CBC Maritimes

As pork and beef farmers feel their sectors fade away in the Maritimes, some farmers are experimenting with new crops for non-traditional markets

So where, exactly do you think the food you buy at the grocery store comes from ? And where do you think it'll come from if nobody in the Maritimes is producing it?   
That's what many farmers in the region wonder as they wrestle with the crisis in the industry. And "crisis"is the word Richard Melvin used on the show this week to describe the state of the beef and pork sectors. He's president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture and he gave that sobering assessment at his association's annual meeting in Truro. Producer Deb Woolway joined me with responses to his comments.

But the crisis in the farming industry has forced producers to look hard at other possibilities. One is growing crambe (pronounced CRAM-bee) - a leaf vegetable whose seeds can be processed into oil used in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries.
The federal and provincial goverments are investing more than $6 million to build a processing plant for oilseed in Kensington, Prince Edward Island.
Kevin McIssacs - who's been a farmer for 25 years - told us why he saw growing crambe as an opportunity.  


The week it rained so much in New Brunswick that a dam broke, turning loose so much timber that it knocked the CPR bridge at Hartland out of alignment.
The day Prince Edward Island's Lieutenant-Governor cancelled the New Year's Day levée because of a raging blizzard.
The 1927 hurricane that wiped out the entire male line in several Southwest Nova Scotia fishing families.
Weather events are landmarks in Maritime history, or, at the very least, the source of stories, yarns and grumbling.
Dave Phillips of Environment Canada has been documenting weather facts for decades, and sharing at least 365 of them every year in his All-Canadian Weather Trivia Calendar. He answered your weather questions.
And at the end of the phone-in, we drew names of three callers who've won Dave's calendar : Joy Gates of Sydney, David Fletcher of Lantz and Heather Walker of St. Andrew's, New Brunswick. Congratulations !