A large number of Canadians, 44%, fear climate change will impact food security, says in-house research at the Department of Health..Canada is a net exporter of food with federal analysts predicting an increase in the number of frost-free days would actually boost production..According to Blacklock's Reporter, when asked, “How worried are you about climate change?” 49% of respondents said they were “extremely” or “very” worried. Only 8% said they were not worried at all..When asked, “How much of a risk to the health of Canadians is there?” 44% said they feared loss of “food security.”.When asked, “What worries you the most about climate change?” responses included “natural disasters” (cited by 18%), “the future of my family” (16%), the inevitability of climate change (9%), “earth dying” (8%) and “impacts on food supply” (6%). Seventeen percent said they feared more droughts. Four percent of Canadians surveyed said they were afraid of a fresh water shortage..The findings were based on questionnaires with 1,905 people nationwide. The health department paid $119,777 for the study by Environics Research..“Health Canada identified the need for public opinion research to understand the current views of Canadians on climate change including the risks and impacts they believe are associated with their health and how best to adapt and be more resilient in the future,” said the report Public Perceptions Of The Health Impacts Of Climate Change..“The research reveals in 2022 Canadians are largely in agreement climate change is real,” wrote researchers. “Now what varies is the public’s degree of concern about this phenomenon.”.Canada is self-sufficient in food. The Department of Agriculture in a 2014 report Crop Sector Foresight Exercise predicted an extended growing season due to climate change would likely result in bigger harvests and more varied crops..“Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns will open up new areas to cultivation and eliminate others,” wrote analysts. “In Canada, climate change is expected to result in different invasive species and increase weather variability. As well, a longer growing season coupled with shorter-season varieties will allow expansion of production of crops such as corn and soybeans in Western Canada.”.The Senate agriculture committee at 2017 hearings was told climate change could see ranching extended into Arctic regions..“Climate change may create opportunities in Canada’s North,” testified Dr. Evan Fraser, then-Canada Research chair in Global Food Security at the University of Guelph..“It will probably benefit, at least in the next 100 years, Canadian northern areas. We call these agricultural frontiers.”.Fraser said while “our northern soils are very fragile” the area is suitable for ranching. “We have to be creative about it,” he said..“Maybe instead of thinking about wheat fields or soybean fields in the North we think about extensive bison or caribou production that's then deliberately marketed to international, discriminating markets,” said Fraser..“There is a tremendous amount of interest being applied to this idea of cultivating the North.”
