Skip to main content

Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Transforming the Prairies

Agricultural Rehabilitation and Modern Canada

Critically reassesses Canada’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration in light of its contribution to ecological changes and colonialism.

Transforming the Prairies proposes a new understanding of Canada’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA), complicating common views of the agency as a model of effective government environmental management. Between 1935 and 2012, the PFRA promoted agricultural rehabilitation in and beyond the Canadian prairies with mixed and equivocal results. The promotion of strip farming as a soil conservation technique, for example, left crops susceptible to sawfly infestations. The PFRA’s involvement in irrigation development in Ghana increased the local population’s vulnerability to various illnesses. PFRA infrastructure construction intended to serve the public good failed to account for the interests of affected Indigenous peoples. The PFRA is revealed as being a highly modernist state agency that produced varied environmental outcomes and contributed to consolidating colonialism and racism. This investigation affirms the importance of engaging historical perspectives to help ensure that contemporary environmental management efforts support more just and sustainable futures.

272 pages | 16 halftones, 11 maps, 2 figures | 6 x 9 | © 2024

Nature | History | Society

Geography: Cultural and Historical Geography

History: Environmental History

Political Science: Public Policy


Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press