Farming in Canada is changing. Young people say they can’t get a foothold [Video]

Julie Maxwell says it’s not true that people her age don’t want to get into farming, but shifts in agriculture trends have made it financially harder to get a start in the industry.

“I talk to young farmers all the time who want to start farms, who dream of farming … but they just don’t see how it’s possible or how it’s viable,” said Maxwell, a small vegetable farmer and president of the youth branch of the National Farmers Union.

“Anyone that wasn’t born on a farm or born into some kind of wealth can’t get into the game right now,” she told The Current’s Matt Galloway.

Maxwell runs her farm in Waseca, Sask., a province often referred to as the breadbasket of Canada because it makes up about 40 per cent of the country’s farmland. But farming in Saskatchewan is slowly changing, with big investors and large agricultural companies buying up land and then leasing it back to farmers.

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