Introduction

The security of Canada’s local food supply rests on migrant farmworkers. Given this reliance, Chapter 1 explores how, during the global health pandemic, alongside introducing sweeping public health and safety restrictions, Canada managed threats of national food shortages by boosting agricultural production and processing capacity to address an emerging backlog of produce and ensuring growers’ continued access to migrant farmworkers. In the face of such interventions, the analysis shows that while farms and greenhouses were declared essential worksites, justifying exemptions from border restrictions applicable to migrant farmworkers, they proved prone to COVID-19 outbreaks.