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Alberta

Tech, sustainability key to attracting young talent to an evolving agriculture sector

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Canada’s farmers are getting older, and most don’t have a clear succession plan, leaving a big question over who will take over the agriculture sector as a wave of retirements loom. 

But industry insiders say an increased focus on technology and sustainability is helping attract younger generations to agriculture, including those coming to the field for the first time. 

Young people entering farming from other industries will be key to the sector’s evolution as it grapples with challenges like climate change, said Todd Klink, chief marketing officer at Farm Credit Canada. 

“We’re going to need technology, we’re going to need innovation, we’re going to need new ideas and new approaches,” he said. “So when you meet young people that have these new ideas and come from different disciplines, it’s super exciting.”

The demographics of farm operators show an industry in clear need of rejuvenation, even as the barriers to entry can be daunting. 

The average age of a Canadian farm operator was 56 in 2021, according to Statistics Canada, and the median age 58, with both those figures rising from the previous census. More than 40 per cent of those operators plan to retire over the next decade, according to a report from the Royal Bank of Canada, Boston Consulting Group Centre for Canada’s Future and Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. 

While some will pass the business on to their children — 12 per cent of farms told Statistics Canada they had a succession plan in 2021 — it’s no easy feat to buy or sell a farm, nor to start one from scratch, due to the high costs of land and equipment, as well as the fact that over time, farms have consolidated and therefore gotten bigger on average. 

“Unless you’re inheriting or you’re part of a succession plan for an existing farm … it’s nearly impossible to get into it from the ground up,” said Joy Agnew, vice president of research at the Olds College of Agriculture and Technology in Alberta. 

Money isn’t the only barrier for attracting the younger generations into agriculture, said Agnew. There are perceptions that farming is hard, dirty work that makes no money, she said — even though agriculture contains a wide range of jobs that don’t look like stereotypical farm work, and most of them don’t involve buying or inheriting a farm.

But as farms adopt more technology such as automated steering and drones, the college has seen increased interest, she said.

“We’re seeing more and more young people in those very niche technological areas like software development or coding or instrumentation or robotics,” said Agnew. “They’re now seeing careers for themselves in the (agriculture) sector.”

Alongside the technological shift, farmers are increasingly adopting sustainable practices, Statistics Canada says, using practices like cover crops and no-till agriculture in efforts to mitigate climate change. 

Younger generations are showing more interest in sustainable practices, including ways to maximize yields from smaller farms that are more financially accessible.

Georges Boudreau and his partner Béatrice Cloutier-Hébert established Ferme La Chaleureuse in Carleton-sur-mer, Que. last year. Using less than two acres, the pair deploy a technique called bio-intensive farming, which focuses on maximizing the yield of a small piece of land. Boudreau learned the technique at La Ferme des Quatre-Temps in Hemmingford, Que., which trains young farmers in addition to growing and selling produce. 

Boudreau said while there will always be a need for large farms, he sees growing interest in smaller farms that feed their nearby communities. 

“That’s what I think is the future. Less industrial farming and more community and smaller farms.”

And in an effort to grow more local food year-round, there’s another trend set to help fill the gap: indoor farming, whether in greenhouses or vertical farms. The total area of greenhouses in Canada grew by more than 23 per cent in 2021 compared with 2016. 

Barry Murchie founded GoodLeaf Farms in 2011 after working in food for several decades, including at McCain Foods for 25 years. GoodLeaf’s production of leafy greens and micro greens is currently centred in Guelph, with facilities in Calgary and Montreal set to open this summer.

Murchie said the technology underpinning vertical farming is allowing for a new kind of agriculture that can take place in urban centres. GoodLeaf’s employees come from a range of backgrounds, with average ages in the 30s, and tend to be concerned about the environment and the food supply chain, he said. 

“We have people who are sort of early in their careers making decisions to come and join GoodLeaf,” said Murchie. “They want to work in an environment that they feel that what they’re doing is beneficial for the planet.”

Growing public scrutiny of where food comes from is generating more interest in the agriculture industry among younger generations, said Dustin Farr, an instructor of agriculture management and precision agriculture at the Werklund School of Agriculture Technology, which is part of Olds College. 

As a result, Farr said he’s seeing more and more students coming to agriculture from increasingly diverse backgrounds. He says that while he’s well aware of the challenges facing the industry, his students leave him feeling optimistic. 

“We have some brilliant minds that are coming into agriculture.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2023.

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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