Young farmers from across the province are gathering in Winnipeg this week for the 2018 Manitoba Young Farmers Conference.
The event is put on in part by Manitoba Agriculture and Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) and is funded in part by Growing Forward 2.
Kalynn Spain is an Executive Assistant with KAP.
"We really focus heavily on policy development and getting the students and the young farmers engaged in policy issues," she explained. "We had 10 policy files that our policy analysts at KAP put together and it's amazing to see how the young farmers will engage in that issue actually from a different perspective than what maybe our traditionally older members would."
Spain talked about the importance of having the Young Farmers Conference overlap with KAP's AGM Thursday morning.
"They're witnessing our policy resolutions process and for them that's quite new. They can understand those issues and talk about those issues and how that's affecting them, but for them to see it at the policy resolution level, to see our members voting on these issues, is extremely important to us."
The event also included a Canadian Farm Leaders Panel with participation by KAP President Dan Mazier, Canadian Federation of Agriculture President Ron Bonnett, Alberta Federation of Agriculture President Lynn Jacobson, and Ian Boxall, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan Vice President.
Source : Steinbachonline