05/04/2026
From Kim McConnell - Founder & former CEO of AdFarm.
Every spring, Canada undertakes one of its largest and most consequential national projects — a
$20-billion megaproject — and almost nobody notices.
There is no ribbon-cutting. No news conference. No prime ministerial announcement.
Yet, in a matter of weeks, tens of thousands of Canadian farmers and ranchers deploy billions of dollars, put enormous personal and financial capital at risk, and set in motion the production of food that Canadians and much of the world depend on.
This annual event is so familiar that we rarely stop to think about it. But spring in Canadian agriculture is a national-scale, renewable megaproject, repeated every year, with no second
chances.
Spring seeding is often described as an “$8-billion activity.” That number isn’t wrong, but it’s incomplete. It captures what flows through agricultural retailers each spring — seed, fertilizer, crop
protection products and fuel. It’s easy to quote.
But it tells only part of the story.
When we include all the capital farmers have at risk each spring — inputs, labour, equipment, livestock production, operating credit, and the cost of maintaining and running highly sophisticated machinery — the true scale becomes clear. The real figure is well north of $20 billion, committed in
a very short window of time by private citizens, with no guarantees.
That springtime investment underpins something larger: Canada’s food industry — from processing and manufacturing to grocery, retail and food service — is an ecosystem contributing roughly $150 billion annually to GDP and supporting more than two million jobs. We would never describe a major infrastructure project by the concrete invoice alone.
Yet, that’s effectively how we’ve been describing Canadian agriculture.
In most industries, investment unfolds gradually. Projects are phased. Costs can be adjusted.
Mistakes can sometimes be corrected. Agriculture doesn’t work that way.
Canada has one primary growing season. Nearly all critical decisions, and much financial risk, are concentrated in the spring.
Seed goes into the ground. Calves and lambs are born. Operating loans are drawn. Equipment runs day and night.
If the weather turns, markets shift or disease strikes, there is no pause button. No redo. Farmers live with the outcome for a full year.
From a risk perspective, this is extraordinary. Every spring, family farms across the country make the largest co-ordinated, high-risk private investment in the Canadian economy, and they do so
independently, quietly and with remarkable competence.
While much of Canada’s grain, oilseed and pulse crops grow in the Prairies, the impact is national.
Ontario and Quebec see intense activity in corn, soybeans, horticulture and livestock. Atlantic Canada punches above its weight through potatoes, greenhouses and specialty crops. Livestock producers across the country enter peak calving and lambing season.
The economic ripples extend. Input suppliers, equipment dealers, agronomists, veterinarians, transport firms, processors, ports, manufacturers and retailers all depend on spring going right,
even if that connection is rarely visible.
This is also where Canada’s global role comes into focus. Canada is one of a small number of countries that reliably produces exportable food surpluses. Canadian farmers are among the most sustainable in the world, producing food with some of the lowest emissions intensity, strongest environmental stewardship and highest productivity per acre anywhere.
So why don’t we talk about it like a megaproject? This enormous undertaking goes largely unrecognized for simple reasons.
It happens every year. It’s decentralized. There is no single project owner or launch day. Results lag the risk by months. And most urban Canadians never see it.
Each year, Canadian farmers and ranchers initiate a $20-billion, privately financed, biologically timed megaproject — executed in weeks, with no margin for delay or error. The food system, the
economy and global markets depend on it succeeding.
Recognizing this doesn’t romanticize agriculture. It respects it.
Spring is not just a season. It’s when Canada quietly goes to work feeding itself . . . and the world.
Kim McConnell is a founder and former CEO of AdFarm, a member of the Order of Canada and a
business adviser to organizations across Canada’s agriculture and food system.
