‘Never seen that much rain’: Quebec farmers say climate change killing crops

Quebec farmers are speaking out about what they’re calling an unprecedented and disastrous season. They say the massive amounts of rain they’ve received have been drowning their crops, and that the weather has been costing them millions.

Farm owners are calling on the Quebec government to offer them more support as they face the effects of climate change head-on.

“We lost hundreds of acres of broccoli. It’s completely destroyed,” said Julien Cousineau, operations director at Les Jardins Paul Cousineau, a large-scale vegetable farm in Saint-Constant, Que.

He showed Global News videos of fields annihilated by a hail storm Thursday night. Cousineau’s family has been farming for three generations, and he says they have never experienced weather this bad for business.

“In 50 years of farming, we have never seen that much rain,” he said.

Cousineau was just one of dozens of farmers who gathered on Friday in Ste-Clotilde, about 45 minutes south of Montreal, to sound the alarm.

At a press conference, they showed images of fields overwhelmed by abnormal amounts of rainwater, which causes roots to rot and makes it impossible for tractors to fertilize and maintain the terrain. Raspberries, strawberries and countless other crops have been destroyed.

“It’s a very bad season. It’s very hard to get stuff from the field. The weather is a real disaster,” said Patrice Léger-Bourgoin, general manager of the Quebec Vegetable Growers Association.

Farmers were already dealing with rising costs associated with inflation. The chaotic weather could mean some businesses don’t make it to next year.

“When you lose your harvests, it means basically that you don’t have any revenue. It’s very tough to pay your staff. It’s very tough to pay your suppliers,” said Léger-Bourgoin.

They’re calling on Quebec to offer them more assistance.

The government helps farmers affected by weather through crop insurance, but the growers say the old regime created 40 years ago is no longer enough

“With the new realities that we’re living, especially this year, it’s clear that we have to change something,” said Pascal Forest, president of the Producteurs de Légumes de Transformation du Québec.

The farmers fear that this season’s unprecedented weather could start to become a yearly occurrence. With climate change, scientists predict extreme meteorological events will become more and more frequent.

“I prefer not to think too much about it,” Forest said, adding that innovation is needed to adapt farming techniques to the new reality.

The farmers want Quebec to fund more research and help producers find ways to make themselves more resilient to climate change.

“We need to improve our technology now, the levelling of the field, the drainage,” Cousineau said.

The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement it’s concerned about the plight of the farmers.

“The message we’re sending is we don’t want to leave anyone behind,” read the email message sent by Sophie J. Barma, a spokesperson for Quebec Agriculture Minister André Lamontagne.

Quebec says it is putting a new monitoring unit in place to help get a clearer picture of the problem, and is looking for ways to help affected farmers delay certain payments.

The province says so far this year it’s received 2,466 reports of weather-related damage to fruits, vegetable and cereal farms. Ten years ago over the same period, there were 1,795 reports.

“We’re talking about food security here,” said Léger-Bourgoin. “At the end of the day, if we want to feed the population, we need farmers.”

The farmers hope the government stands beside them as they face this existential threat.