In mid-November, 45 young farmers from across Canada are expected to be flown to Ottawa for the first National Future Farmers Network meeting sponsored by Agriculture Canada.
It is part of the young farmer strategy announced earlier this year by veterans affairs minister and secretary of state for agriculture Jean- Pierre Blackburn.
The young farmers will meet on Nov. 15-16 with officials from federal departments and representatives of national and provincial farm organizations.
Blackburn said it is part of the government’s plan to include young farmers in planning government policy.
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“This is the first step,” he said. “It will be followed by other steps but now we are starting the process. The agenda was prepared by young and beginning farmers. You can imagine their priorities will include financing and the image of agriculture.”
He said one way to change the image of agriculture would be to work with provinces to have agricultural content injected into school curricula, including homework to have students figure out what resources are available to help young people finance a $2 million farm purchase.
Agriculture Canada also is considering an advertising campaign to promote agriculture as a job with an interesting future.
Blackburn said it will be useful for representatives from various government departments to understand how policies or regulations affect young farmers.
He said it is part of his commitment to have a “youth lens” turned on all new initiatives to make sure the policies and regulations work for young farmers.
“We will have young people around the table and in future we will not be able to go back from that,” he said.
