|"If you eat, you're in agriculture."
- Clayton Switzer,
fomer Deputy Minister of Agriculture & Food, Ontario
Farming is a huge industry which includes cereals and grains, crops, livestock, horticulture, cash crops, market gardening, orchards and vineyards. Over the last 100 years, farming has changed dramatically as traditional family farms have increasingly been replaced by large-scale industrial agriculture or agribusiness. With its greater use of fertilizers and pesticides and greater reliance on factory farms and irrigation there are issues that demand attention. As well, many farmers are increasing their use of genetically modified (GM) crops. At the same time, however, the organic farming movement is growing.