Ontario agriculture needs more diversity, visible minorities, Premier Ford says — but farmers disagree – Farmers Forum
November 07, 2024
OTTAWA — Forget about feeding the population, Ontario’s farm workforce isn’t racially, sexually, gender-queer or linguistically diverse enough. That’s the premise underlying a new program — jointly funded by the Ford and Trudeau governments — offering grants up to $100,000 to farming and food-processing ventures led by people from designated minority groups.
Those eligible include “Indigenous peoples, visible minorities, 2SLGBTQI+ people, persons with disabilities, youth, women or members of French linguistic minority communities” — as laid out by the new ‘Agricultural Workforce Equity and Diversity Initiative’ (AWEDI).
The $1.5 million program will accept applications from companies, research bodies, organizations, municipalities and First Nations until Dec. 3. The initiative is in line with the corporate ‘Diversity Equity and Inclusion’ (DEI) craze of the last few years. DEI maintains that people should be hired according to their group identity, to create a more “diverse” workplace for diversity’s sake, not because they’re the best people for the job.
