With registrations opening in less than 60 days, ACCA’s Co-operative Youth Leadership Program is set to place at the Goldeye Centre between the June 29 - July 23, 2019. We look back on the Roundtable Interviews program participants carried out in 2018 in a new 2 part series.

The 2019 program will see well over 200 rural and urban youth descend on Nordegg to learn about co-operatives and develop leadership skills which are encouraged to be used in the working world.

The program will see the oldest cohort of these youth graduate from the program that they have spent the last 3 or 4 summer’s involved in. One of the highlights of the ‘Grad Week’, is the chance for Grads to put their new skills to the test by sitting down and quizzing some esteemed professionals from the co-operative sector and rural businesses in a roundtable setting. In the last of a two-part series, 3 graduates sat down with Wetaskiwin cattle farmer Curtis Pohl to discuss the challenges facing farmers in Alberta.

Q: With the global push towards sustainability, how have farmers adapted to meet these standards?

Being in the Agriculture sector, the biggest area is to see what methods we can take to minimize negative displacement in crops, so fields are as productive today as they can be tomorrow. I’m a 4th generation farmer and when I leave, I hope to be able to pass the farm over to the next generation in better shape, which is why sustainable methods are so important.

Q: Is the consumers' focus on organic food becoming an issue for farmers?

It can be really frustrating, especially given the push for it in the media and on social channels. Coming back to sustainability, if you choose to grow organic you have to be able to sustain it. If you can’t use chemicals to fertilize and put nutrients back into the soil is it really sustainable? Away from organic farming, I noticed you also asked about A&W’s ‘hormone free’ Alberta beef and that’s not about sustainability at all. It is all to do with corporate marketing and getting people to eat there though.

Q: What are the current challenges in the Agriculture space and with less people in the industry and a growing demand, how are farmers addressing this?

It’s hard to lump all the challenges into one bucket. As a whole it’s being able to draw young people back in to be able to take over generational farms. Working on farms is a big challenge and at the moment the industry uses programs from Government to minimize these risks. A farm can address this through expansion, but as profits go down it becomes a fine line to look at expansion and take on debt. There are other ways and opportunities around this: different crops (i.e. Seed-potatoes) and looking at different markets such as Prince Edward Island and California – where high quality production is rewarded. However, with the sector exporting nearly 90% of production internationally and being in beef/cattle/grain myself, the NAFTA situation and trade quota situation worries us as there is the potential we can’t ship to other countries as easily.

Q: With the economy recovering from the oil downturn, have you seen more people turn to Agriculture for employment?

You know, we thought we would see an influx with the downturn, but actually no. We have utilized season help who come from a contract in the oilfields to work on the farm for 2-3 months during the busies time of the season in spring for seeding. However, we get a lot of application to work from people unemployed from oil, but there salaries are so good on the rig that they head back at the earliest opportunity. Agriculture and ourselves, we try to promote the idea of “raising a family as opposed to being on-shift for 14 days straight and off for 10. We try promote and say ‘you might not make all that money, but it’s very family focused and flexible – so you are able to shut the tractor down and watch your kids play soccer.

If you have read this series and want to send youth to this summer's  Co-operative Youth Leadership Program, please email Youth Program Coordinator Liane Courchesne on lcourchesne@acca.coop.