Forty-five young farmers from across the country are in Gatineau, Que., for the first meeting of the National Future Farmers Network, organized by Agriculture Canada as part of its young farmer strategy.Jean-Pierre Blackburn, veterans’ affairs minister and minister of state for agriculture, said this week the Nov. 15-16 sessions will be an ideal forum for young and beginning farmers to talk about challenges they face and possible solutions.Representatives from many farm organizations, Agriculture Canada and other departments will sit in to listen to the debate.And in an earlier interview, Blackburn said it is part of his promise to include young farmers in government program and policy planning. This week’s closed meeting is the first.”We will have young people around the table and in future we will not be able to go back from that,” he said. “Every time, they will be around the table and the youth lens will be part of the philosophy of our department.”The government has not yet published the names of the invited young farmers.The National Farmers Union is complaining that it is a far from inclusive list. NFU youth are not represented.”We don’t have a firm grasp on what the reasoning is to leave our voices out of this network,” NFU youth president Kalissa Regier said in a statement issued by the union.She suggested consultations in 2009 by Blackburn had a strong presence from industry and “stakeholders of large agri-business” rather than small-scale locally focused producers.The government said it asked for advice from the Canadian Young Farmer Forum and its provincial affiliates when drawing up the list.CYFF, more than a dozen years old and supported by Agriculture Canada and Farm Credit Canada, is affiliated with the Canadian Federation of Agriculture and Grain Growers of Canada and soon will have an affiliation with the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association mentorship program.On Nov. 15, CYFF general manager Rod Scarlett, also executive director of Alberta’s Wild Rose Agricultural Producers, said his board members are attending and provincial affiliates also recommended names.”Most who are there will be affiliated with national or provincial organizations,” he said.
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