According to a recent survey, gardening is gaining popularity in Canada as food prices rise.
According to a study conducted by Angus Reed and the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, 52% of Canadians are already growing their food at home, an increase of 1% from 2020. Of these, 9% started gardening after the pandemic began.
17% of respondents used to grow food, but now they don’t, but 8% of Canadians say they grow their food at home for the first time this year. This suggests that more than 1 million of Canada’s approximately 14 million households will make changes. Urban residents make up 85% of new gardeners and 46% are under the age of 35.
The Atlantic region is expected to have the highest percentage of new gardeners in the country at 10%, followed by Quebec and Ontario at 8%.
Saskatchewan has the highest overall percentage of gardeners and Ontario has the lowest. However, Ontario and the Atlantic region have seen the largest increase in gardening people since the beginning of the pandemic.
Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, said the growing interest is not a fad.
“COVID clearly makes gardening the second wind in Canada. The results clearly show that gardening is still a popular activity in Canada, two years after the pandemic. “Masu,” Charlesbois said in a press release.
Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Canadians enjoy gardening as a motivating factor, or believe it’s a great hobby, and 49% say the food they grow is in the store. I believe it is of better quality than what you buy at. Saving money motivates 41% of gardeners, 12% worry about food shortages, and 3% build gardens for extra income.
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Lee Harding is a Saskatchewan-based journalist and think tank researcher and contributor to The Epoch Times.