By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
Two Canadian young leaders - one from Ontario and one from Prince Edward Island - share their perspectives on how to help feed a growing world population. Farms.com gets the scoop on what made these two submissions stand out, and how they plan to advance their ideas at the 2013 Youth Ag-Summit this summer being held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
This August in Calgary, Alberta 120 agriculture youth winners from around the world ages 18 to 25, will gather to discuss their ideas on how to feed a growing world population. On April 3rd, Canadian and U.S. delegate winners received notice of their application status. While the Youth Ag Summit organizers haven’t yet released the names of all those selected, Farms.com managed to track down two winners who will be representing Canada – let’s find out what they had to say.
Bruce Sargent 22, who attends the University of Guelph, is a long-time Durham East 4-H Ontario member who was encouraged by family members and industry contacts to apply to attend the Youth Ag Summit and says that he was intrigued by the concept of bringing young people together to talk about the issue of food security. Sargent explains that participation in 4-H is a tradition in his family, and noted that showing dairy cattle was something that he always took pride in doing.
Youth were given the choice of summiting an essay or a video entry. Sargent a young video production entrepreneur and owner of Farm Boy Productions chose to go with the video option. Sargent approached the question looking at it from three different angles: lack of agriculture and food-based education, the need for more farmers to share their story of producing food and the issue of food waste. Sargent explains that “we eat three times a day, but it’s not a core component of our [school] curriculum” and notes that most school courses can be related back to agriculture. Sargent says that he hopes to bring his skills as a communicator to help capture and communicate the issues surrounding food insecurity. “Gaining perspective from different parts of Canada and the world…I am sure that we can learn a lot from each other,” concludes Sargent.
Find Bruce’s winning video entry below:
Arin Douglas ,19, who attends St. Francis Xavier University, is also a long-time 4-H member from PEI and says that she applied to attend the Youth Ag Summit knowing that her other travel opportunities through the 4-H program have taught her a great deal. Douglas grew up on her family’s beef cattle operation and says that she also knows a thing or two about dairy cattle from working on her grandparent’s farm. Douglas is also one of PEI’s 4-H Youth Advisory Committee representatives.
Unlike Sargent, Douglas submitted an essay that identified three underlying risks to food security: lack of knowledge, food availability and “access” – economic means. When elaborating on the first point of her essay - lack of knowledge, Douglas says “we need to get back to basics and reconnect the consumer with the producer.” Douglas says that she is most looking forward to meeting new people saying “I love meeting new people and making new contacts… I really like discussing things that I am passionate about.”
The Youth Ag Summit is a new initiative as part of 4-H Canada’s centennial year and Bayer celebrating 150 years of innovation.
Editor’s note: This was an inspiring series of interviews from young-agricultural leaders who have fresh ideas on how to tackle the issue of food security. It’s clear how much both of them love their communities and how being involved in the 4-H program has helped prepared them to be leaders who aren’t afraid to attempt to address world issues. Farms.com would like to congratulate them on their success and wish them the best of luck this summer - we look forward to learning more about their experiences as well as their innovative ideas!