Jennifer VanDeVelde never planned to farm. She graduated university with a biology degree, attended teachers college and went straight into the classroom. Five years later, in 2006, VanDeVelde left that classroom and joined her husband, David, a fourth-generation tobacco farmer, on the family farm in Delhi, Ont.
The VanDeVeldes, both 40, transitioned out of tobacco into a diversified farming operation that includes U-pick strawberries, raspberries and pumpkins, a bakery and a market stocked with seasonal, local products from fruits and vegetables to meat and cheese.
Their farm, Wholesome Pickins Market & Bakery, isn’t just a successful example of diversification, it represents a nationwide shift in how young farmers are entering the industry.
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“When we were all in that 25 to 30 age range, there were fewer of our peers going back to the farm,” says VanDeVelde.
The 2021 Census of Agriculture found the average age of Canada’s farmers that year was 56, compared to an average age of 49.9 in 2001. Over those same years, the number of farm operators under 35 declined 43 per cent.
The so-called “greying of Canadian farms” begs the question: does Canada have enough young farmers?
“We are seeing a downward trend in the number of young farmers,” says Allan Melvin, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture. “It’s a bit concerning, obviously, that there doesn’t seem to be the uptake of interest in the profession. We need to ensure there’s a … sustainable future of agriculture and food supply in Canada going forward and … we need to have the talent and skill set in place to make that happen.”
Attracting the next generation
It’s not the first time there has been a downward trend in the number of farm kids returning to agriculture.
Jake Ayre, vice-president of Keystone Agricultural Producers and cash crop farmer in Minto, Man., points to a period in the 1980s when interest rates were high and interest in farming was low.
“Interest rates as high as 20 per cent made it tough to farm back then,” Ayre says. “It squeezed out a lot of farms … a lot of people didn’t come back because there weren’t a lot of opportunities in those years.”
Unlike the farm kids who left the farm in the 1980s and never returned, Ayre believes today’s next generation recognizes there are opportunities in agriculture and significant numbers of young people are returning to the farm. It’s happening in Manitoba where 11.45 per cent of farmers are under 35, the highest percentage in the nation.
“The (tools) that are required for farming today versus those of 20 years ago are a night-and-day difference in regards to technology,” says Ayre. “That’s appealing to the younger generation because there’s opportunity for growth.”
Olds College of Agriculture and Technology in Alberta continues offering programs in agricultural management to train the next generation of farmers, but the college also introduced a new bachelor’s degree in digital agriculture in 2022 in the hopes of attracting new talent to the field.
“We’ve got some creative stuff happening and we’re hoping that is going to be the link to the next generation in terms of trying to pull them in (with) technology,” says Jay Steeves, dean of the college’s Werklund School of Agriculture Technology.
Preparing for the worst case
Technology might also be the key to ensuring food security if the number of young farmers continues trending downward. In fact, the industry has already started shifting in response to larger farms and the dwindling number of farmers.
Between 2016 and 2021, the number of farms decreased 1.9 per cent. Fewer, larger farms mean less need for farm operators; it’s a worrisome trend that could continue if the next generation opts out of agriculture.
“When there’s consolidation, it inherently pushes people out,” Melvin says.
At Olds College, balancing the need to attract the next generation of farmers with the shifting numbers of new farmers is top of mind.
“We’re seeing the need for this efficiency with technology because we’re worried that there won’t be as many producers,” says Steeves. “Creating efficiencies with technology (would) require less bodies to produce the same amount of food. At the same time, we know we have a responsibility to try and increase the number of producers … and draw the next generation into production.”
Melvin points to the capital intensive nature of farming, uncertain interest rates and the high cost of inputs as some of the barriers preventing the next generation from pursuing farming careers, adding, “The risk-reward profile doesn’t quite line up for a lot of people when they’re looking at it from the outside.”
Practising patience
VanDeVelde wonders whether her children, now ages 13 and 15, will want to farm and, she adds, her concerns about transitioning Wholesome Pickins to the next generation are already having an impact on her farming decisions.
“It’s a battle we talk about every day,” she says. “Do we continue to expand and continue to invest in the business so that in 15 years, there’s a viable business for them to come into, or do we take a pause? It’s a tough one.”
Despite the challenges, Statistics Canada reported that the number of farms with succession plans increased from 8.4 per cent in 2016 to 12 per cent in 2021. The largest share of farms reporting a succession plan were grain and oilseed farms and intermediate farms with operating revenues from $50,000 to $99,999 annually.
There are opportunities ranging from government policies to creative lending strategies that could help overcome the obstacles and bolster the number of young farmers. But for Melvin, the need to “sound the alarm bells” and prioritize attracting a new generation of farmers is especially important for new entrants to agriculture who lack access to land and capital needed to produce food.
“It would be very difficult for a young person to come in and take over a full-scale farm at fair market value,” he says. “There can certainly be some financial engineering … from the outgoing generation … to make it possible. Otherwise, it’s not going to work.”
Ayre hopes that engaging post-secondary institutions and industry partners to spread awareness about the immediate and ongoing need for labour and opportunities in agriculture could help attract young farmers. But the biggest solution might be patience.
For those under 30, succession might not be realistic, and working for mom and dad, and perhaps grandma and grandpa, too, might not look like an attractive option.
“Some youth don’t want to come home and work for mom and dad and don’t want to do it like mom and dad did it,” says VanDeVelde. “When you’re 25, you have all these ideas. If everything (on the farm) is staying the same, it’s really difficult at 25 to come in and be anything other than an employee of your parents.”
But that doesn’t mean young people won’t return to the farm.
VanDeVelde noticed that her peers in their 30s and 40s who returned to the farm had different experiences; their parents were closer to retirement age, which created a more imminent need for succession planning and more openness to diversification. The returning farmers in that age group also had opportunities to build up the capital needed to buy into the family farm.
“Over the last 15 years we’ve seen a shift,” she says. “In the 10 years (between age 30 and 40), a lot more of those farm kids that had gone and found off-farm jobs were coming back to the farm with unique ideas … and adapting their farm business into something more modernized.”
Although VanDeVelde admits that she doesn’t know whether Canada has enough young farmers to take over agricultural production, she isn’t worried.
“Agriculture certainly has some of the best and brightest,” she says.
