I'm pleased be to a member of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council communications advisory committee. We spend our time trying to help develop communications strategies that will address human resource challenges in agriculture. One of those challenges is attracting young people to farming. In my latest column in Farm Credit Canada's AgriSuccess Journal, I make the case that something as common as high-speed Internet access can play a role in making farming more attractive. If you're in business (i.e. farming) and young, being cut-off from meaningful electronic communication is pretty tough, especially with farmers increasingly going online. In its spring 2009 industry bulletin, AgMedia (publisher of Better Farming magazine) says 16 per cent of farmers go online multiple times a day, for farm-related reaons. Nineteen per cent are on daily and 28 per cent are on once a week.
OWEN ROBERTS
Owen Roberts is a faculty member in the Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications program at the University of Illinois. As an agricultural journalist, he is the past president of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and a lifetime achievement award recipient from the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation. His programs and research papers have been recognized nationally and internationally through awards from the Journal of Applied Communications, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Association for Communications Excellence, and others.