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by bix6 358 days ago
Does it matter if it’s fertile though? Isn’t the climate there the limiting factor on ag?
3 comments

It depends, like here in Finland, there is lots of farmland and active farms, but most is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humid_continental_climate , Norway also has a lot of farms in subarctic areas like this in the article, but Norway is substituting farming very heavily even European standards.
Both Finland and Norway have low population, too, because overall the climate is too harsh for high-yield agriculture.
*subsidizing
You can grow plenty of food there: wheat, potatoes, apples, cabbage, etc.

It's roughly at the same latitude as Moscow.

Yes, and no one sane invests into agriculture around Moscow when there's much more warmer and fertile land down south. Factory farms and greenhouses? Yes, certainly, but this is driven by the food demands of a massive metropolis next door: move east or west far enough to offset this benefit and you will see scenes of rural decay.
That's because small-scale farming is not sufficient profitable, not because it's not possible. You can find scenes of rural decay in most any industrialized country.
Plenty of people invest in agriculture around Moscow. That's why Russia is one of the leaders in food exports.

To be fair, the bulk of the most productive Russian agricultural lands actually ends around Moscow's latitude.

The short growing season is somewhat offset by the very long summer days.