The federal government plans to convene a meeting this fall of young and beginning farmers with representatives from the ag industry and Ottawa, toward what’s expected to be a “redesign” of policy tools meant for renewal in the ag sector.
Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal minister of state for agriculture, on Monday announced general plans for what the government has dubbed the National Future Farmers Network, plus a new section on Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s website for young and beginning farmers.
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The goal of the National Future Farmers Network meeting, the government said in a release Monday, is to bring young farmers’ “voices to the fore and put their ideas into action.”
Blackburn, the government said, has previously pledged to develop a “young farmers’ lens” to get government bodies to “systematically” take young farmers’ concerns into consideration when planning actions and developing policies and programs.
“I have no doubt that this National Future Farmers Network will provide the foundation for redesigning together the tools we have to stimulate renewal in the agriculture sector. And it is by working together, shoulder to shoulder, with each of us making our contribution, that we will build the future,” said Blackburn, 61.
Monday’s release did not give a specific time frame or location for a National Future Farmers Network meeting.
Blackburn, an MP from Quebec’s Sageunay-Lac-St-Jean region, said consultations he held with young and beginning farmers last fall “gave me a better understanding of the complexity and variety of challenges young farmers are facing in getting established in agriculture or taking over the family farm.”
The report from Blackburn’s roundtable discussions last fall was also released Monday and posted to the new section on AAFC’s website for young and beginning farmers.
The new “YBF” section is expected to provide “better access” to information on tools, programs and services available to young farmers.
“This new section will serve as a starting point for young people interested in farming by providing information on the national and regional tools, programs and services available to them,” Blackburn said in the release.
“Young and beginning farmers face specific challenges such as access to capital, access to farm assets, and high debt levels,” the YBF section explains. “Nevertheless, young people continue to enter the sector with an energetic entrepreneurial spirit, respect for the environment, innovative ideas and new ways of doing business.
“Be it exploring farming as a potential career or accessing funding opportunities to develop your farm, you will find the information here.”
Joe Dickenson, a farmer from Brigden, Ont., south of Sarnia, and the Ontario/Quebec representative to the board of the Canadian Young Farmers Forum, hailed Blackburn in the government’s release for his work on the young farmer file.
Blackburn’s “tireless devotion to the young farmer issue and his willingness to travel the country speaking to young farmers and potential young farmers in order to draft this report cannot be understated,” Dickenson said Monday.
