Being a young farmer in Canada today is a challenge, but many outstanding young people are rising to it, answering the call to farm in innovative ways.

Consider Jenny Butcher and Wes Kuntz, owners of Little Brown Cow south of Brantford, ON, who started their first-generation farm in 2008 with no land assets or capital. They now operate a dairy, cheese plant, and farm store that sells their own and other local farmers’ products.

“We had a dream to help change the food system by shortening the chain between farm and fork,” explains Butcher. Their “Local Food Emporium,” opened in 2017, now serves 5,500 customers weekly.

The program also recognized Philip and Katie Keddy from Lakeville, NS, as regional winners. The Keddys are second-generation farmers in the Annapolis Valley, where a unique microclimate allows them to grow sweet potatoes and strawberry plants in rotation with grain and cover crops.

With time and practice, the Keddys have become the largest sweet potato producers east of Ontario, hand-harvesting 1.5 million pounds per season. “What makes us unique is being farmers selling directly to farmers. We have over 300 customers across North America, and the quality of our product directly impacts their success,” says Katie Keddy.

Selling direct has also been a successful approach for Butcher and Kuntz, who sell direct to consumers. Demonstrating farm transparency to their customers is important, they say. “We welcome our customers to visit the farm. In six years, we’ve had 55,000 people here, and what they see is an unmanicured view of a real dairy farm,” says Kuntz.

Little Brown Cow also develops unique products with stories to tell that meet demand for local food. But for Outstanding Young Farmers like these, the greatest success story is following their dream to farm.