FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2026
QUEEN’S PARK – From milk and honey to grains, fruit and vegetables, Ontario agriculture has the resources to produce just about anything according to Toby Barrett, Haldimand-Norfolk MPP and Opposition Agriculture Critic.
Barrett likened Ontario’s Agriculture Week to the opening lines of John Keat’s poem, To Autumn – ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.
“Tis truly a season of mists and warm days and moisture and humidity condensing with the cold nights. We’re blessed in Ontario with a climate and a microclimate conducive to planting and growing, nurturing and harvesting such a tremendous variety of crops, both annual and perennial, grains and fruit and vegetables, ranging from winter wheat to tobacco to specialties like Belgian endive,” Barrett told members of the Ontario Legislature.
“It’s also a climate that supports our land of milk and honey and beef and eggs and lamb and veal; a climate that permits hay and oats grown in Rainy River, cheese-making in the Slate River Valley, carrots in the Bradford Marsh, grapes in Prince Edward county, cherries in my home area of Haldimand–Norfolk, all made possible through our soil types, our rich arable land and our access to water—and also made possible to reach markets near and afar through two centuries of farm and food processing experience and wisdom, business management and labour management, advances in technology and innovation that better enable our agri-food business sector to continually adapt to the opportunities and the challenges of Mother Nature, all within a fiercely competitive market both at home and abroad.”
Barrett went on to say that as a civilization we have all benefitted from agriculture for thousands of years, and it’s quite appropriate to set aside one week to recognize that benefit.
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Ontario Agriculture Week
Ontario Legislative Assembly Official Hansard
Mr. Toby Barrett: As we mark Ontario Agriculture Week, I think of the opening lines of John Keats’s poem, To Autumn, which begins:
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun….
’Tis truly a season of mists and warm days and moisture and humidity condensing with the cold nights. We’re blessed in Ontario with a climate and a microclimate conducive to planting and growing, nurturing and harvesting such a tremendous variety of crops, both annual and perennial, grains and fruit and vegetables, ranging from winter wheat to tobacco to specialties like Belgian endive. It’s also a climate that supports our land of milk and honey and beef and eggs and lamb and veal; a climate that permits hay and oats grown in Rainy River, cheese-making in the Slate River Valley, carrots in the Bradford Marsh, grapes in Prince Edward county, cherries in my home area of Haldimand–Norfolk, all made possible through our soil types, our rich arable land and our access to water—and also made possible to reach markets near and afar through two centuries of farm and food processing experience and wisdom, business management and labour management, advances in technology and innovation that better enable our agri-food business sector to continually adapt to the opportunities and the challenges of Mother Nature, all within a fiercely competitive market both at home and abroad.
We have benefited as a civilization from agriculture for thousands of years, and it’s quite appropriate to set aside one week to recognize that benefit.