Back to the Garden

I write this from my farm which is located on Treaty 2 land in western Manitoba. My great-great-grandfather received a quarter section of land as a gift from the federal government and set up a homestead right around the turn of the twentieth century. My family has farmed this and adjoining lands for over a century now, which for a young country like Canada, constitutes a farm with "deep" roots. Over that century, the nature of agriculture has been deeply affected by colonialism from start to finish.  To understand the pervasive force of colonialism in Canadian agriculture it is necessary to begin with the conception of property rights that John Locke articulated in the 17th century. According to Locke, God has granted people certain inalienable rights - rights that are so strongly guaranteed that not even we can give them up. According to this account of rights, we have a right to freedom. When we use that freedom to perform some type of constructive work we own the r...