Atmospheric rivers. Heat domes. Polar vortexes. The increasing prevalence of extreme conditions on top of traditional worries like early frost and hailstorms are driving growers to extreme counter measures to manage weather risk.

Look at Keith Wright and his son David, farming near Harrow, Ontario. On July 1, 2021, hail hammered the tender fruitlets on their apple crop. The cuts to the fruitlets resulted in misshapen, unmarketable fruit. 

“The damage was so bad that 90 per cent of the crop was lost,” Wright recalls.

After scouting various systems, they installed Whailex single-row, hail netting for four acres of their high-value Gala apples. Since then, they have warded off subsequent storm damage. 

Wright’s post-purchase satisfaction was fleeting though. His crop insurer refused to lower premiums despite a significant investment that directly reduces future crop loss claims from hail damage. Wright had the opportunity to share his frustration firsthand with the Hon. Trevor Jones, Ontario’s new minister of agriculture, food and agribusiness, who dropped by the farm for a chat in early June. Together, they inspected the hail netting system.

Most risks aren’t solved with netting, however, so growers are glad that business risk management is expected to be high on the agenda when federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) agriculture ministers meet in Winnipeg July 16-18. Minister Jones is one of five new provincial agriculture ministers who will be at the table, along with the new federal agriculture minister Heath MacDonald. These new dynamics provide fertile ground for the much-needed reset of current policy. Farmer groups across the country insist this can’t wait until 2028, the start of the next five-year Business Risk Management (BRM) suite which encompasses AgriStability, AgriInsurance, AgriRecovery and Advanced Payments. 

One of these groups, the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association (OFVGA), has underscored the importance of improving the AgriStability Program, seeking to restore the reference margin trigger level to 85 per cent. The Association has also asked the federal government to increase the payment cap to $6 million and the compensation rate to 90 per cent. In light of the ongoing trend to larger-sized farms and the bite of tariff- driven inflation, the existing cap of $3 million per farm per year is now proving to be too low.

When Minister Jones was asked in the Digging Deeper podcast interview if he would be supporting these changes, he said, “We will be. It’s partnership. I believe we can build consensus amongst the ministers. We need two-thirds of ministers to agree. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada leads this. We can’t do it alone. We need to safeguard this vital industry.”  

Changing times create changing needs. The Canadian Agri-Policy Food Institute (CAPI) issued a nuanced report in May 2025 calling for a re-examination of how precious risk dollars are being allocated. Tyler McCann, managing director, CAPI says the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership is usually considered a $3 billion program, but that does not include the investment in business risk management programs.

“That ag policy framework is actually closer to a $15-billion initiative and probably on track to be more than that now, because of the significant cost of the BRM suite,” says McCann. “I think we need to be more transparent and understand that there are significant implications of that spending and pay increasing attention to it.” 

Furthermore, the first six months of 2025 have revealed geopolitical risks never contemplated before.

“I think the industry itself needs to understand that we’re living in a world today where the impact of a trade war could do more harm to farmers than a drought does. There are substantial supports in BRM programs for weather, but there’s no substantial program to respond to trade wars.”  

The report, titled Climate Change, Agricultural Productivity and Farm Insurance in Canada, is timely given the upcoming FPT meetings. The authors recommend how to strengthen and streamline BRM programs while concluding that supporting the financial security of farmers in the face of climate risk is paramount.

Analysis shows that farmers hit by climate shocks tend to diversify sharply, redirecting resources away from their most profitable crops, thereby sacrificing productivity. With insurance, these effects are muted: farms with strong insurance support were able to remain more specialized in high-value crops even after adverse weather, and as a result, sustained higher productivity than uninsured or underinsured farms.

The report highlights four practical refinements that would make the BRM suite in general and AgriInsurance in particular more effective: 1) guarantee prompt payouts by delivering indemnities once a claim has been verified, 2) scale coverage to match losses by adjusting caps upward and offering top-ups, 3) trim red tape by optimizing claim paperwork and providing a fast-track process for smaller claims, and, 4) improve transparency by reporting meta data clearly and concisely to producers and government partners alike.

The upcoming FPT ag ministers’ meeting will need to address more than extreme weather and related business risk. The effects of extreme politics, in the form of Trump tariffs, will also be on the table. Though the direct impact on food crossing the border is currently believed to be minimal, the impact of continuing tariff uncertainty on the broader market is not.

An ongoing impact is the difference in the regulatory environment between the U.S. and Canada as it applies to issues of agricultural pest management. The “Buy Canadian” change in consumer buying patterns has highlighted the uneven playing field when it comes to growers going up against their U.S. competitors with retailers. Growers in the United States have a much broader array of regulated plant treatments at their disposal. 

In the leadup to this year’s FPT meetings, the OFVGA and its national counterpart, Fruit and Vegetable Growers of Canada, argue that regulatory decisions made without consideration for the fruit and vegetable sector have left growers with limited tools for combating pest pressures. They are asking the federal government to amend the mandate of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Pest Management Regulatory Agency to ensure food security and the cost of food are considered in their regulatory decisions. In addition, increased funding is needed to support registration of minor use products. 

Ontario -- and Canada -- both recently elected leaders that campaigned on platforms of the right leadership to meet the challenge of difficult times. Both went on to appoint ministerial cabinets as an extension of that mandate. Amidst commitments touting national cooperation, other provinces have been quick to follow suit.

Meanwhile, back on the land, growers work their crops while bearing the weight of these difficult times. The “asks” have been made. Will leadership answer?