Student weigh in on what matters to them in agriculture

Farm consolidation, lack of financial supports and agriculture-inclusive education streams are some of the most important issues for students attending the recent Future of Food conference.

Students from McGill’s Farm Management Technology (FMT) and the University of Ottawa’s political science programs told Farmtario what they see as the most important concerns for young people have with agriculture and agri-food in Canada.

Why it matters: With the average age of farmers in Canada increasing, attracting young Canadians to agriculture is essential for keeping the industry vibrant.

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Julie Coddington, a third-year student in the FMT program and the fifth generation on a family-owned dairy farm near Melbourne, Que. said “having enough farms to go around” was one of her top concerns.

“In my hometown, there’s a lot a lot of farms that are either getting smaller or selling,” she said. “So, right now, we’re in the situation where bigger farms are getting bigger and smaller farms are getting smaller. And I actually find that sad, because it’s really nice to see a community of whole family farms, and it’s really dying.”

Coddington said many smaller farms in her area are being bought up by larger operations, which is not ideal, but still better than corporations buying the land to develop it.

Second-year FMT student Jasmine Desaultels, who comes from a Quebec goat farm, said she thought groups like the Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UPA) have turned their backs on smaller producers to focus on the enterprises that make money.

Coddington and Desaultels both said they were interested in returning to their home farms to help try to improve the operations.

The Future of Food conference, held in Ottawa Feb. 12, also saw attendance from students in non-agricultural streams, including Rayne Daprato, a political science student at the University of Ottawa. Daprato said agriculture and trade has become a more relevant topic in political science classes ever since Donald Trump’s tariff threats began.

She added many are now reevaluating the relationship between Canada and the U.S.

“It’s been really interesting to look at how industries are evaluating or reevaluating, specifically our relationship with the U.S., because that is where all the tension is coming from,” Daprato said. “Most of these issues have existed for a while. They’re just now being exacerbated, or at least, light’s being shone on them.

“The complacency, I think that we’ve seen has been … trusting that the U.S. was going to stay a constant, very secure place for us.”

The students offered their thoughts on what developments they hope to see for agriculture in the future- particularly coming out of an event like the Future of Food.

Sonia Auger, another McGill FMT student from central Quebec said she would like to see organizations “help producers visualize more what is going on and for the future, to help plan ahead and see a bit of different opportunities.”

Coddington said she would like to see encouragement of technology adoption on farms, referencing the average age of Canadian farmers, which increased to 56 in 2021, according to the most recent Census of Agriculture.

“That’s such an older generation,” she said. “Not that they don’t know how to use technology, but they don’t trust it. And I think that people should really get in there to show them that they can trust it.”

“No farmer that is almost 60 and wants to retire soon is gonna spend so much money on putting new technology in, not knowing if it’s (useful). So, if … there’s ways to really help a farmer, or help a farmer pay for those things, or take the farmers and go show them other farms that are using it, and really show them that it’s secure, it’s OK, that would really be helpful.”

Coddington explained she has seen this dilemma play out on her home farm.

“From my point of view of having three generations on the farm, I can see that my dad is willing, but it takes a lot of push for us younger kids to show him new things, and if there’s more political ways to help with that, I think that would be really good.”

Desaultels said there should be more financial help available for smaller operations.

“Just help the farmer, not like, try to sell, just sell, sell,” she said. “Just really help the farmer to build a better farm, to be more comfortable on the farm.”

Daprato said she would like to see more investment in agriculture-related university streams from provincial and federal governments — a point raised during panels at the Future of Food.

“University of Ottawa, we’re obviously downtown, but you hope that in our politics streams and even the engineering (program), there are so many fields that are affected by agriculture and have so many job opportunities in agriculture,” Daprato said.

“It would be great to be redirecting some more people who aren’t already connected to the agriculture sector into it, because we need more people who care about it, who are thinking about it, who aren’t necessarily already familially entrenched in it.”

At the end of the conference, Coddington and fellow FMT Program student Aidan Velthuis delivered remarks for the conference’s “Students’ Corner” segment, where they summarized their takeaways from the day.

Coddington said she would be reflecting on how she can contribute to a “new chapter for the agricultural industry.”

“I know now that technology, communications, investments and pride are among the key elements that will help us in the right direction,” she said.

“I’m leaving here today fully aware that innovation is being able to see changes and unity as an opportunity rather than a threat, and I for one am very excited by all the innovations the future holds.”

Velthuis said walking into the conference as a young farmer it was all too easy to “feel like you’re taking on hell with a squirt-gun” upon hearing the discusions of threats to agriculture, but he was inspired to hear how many in the agriculture sector are willing to support young farmers.

“It’s also one of the highlights of my day to come in and see so many young faces in the crowd,” he said, “because like me, it’s not just because of an age thing or a familiar face in the crowd, it’s the future of food here to support creating future food.”