Andrew McClelland
The Advocate
An interesting thing started happening at agricultural colleges around a decade ago: students who didn’t grow up on a farm began looking at farming as a viable career.
Call it a spin-off of the “buy local” movement, a brief trend, or the surprising development of farming becoming “hip,” the fact remains that agriculture is attracting new recruits from outside its usual pool of farm-raised kids.
For prospective producers like 18-year-old Alice Charlebois, going into agriculture is all about following her heart.
“My grandparents used to have a small dairy farm, but they sold everything early on,” Charlebois said. “Then, they went on to grow vegetables in a greenhouse, but now they only have a sugar shack.”
Grandparents farmed
Growing up in Coteau du Lac in the Vaudreuil-Soulanges region, Charlebois and her family would often help in harvesting and boiling down the sap from her grandparents’ maple syrup operation. That was the extent of her farm experience until she got a part-time job at Jardin chez Julie et Lova, a local organic vegetable farm.
“All throughout high school I was working there,” she explained. “I’d work from spring to fall, but never thinking too much of it. Sure, I liked it a lot, but it was not really fulfilling all my needs.”
However, a high school acquaintance had gone to Macdonald Campus in nearby Ste. Anne de Bellevue and was now working at a local dairy farm. From what Charlebois heard about Mac’s Farm Management and Technology program, it seemed like a fast-track to becoming an agricultural producer. Hedging her bets, Charlebois applied to both Mac’s FMT program and a CEGEP program in animal health technology, knowing that admissions to both were competitive.
“But I got accepted in both programs!” Charlebois said. “So I had to choose!”
Learning English part of deal
Ultimately, Macdonald won out because it was closer to home, but also because Charlebois – raised in a francophone household – bravely wanted to improve her English.
“I personally believe that being well-spoken in English is important,” Charlebois says in eloquent English. “Just in terms of being understood, but also because it is a language that most people know because of its easiness to learn.”
Improving her second language has gone well, with only a little bit of awkwardness and trepidation as Charlebois plunged herself into an English-language learning environment.
“I certainly hope that my English has gotten better after studying here,” she said. “Some of the challenges would probably be trying to express myself at the beginning of the school year when I didn’t know all the words that I wanted to say.”
Attracted to niche market
And since starting in 2023 at Mac, Charlebois’ educational aspirations have been very much fulfilled by the FMT program. During her time at Jardin chez Julie et Lova, the owners expanded into sheep production. That change inspired Charlebois to consider moving into the niche market herself and Mac afforded her great learning opportunities. In the summer of 2024, she was able to work at The Northern Sheep Company in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, as part of her internship in the FMT program.
“I enjoyed every bit of time that I spent working there,” Charlebois said. “It’s what really confirmed my interest in lamb production.”
And improving her English?
Well, a summer in Saskatchewan and a year in an English-language university has made Charlebois very adept at expressing her thoughts on modern agriculture in her second language.
“I think the biggest challenge in global farming today is the bad image that agriculture has on most city people. They don’t know where their food comes from, or all the labour involved. They can be so detached from the reality of it all that, when the price of one thing goes up, they want to find a cheaper alternative that is eventually worse for the environment and for the local economy.”
Undaunted by challenges
Charlebois knows that, coming from a non-farming background, she has challenges ahead. While she would like to have a sheep operation of her own, start-up capital and land are hard to come by. As a back-up plan, she plans to pursue her studies after FMT with a goal to becoming an agronomist.
“I know that the price of everything it high and doing a start-up with little to no money is impossible,” she explained. “So I’d like to focus on the animal side of agronomy.”
But still, the lure of being a full-time agricultural producer looms large even for this “non-farming background” farmer. And with the determination Charlebois has, it’s quite likely she’ll succeed.
“Because of the increase of immigration in Quebec, the demand for lamb has increased — but the supply hasn’t met the demand, so most lamb meat is imported from Australia and New Zealand. My hopes are that the demand still increases so that we can produce more lamb to feed people. For me, working with sheep is more enjoyable and safer than working with cattle. Plus, you get cutes little lambs!”