The World Foodland Map Shows That Canada Should Be Limiting Its Population
Immigration Watch Canada's latest bulletin was prepared by Canadian John Meyer of Zero Population Growth over 15 years ago. Mr. Meyer's work is just as relevant, if not even more relevant today.
At first sight, the map looks very peculiar because Canada appears very small in comparison to the United States. But the general point of the map is that the U.S. is being used as the reference for comparing the food productivity of other countries. In the map, the size of the U.S. was maintained, but the sizes of a number of other countries were increased or decreased to indicate the total food output of each of those countries—relative to that of the U.S. For example, Canada has only 10% of the food output of the U.S., so Canada appears in the map as only 10% of the size of the U.S.
The map makes a number of important immigration-related points:
(1) The size of a country such as Canada is very deceiving. Many people commonly think that a large area has to be capable of hosting and feeding large numbers of people. Most people will admit that many large pieces of land such as Antarctica and Greenland in the world's polar zones, as well as large areas in Australia's outback, western China and northern Africa can host and feed only very small numbers. However, some Canadians continue to think in the same way as Canada's immigration industry and their supporters. These people do not like to admit that 40% of Canada's land base is north of the 60th parallel and is much like these barren areas. Other areas in Canada south of the 60th parallel have severe agricultural limitations because of poor soils and late spring and early fall frosts.
(2) As a result, only about 7% of Canada's entire land mass is suitable for agriculture. Countries such as France, the U.K., and India appear larger than they really are because a much higher percentage of their land base is suitable for agriculture. Many Canadians will find it difficult to believe that a relatively small country like France has a food output over twice that of Canada. (Since the map was assembled, a significant amount of Canadian farmland, particularly in Ontario, has been converted to housing for recently-arrived immigrants. Consequently, that land has been lost to agriculture and Canada's food output has been further reduced.)
(3) As the information indicates, when a country's population increases, its open spaces decrease. More and more pressure gets put on its farmland and a country's ability to feed itself declines. The only area of Canada which is a net exporter of food is our prairie region which ironically is the most vulnerable to climate change. Much of the agricultural potential of Eastern Canada has been lost because of population increases.
(4) By now, Canada should have developed a population policy which includes a limit on Canada's population. Needless to say, our country's immigration intake should reflect that limit. From an agricultural perspective, continuing to think that Canada can take large numbers of people every year is imprudent, to say the least.
The map can be viewed by clicking on the following link:
