A/HRC/22/50/Add.1 the United States in 1989 and the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Exportled policies in agriculture have resulted in increased concentration, vertical integration and buyer consolidation in the agrifood sector. Between 1988 and 2007, the number of farms decreased by 25 per cent. 20. Trade liberalization has been detrimental to many of Canada’s agricultural producers, whose net incomes have decreased and whose debt has increased dramatically over the past decades. While Canada’s exports tripled in value between 1988 and 2010 and while the total value of agriculture and agrifood exports increased 420 per cent during that period, realized net farm income remained stable until the recent surge in farm prices (from Can$3.8 billion in 1988 to Can$3.7 billion in 2010, to Can$5.7 billion in 2011), although taxpayer-funded farm support payments may mask a net income loss: in 2007 for instance, farm support payments totalled Can$3.7 billion, concealing a net income loss from the markets of Can$2.2 billion. Canada’s biggest farms capture a disproportionate amount of farm support payments due to the design of support programmes and to the high cap (Can$3 million per farm) on maximum payments. Since the implementation of the CanadaUS free trade agreement, total farm debt has tripled from Can$22.5 billion to over Can$65 billion in 2007.17 21. The long-term depression of farm-gate prices in relation to input prices and the cost of living means that margins are constantly tightening, forcing farmers to raise production levels simply to maintain income levels. To produce more, farmers have to purchase more land and chemicals, buy bigger equipment, increase herd size, and take on more debt. Family farmers are also facing increasing levels of input financing by agribusiness, and are confronted with growing commercial pressures on farmland as competition for land increases.18 In this context, the obstacles to farmer renewal are considerable: the number of farmers under the age of 35 has decreased by over 60 per cent from 77,910 in 1991 to just under 30,000 in 2006. 22. As concentration increased in the farming sector, it has become heavily reliant on temporary foreign farm workers: approximately 30,000 migrant farm workers come to Canada annually under the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Programs.19 These workers are in an extremely precarious position as the restrictions attached to their employerspecific permit and the permanent fear of being removed from Canada following a contract breach makes it impossible in practice for them to contest working conditions. Unlike other classes of temporary foreign workers, migrant farm workers, though they may have been working in Canada annually for years or even decades, are denied pathways to permanent residency or immigration. Services targeted to other newcomers, such as new immigrants and refugees, are generally not available to migrant farm workers, and despite migrant workers’ contribution to the Canadian economy, they face a number of obstacles to access health care and social protection schemes. While they are eligible for health care in Canada, this coverage does not extend to their countries of origin once they are repatriated: in practice therefore, workers with serious illnesses or injuries are often left without any income, care or support, even after working and contributing to taxes in Canada for years. Although in principle they have access to employment insurance, the requirement under the Employment Insurance Act that claimants must be available for work in Canada in order to 17 18 19 8 Information received from the National Farmers Union and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, An Overview of the Canadian Agriculture and Agri-Food System 2012 (based on data available as at August 2011). National Farmers Union, Losing Our Grip, 2010 Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program since 1966, based on agreements with Mexico and Commonwealth Caribbean countries, and since 2002, the Pilot Project for Occupations Requiring Lower Levels of Formal Training, open to migrants from all countries.