Hundreds of students got a taste of the numerous jobs available in Ontario’s agriculture industry earlier this month in Listowel. “They're not the original jobs you might think of, but they're so important,” said Madison Lammer, from AgScape, a non-profit organization promoting agriculture amongst Ontario students. One in nine jobs in Canada are in the agriculture and food industry, but with 40 per cent of Canada’s farmers retiring in the next decade, and another 24,000 agriculture workers needed, the sector needs people, and not just those tilling the soil.
“We need our welders. We need our food scientists. We need everyone pretty much across the spectrum, soil scientists, everyone.
We need them. And yeah, everyone needs food. Everyone wears clothes.
Everyone needs things from the agriculture industry,” said Lammers. At Listowel District Secondary School, students can enroll in a Specialist High Skills Major in Agriculture course. Students like Avery Mueller, who wants to be a veterinarian.
Students from Listowel District Secondary School take part in a day of discovering agriculture and the jobs available in the industry in October 2024. (Scott Miller/CTV News London) “This is a way that I can kind of [to] get more experience and kind of dig deeper into getting to see people who are actually in that field doing it and kind of getting a taste of what it's like,” said the Grade 11 Ag Major. Local agriculture businesses see the value in inspiring youth to join .