Last week I had the opportunity to attend Women in Ag Clinic, and what a great idea.
We should be doing whatever we can to be finding more farmers where ever we can, and what better place to start than with females?
According to a publication released by the Farm and Food Care Foundation less than three per cent of farms are operated solely by females, which to me is staggeringly low.
The numbers were not only low for females but for farmers in general.
Currently, the average age of a farmer is 54 years old, with 70 per cent of the total Canadian farmers being male.
In addition, in the last 110 years we have seen a 91 per cent decrease in the number of farmers in Canada, with a 60 per cent decrease in the number of farms.
This is worrying as we have seen a 548 per cent increase in the population of our country over that span.
Where are we going to get our food from if we lose 91 per cent of our farmers but gain 548 per cent population?
Not only should the food be better for you but it should also taste better if it is grown by a local farmer.
Do not believe me?
Go to the store and buy a vegetable and eat it.
Then get the same vegetable from a local farmer or from your own or your neighbour’s garden and eat that one.
From my own experience I can tell you which one I would prefer.
I hear a lot of people talk about the importance of shopping local and one of the most important local shopping you can do is buying your food local.
This provides jobs, and a living for a number of your community members, and provides healthy, good tasting food for you.
It is a win-win.
But how are we supposed to be able to buy local food if there are fewer farmers and more people?
Well that is where a clinic like the one I attended comes in.
Showcasing agriculture to people who generally are not considered farmers, or who statistically are not proving to be sole farmers on a farm is a good place to start recruiting potential new farmers.
And while I know most of the women who were in attendance for the clinic were already living and/or working on a farm if we can increase their knowledge and excitement about the prospects of farming in Saskatchewan, they might be able to pass that excitement onto other females.
We have a serious farming shortage in Canada, and in Saskatchewan as well, so doing anything we can to increase the knowledge, awareness, and excitement is important.
