that the MyMoney Loan program has been placed on pause indefinitely because of unspecified issues with processing.

“Since the launch, the product was paused both online and in physical locations, after experiencing processing issues,” Amy Thompson said in an email to BNNBloomberg.ca. “We're still working through this and will update accordingly.”

Canada Post referred questions about the status of the program to TD Bank.

The loan program offered variable or fixed loans ranging from $1,000 to $30,000. Repayments could be spread over one- to seven-year terms.

People did not need collateral security for the unsecured-term loans that were based on credit scores. Eligibility requirements included that people had an annual income of $1,000 or more, had not declared bankruptcy and were Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Earlier this fall, the Crown corporation and TD announced a national expansion for the program that was first launched in 2021 at locations in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Ontario.

An October Canada Post news release promoted the program as aimed at expanding financial services access to more Canadians by “combining the reach and trust of Canada Post’s national post office network with personal loans for amounts as low as $1,000 and competitive interest rates.”

The national launch was intended to make the program available in rural, remote and Indigenous communities, the release said, noting that the initial market test “demonstrated the potential of the MyMoney Loan to help meet the needs of many Canadians, including those who are new to credit.”

Canada Post Officially Launches Nationwide Loan Program With TD Bank Group


Gene that guides earliest social behaviors could be key to understanding autism

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

Zebrafish social behavior 

VIDEO: AFTER EXPOSURE TO CERTAIN DRUGS WHEN THEY WERE EMBRYOS, JUVENILE ZEBRAFISH WERE LESS LIKELY TO INTERACT WITH OTHER ZEBRAFISH THAN THOSE NOT EXPOSED TO THE DRUGS, SUGGESTING THAT NORMAL FISH WERE PICKING UP ON SOCIAL CUES FROM THE STIMULUS FISH THAT ESCAPED NOTICE OF THE EXPERIMENTAL FISH. view more 

CREDIT: RANDALL T. PETERSON/UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH

Little is known about how social behavior develops in the earliest stages of life. But most animals––including humans––are born with an innate ability to interact socially or form bonds with others. And that contributes to success throughout life.

Now, a new animal study points to a gene that is important for the earliest development of basic social behaviors.

The work also suggests that exposure to certain drugs and environmental risk factors during embryonic development can cause changes to this gene, leading to alterations in social behavior that are similar to those found in individuals who have autism. Much to their surprise, the researchers also found they could reverse some of the effects using an experimental drug.

“This study helps us understand at the molecular level why sociability is disrupted during the very earliest stages of life,” says Randall T. Peterson, Ph.D., the corresponding author of the study and dean of the University of Utah College of Pharmacy. “It also gives us an opportunity to explore potential treatments that could restore sociability in these animals and, perhaps in time, eventually in humans as well.”

More broadly, their findings suggest that the gene—TOP2a—controls a large network of genes that are known to increase the risk of autism. It also may serve as a link between genetic and environmental factors that contribute to onset of disorder, Peterson adds.

The study, conducted by University of Utah Health researchers and colleagues nationwide, appears in the Nov. 23 issue of Science Advances.

Anti-social animals

Scientists suspect many social traits are determined before birth. But the precise mechanisms involved in this process remain murky. One promising area of research suggests that social behavior and other characteristics and traits are influenced not only by our genetic makeup but also how and where we live. 

To test this model, the scientists evaluated whether environmental exposures during embryonic development could influence social behavior. Peterson and his colleagues exposed zebrafish embryos to more than 1,100 known drugs––one drug per 20 embryos––for 72 hours beginning three days after conception.

The researchers determined that four of the 1,120 tested drugs significantly reduced sociability among the zebrafish. Fish exposed to these drugs were less likely to interact with other fish. It turned out that the four medications all belonged to the same class of antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones. These drugs are used to treat upper and lower respiratory tract infections in people.

When the scientists gave a related drug to pregnant mice, the offspring behaved differently when they became adults. Even though they appeared normal, they communicated less with other mice and engaged in more repetitive acts—like repeatedly poking their head in the same hole—than other rodents.

A basis for sociability

Digging deeper, the researchers found that the drugs suppressed a gene called TOP2a, which, in turn, acted on a cluster of genes that are known to be involved in autism in humans.

They also found that the cluster of autism-associated genes shared another thing in common—a higher than usual tendency to bind a group of proteins called the PRC2.  The researchers hypothesized that Top2a and the PRC2 work together to control the production of many autism-associated genes.

To determine whether the anti-social behaviors could be reversed, the research team gave embryonic and young zebrafish an experimental drug called UNC1999, which is known to inhibit the PRC2. After treatment with the drug, fish exposed to fluoroquinolones were more likely to swim closer to other fish, demonstrating that the drug helped restore sociability. They saw similar results with other drugs known to inhibit the same key gene, TOP2a.

“That really surprised me because I would've thought disrupting brain development when you're an embryo would be irreversible,” Peterson says. “If you don’t develop sociality as an embryo, you’ve missed the window. But this study suggests that even in those individuals later in life, you can still come in and inhibit this pathway and restore sociality.”

Moving forward, the researchers plan to explore how and why this drug had this effect.

Although the scientists only found four compounds that are Top2a inhibitors, evidence suggests hundreds of other drugs and naturally occurring compounds in our environment can inhibit its activity.

“It’s possible that these four compounds are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of substances that could be problematic for embryonic exposure,” Peterson says.

However, Peterson notes that this study was conducted in animals, and more research needs to be done before any of its results can be confirmed in humans. Therefore, he cautions against drawing conclusions about real-world applications.

“We have no evidence that fluroquinolones or any other antibiotic causes autism in humans,” Peterson says. “So, there is no reason to stop using antibiotics. What this paper does identify is a new molecular pathway that appears to control social development and is worthy of further exploration.”

                                                ###

In addition to Dr. Peterson, U of U Health scientists Yijie Geng, Tejia Zhang, Ivy G. Alonzo, Sean C. Godar, Christopher Yates, Brock Plummer, and Marco Bortolato contributed to this study. Other participating institutions include the University of Chicago; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston; Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School; the Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and MDI Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

The study, “Top2a promotes the development of social behavior via PRC2 and H3K27me3,” appears in the Nov. 23, 2022, issue of Science Advances. This research was supported by the L. S. Skaggs Presidential Endowed Chair and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health.

95% of surveyed UK adults living with Long Covid report experiencing stigma about their condition at least sometimes, in study to help establish Long Covid Stigma Scale



Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Long Covid stigma: Estimating burden and validating scale in a UK-based sample 

IMAGE: 95% OF SURVEYED UK ADULTS LIVING WITH LONG COVID REPORT EXPERIENCING STIGMA ABOUT THEIR CONDITION AT LEAST SOMETIMES view more 

CREDIT: ROSS SNEDDON, UNSPLASH, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277317

Article Title: Long Covid stigma: Estimating burden and validating scale in a UK-based sample

Author Countries: UK, Australia

Funding: The study received no specific funding.
 

Exeter tops Britain’s city centers for ‘greenness’ - while Glasgow comes in last

Tree cover, play and sporting areas support better health, equity and biodiversity

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

Exeter 

IMAGE: EXETER IN SOUTHERN ENGLAND HAS BEEN ASSESSED AS THE GREENEST CITY CENTRE IN BRITAIN. view more 

CREDIT: PIXABAY

A new study of 68 city centres in Great Britain – comparing ‘greenness’ of tree cover, vegetation and the presence of parks – has linked lower scores with higher levels of poor health, economic, education, crime and other deprivation outcomes.

The PLOS One study led by Flinders University, University of Sheffield, University of Melbourne and Environmental Protection Authority Victoria researchers, evaluated urban centres with larger populations of more than 100,000 people to create a metric of urban ecosystems and vegetation and human health, social equity and biodiversity.

Five cities in southern England were ranked highest (Exeter, Islington, Bristol, Bournemouth and Cambridge) and five in the previously industrial north had the lowest from Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Middlesbrough to Glasgow at the bottom.  

“While previous studies have measured greenness in broader suburban areas, our study focuses on city centres where people of diverse backgrounds spend much time at work, recreation and shopping,” says author Dr Jake Robinson, a European microbial ecologist and adjunct Flinders University researcher.

“While people’s lives are enhanced by the greenness of their city, many cities have high tree densities in the suburban areas but not their urban centres.

“Not surprisingly, the urban centres with higher tree and vegetation cover, public green spaces including parks and sports fields, have developed after more focus on urban planning rather than urban sprawl and industrial growth, and now have lower levels of deprivation in general, including in human health metrics.”

In addition, the urban centres with larger populations had lower tree coverage and lower normalised difference vegetation index, measured by satellite observations of light absorption and reflection.

These disparities in city centre greenness across Britain should be incorporated in further city planning, says co-author Dr Paul Brindley from the University of Sheffield

“This work could help inform efforts by local authorities and urban planners to monitor greening interventions and boost the greenness of city centres in a more equitable manner,” Dr Brindley says.

It is projected that nearly 70% of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities by 2050. Global urbanisation is putting increasing pressure on biodiversity and human health, including with harmful air pollution and other gases and particulate matter, and degrading habitats.   

“The need to re-imagine and re-develop our urban city centres due to digital shopping technologies and societal changes provides and important opportunity to explicitly consider the enhancement of urban centre biodiversity,” the research concludes.

The research article, ‘Urban centre green metrics in Great Britain: A geospatial and socioecological study’ (2022), by JM Robinson, S Mavoa, K Robinson and P Brindley has been published in PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276962

Dr Paul Brindley is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, England. His research focuses on understanding the interplay between landscapes and people through the use of digital data and GIS (Geographic Information Science) mapping. University of Sheffield doctorate Jake M Robinson is a microbial ecologist based in the UK. He is passionate about researching microbes, ecosystems, social equity issues and the connections between them, and at the same time is keen to develop ways to conserve and restore nature. Invisible Friends is his first book.