The fundamental problem remains that most of the solutions that exist or are proposed are based on the dominant farming model, and assume that new farmers will come with traditional training and traditional farm assets. The reality is that this represents a relatively small percentage of farmers taking over operations. Another large percentage is those who wish to farm ecologically, on small acreages, or smaller scale, often with more direct connections to consumers. This group poses significant challenges for the dominant institutions, and as a result tends not to get significant support. The main farm organizations, except the NFU and to some extent L'Union des Producteurs Agricoles in Quebec, also struggle with this, since these are not people that have a history of being part of their membership base.
In a natiional survey of about 1400 new farmers, the top 10 ranked barriers identified were (Laforge et al., 2018):
- Affordability of land ownership (see also Magnan et al., 2022)
- Lack of access to capital/credit/other sources of financing
- Low profitability of the agricultural sector (addressed on multiple parts of this site)
- Lack of agricultural infrastructures (abattoir, storage facilities, etc.)
- Lack of security of demand, markets, or distribution channels
- Affordability of land leasing
- Food safety regulations (see Goal 4)
- Affordability of business related training (marketing, accounting, etc.)
- Lack of appropriate farmland in your region (size, quality, location, infrastructure, etc.)
- Lack of access to extension services (See Goal 3 Public Research and Goal 5 Sustainable food)
Qualman et al. (2018) highlight that many of these problems are related to market power imbalances between farmers and other actors in the food system (see Goal 3 Reducing Corporate Concentration).
Other research suggests that new farmers have more off-farm work than older farmers to mitigate farm risk, which can mean locating closer to urban areas. They also have higher levels of educational attainment than those over 55. They are more reliant on borrowed land (Shumsky and Nelson, 2018)
Top 10 ranked current programs were (Laforge et al., 2018)
- Informal farm workshops, field days, farm tours
- On-farm training (paid/unpaid apprenticeships and internship)
- Farmer-to-farmer mentorship programs
- Workshops and/or Conferences from NGOs
- Online educational resources (webinars, blogs, etc.)
- New farmer networking forums (online and in-person)
- Incubator farms or farmer schools
- College and/or University agricultural programs or courses
- Shared initiative (equipment sharing, collaborative marketing or distribution, shared sourcing, etc.)
- Farm transfer/succession planning programs
Top 10 recommendations for change were (Laforge et al., 2018):
- Farmer-to-farmer mentorship programs
- Incentives for landowners to sell or rent land to new farmers
- Curriculum in primary and secondary schools to promote farming as a career (see Goal 3 Integrating food into educational processes)
- Agricultural infrastructures (abattoirs, machinery coops, other) (see Goal 6)
- Direct marketing support and promotion (CSA networks, farmers markets associations, networking with chefs/wholesale purchasers, etc.) (see Goals 5 and 6)
- Government loan and grant programs
- On-farm training (paid/unpaid apprenticeships and internships)
- Informal farm workshops, field days, farm tours
- Scale appropriate food safety regulations (see Goal 4)
- Local food procurement legislation (see Goal 6)
FSC has identified three broad solution areas (adapted from Wilson and Martorell, 2017):
- Funding training and extension, mentorship, business development and networking opportunities.
- Providing start-up grants, debt forgiveness and early stage loans.
- Succession incentives and support, and farmland transfer financing initiatives.
All this informs the Solutions proposed here. It is clear, however, that efforts must be ramped up quickly as current efforts are too weak to deal with the 10-15 year time horizon facing the transfer of farm assets.
