Recent Changes in Farm Structure: A Canada-U.S. Comparison

Following a series of bilateral and multilateral agreements, the past two decades have seen increased trade and investment liberalization between Canada and the United States in the agri-food sector. Changes in trade policy are one of several paths by which farm structure can change. This increased liberalization, together with the largest drop in Canadian farm numbers recorded by the Census of Agriculture in thirty years, has provided the impetus to review some aspects of farm structure. In particular, this article presents the latest Canadian and U.S. data on the number of farms by sales class, the concentration of sales and other production-related variables, and the distribution of income and receipts. We explore whether significant changes in the latter two elements of farm structure have occurred during this period of trade and investment liberalization.