Forum for Youth in Agriculture
Stacia Kean CEDC, Development Officer
“ Today we held an ideas forum for youth in agriculture funded by the Youth Jobs Strategy through the Government of Ontario. The intension was to bring people together to support young people starting and growing businesses and finding jobs. We did an event last year as well and out of that came more of a demand for services. So today we have different role models making presentations as well as funding available to help youth get started. We used video conferencing to connect with Dryden, Fort Frances and Kenora so this year we have 35 people here and more viewing in the region. Listening to more established businesses like Belluz Farms and DeBruins Greenhouses and how they grew their businesses has been helpful. We have a growing agricultural sector in Thunder Bay and strategies like the Local Food Iniative is helping increase demand. There are more local restaurants with local grown products now.”
Raili Roy Beanstalk Consulting
“ Today we have came together to talk about some of the opportunities available for young people in agriculture and the support systems in place for them. It is my opinion we need more farmers and people involved in the food industry in general here in Thunder Bay.” “ I have a small farm operation in Thunder Bay with pork, eggs and some vegetables. For me it is about feeding a small crowd of people. Our product is sold farm gate which means people come into our yard to buy our products. We have 18 pigs running around right now.”
Kendall Kerbashian, NOIC
“ We partnered with the CEDC to do this event. NOIC has a strong focus on Youth Entrpreneurship right now and saw this as a great opportunity to give youth another option for a job and starting a business they may not have been looking at doing.”
