It’s clear to Kristjan Hebert that farmers aren’t very good at marketing.
He’s not talking about marketing crops or livestock — many producers can do that.
He says what they lack is the ability, or willingness, to sell farming as a potential career to young Canadians.
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“Just scroll through social media and you’ll see the way many young people today view agriculture. In fact, today’s youth now believe that we are chemical factories and bad for the environment,” he wrote in a blog posted October 25.
“I think we, as an industry, have done a poor job of marketing ourselves. Unless you grew up with the smell of fresh summer fallow or morning dew on the crop, farming is not something you dream about doing.”
Hebert is president of Hebert Grain Ventures, a 30,000-acre grain farm near Moosomin, Sask. His blog highlighted some of the human resource failures in Canadian agriculture but also focused on possible solutions, such as a new campaign from Agriculture in the Classroom Saskatchewan.
“How do you reach kids before they dream elsewhere? We need to get into the schools early,” Hebert said.
“This is why our Deep Roots Foundation (a Hebert initiative) is supporting Ag in the Classroom’s Acres for Education fundraising campaign.”
On Oct. 25, AITC Saskatchewan launched the campaign, which asks producers to donate 10 cents per acre of land that they farm. Donations will be used to provide educational opportunities for “today’s youth to connect with agriculture.”
“Students today will soon graduate and begin making decisions related to their career pathway,” said Sara Shymko, executive director of AITC-Sask.
“It is crucial that they have agricultural touchpoints throughout their education journey to inspire understanding of our food system and support for our producers.”
The farm labour shortage has become a massive issue in Canadian agriculture. Many producers now rely on temporary foreign workers and young people from Europe or New Zealand to do the necessary work on ranches, grain farms and apiaries and in hog barns.
Hebert was one of the first farmers to contribute to the Ag in the Classroom campaign
For him, it’s obvious that producers and the ag industry need to take ownership of this issue.
“It’s easy to be an arm-chair quarterback and blame the government, millennials or the next generation coming, or whoever else you think is causing this problem,” he wrote, adding producers haven’t sold the benefits of working on a farm.
“Can we blame kids for not dreaming of (working on a farm)? No, we can’t.”
AITC has set a fundraising goal of $250,000 for its Acres For Education campaign.
For more information, visit aitc.sk.ca/acresforeducation.
Contact robert.arnason@producer.com
