H1-How can we stop the decline in young people on the farm?

Problems identified with you people on the farm:

• lifestyle choices
• return on investment - it's too costly to startup
• price of commodities
• fewer younger people
• immigration/policy
• It seems the younger generations want instant gratification.
• Children used to take on the profession of their parents.
• Farmers still expect farmers to grow up on farms - that population is declining.
• business model - get big or get out.

Solutions:

• Niche marketing
• local food marketing
• regulatory change - land transfer tax
• generic tax issues
• value added production
• design program flaws for CAIS.
• Kingston area has a $10,000 grant for young farmers to start up. 
• what about agriculture courses in urban high school curriculum?
• turn policies around - instead of encouraging rural ontarians to leave rural Ontario and move to urban areas, why not reverse it?
• students learn about agriculture and are well educated but are driven to employment instead of the farm because of a guaranteed income.
• more emphasis on processing products in Canada would show an investment in home-made goods.
• help connect farmers directly with consumers
• why can't I repay my start-up loans the same way I repay my student loan?
• Will tomorrow's farmer do the same job as yesterday's farmer? Should we consider changing our definition of farmers?  more than food production?
• Farmers need stable government programming.  ONtario has the Risk Management Program, but it's a pilot program set to expire in 2010.  The federal government hasn't even contributed to it. How can we encourage young farmers to enter farming unless we show them a stable business environment where their older colleagues are able to make a stable living?
• What about producing what we need? Problems with the US farm bill - half of an American farmer's income comes from subsidies from the US farm bill, so they overproduce food just so they can collect the government pay cheque.
• One young farmers claims "I'm not a farmer - I'm in direct sales."
•  

What happens next?

• improve government policies
• talk to MP/MPP
• get consumer support - encourage them to ask "where are your Ontario tomatoes?  What is your Ontario wine selection?  Do you serve Ontario lamb?"
• buy local (walk the talk)
• origin labeling (not COOL)
• informed food purchases
• Put agri-food into the education system

Additional Notes:

proposed by Grant Robertson

in the last 15 years have lost 62% of our under 35 farmers,

in dairy and poultry there still appears to be greater number of young people entering but the cost are accelerating.

Farming being second largest industry in Ontario, what is going to happen as the farmers are depleting.

We are often encouraging our young to go off to higher education and not returning, so we see a brain drain.

We don't need as many farmers as we use to have as the capital is reducing the need for more farmers.

 The pork, beef, sheep, cash-crop, the decline is more dramatic than the supply managed side.

 The high start-up costs (could be around 500K) just to get going create barriers to entry.

We need to have more profitability in all agricultural sectors, more mechanisms in place to get the true costs in place so that young "new" farmers don't lose their shirt.

Supply managed farming seems to be more profitable as farmers are able to get a constant/stable price but in livestock, such as beef, there are too many trade agreements to be able to implement this type of strategy.  If supply managed farming was able to be implemented then young farmers may find greater incentives to stay in farming.

Do we need more agricultural programs?  

There is a program called C.R.A.F.T. which just started in Kingston (newfarming.ca), where there are host farms that bring individuals into the farming community who are interested in getting into farming.  This program is allowing young people to get access to land.  However, there are lots of concerns, workers' compensation, as farming is a very dangerous field.  Also, it is very difficult to train young individuals who have no knowledge of how to work the equipment.

Summary:

Young farmers do not have the incentive to enter into farming as the start-up costs are too great, which creates large barriers to entry. 

Most farming families, encourage their children to go off and get higher education, and this ends up pulling away the youth (brain drain) as they head for corporate careers.

Co-op programs (such as CRAFT) are working to bring youth into farming communities to generate a renewed interested in farming as a career, however there are still large concerns, such as liabilities.