Farming the North: Cycles of Extraction and Dispossession

This paper examines recent initiatives to expand farming in Northern Ontario, Canada, situating these within the historical context of settler colonial agriculture. We ask: how do contemporary efforts in agricultural expansion differ from, or replicate, earlier forms of land acquisition? Focusing on land assembly, we explore how land consolidation, privatisation, and conversion meet agricultural and economic objectives under contemporary colonial capitalism. We consider whether agricultural expansion reinforces narratives that valorise settler agriculture and/or perpetuates patterns of dispossession. Through privatisation and competitive marketisation of “underutilised” lands, agricultural expansion may reconfigure land ownership in ways that serve capital interests and, primarily, settler agricultural entities. This case highlights the role of agricultural development and the interdependence of corporate and state actors in extending financialised land economies, potentially undermining Indigenous food sovereignty, jurisdiction, and autonomy.