Jordyn Domio reframes a familiar concern in agriculture—the question of the “next generation”—by shifting attention to something more immediate and less discussed: proximity.

Who gets close enough to the industry to understand it? To see themselves in it? To be taken seriously before they’ve earned it on paper?

This episode moves away from abstract conversations about labour shortages and recruitment, and instead examines the everyday conditions that shape participation. The informal exposures, early invitations, and small acts of recognition that determine whether someone is brought in—or never considers agriculture at all.

What emerges is a quieter but more consequential reality: the future of the sector isn’t waiting to be filled. It’s already being shaped by who is allowed to get close.

Hi, I'm Jesse Hirsh.

Welcome to The Future Herd.

Some conversations reveal a system others revealed the gap between

how a system imagines itself and how it is actually experienced.

This episode with Jordyn Domio sits squarely in that gap.

What Jordyn brings into focus is not agriculture as an industry,

but agriculture as a lived pathway.

One that is far less visible, far less accessible, and far more uneven

than the sector often acknowledges.

There is a persistent story the industry tells about itself.

That opportunity is there for those willing to work, that the next

generation simply needs to step up.

Yet what Jordyn surfaces calmly, but unmistakably is

how incomplete that story is.

Because participation is not evenly distributed, exposure is not

universal, and the idea that someone might see themselves in agriculture

might even consider it as a future is often the result of a very

specific conditions and circumstances that many may never encounter.

From that starting point, the conversation shifts.

It becomes less about recruitment and more about recognition, less

about labour shortages, more about imagination, shortages.

Who gets to see agriculture up close?

Who gets invited into spaces early enough to matter, and who is

treated as a stakeholder versus an afterthought or even worse an opponent.

What makes this discussion compelling is that it doesn't settle for critique.

Jordyn points towards the subtle but powerful interventions that can change

trajectories, moments of inclusion, early responsibility being taken

seriously before you feel ready.

These are not structural reforms in the traditional sense.

They're cultural opportunities and yet they may be the most decisive factor

in whether the sector reproduces itself or like a Phoenix transforms into

something even more powerful and radiant.

By the end, the question is no longer whether agriculture has a next generation.

It's whether it is willing to recognise them, empower them,

and reshape itself accordingly.

Jordyn is another one of those young leaders that the moment you

listen, the moment you start to understand their perspective, their

experience, their potential, the more you just wanna hand over to the

reins to young people like Jordyn.

And perhaps that's one of the, uh, opportunities or consequences

of conversations like this.

Here we go.

Jordyn, welcome to the Future Herd.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Now, I, I love to start our discussion with a really wild and abstract

question to kind of set the context and it's what does the future mean to you?

Great

Great question.

I think there's

a lot

a.

that go into that, but the main part that I focus on is you

all the continuity of the industry.

So you need new people coming in, you need new ideas coming in.

So for me, focusing on the younger people in agriculture, it's, we need

to be fostering that and giving them.

The outlet to explore and contribute and seeing where they can go.

'cause they're gonna be the old guys one day that are continuing this.

So giving them that platform is a great way to start.

Right on.

And, and paradoxically, I would point out that as a practising futurist,

it's pretty rare that I find young people interested in the future.

And that's the paradox that is often

Mm-hmm.

old people, those least likely to see the future, who

tend to be most concerned with it

with

versus I find the younger you are, the more you

kind of take it for granted.

So I'm curious.

I do wanna get into kind of how you got into leadership and the organisations

that you're involved in, but I kind of wanna start with this idea.

I I how often when you deal with young people, when you

engage with fellow young people,

Do

do you find that they are open to the future?

Or is it something that you kind of have to tease out to them?

'cause maybe they're just thinking about the moment and the present

and what they're gonna do today.

I definitely think you get both.

I think there are the few standout younger people who are like really gung-ho about

it and they're like, no, I have a plan.

I want to do something.

And they, they have that drive, they have that ambition.

But then you will get kind of just the general.

Younger population of they haven't either been exposed to anything yet,

or they haven't been given the chance to experience, so they, it's not that

they don't care about the future, it's, they don't have a set idea of

what they want for yet because they haven't been given the opportunity

to explore it or think about it.

I think once you give people that opportunity or put that thought

in their head of, Hey, what do you wanna see for the industry you're in?

your opinion matters, then they kind of take that and roll with it.

But I do think it's both.

You have the people who aren't su, like they just don't know that they can have

an opinion yet, and then you have the people like, no, I have an opinion.

You're gonna listen to me have it.

Right on and, and I think you just made a really brilliant insight

that kind of rings through a lot of the conversations I've had on this podcast,

podcast,

which is at some point someone gave permission,

someone gave an invitation, someone said, Hey, you're a leader now.

And it created this psychological shift where all of a sudden, to your

point, people said, yeah, I do have opinions, I do have perspectives.

When did that happen to you?

happen?

Right.

What, what, what was the point in your life that you realised, you

know what, what I think actually matters and, and maybe I should

be expressing myself accordingly.

I'll say for me, for me personally, it's, I've

had it throughout my life.

I've always been a very type A person to begin with.

I, thank my mother who's a high up government worker, that she's type A,

so I inherited that in the, the kind of policy procedure mindset from her.

So I've always been told throughout my life, whether it was in high school

or sports or university, that, oh.

You're

You're

have that

have that kind of

to lead or do more, you should explore that.

So every time I've focused on something diff different.

So whether it was in high school, I was in all the clubs or now

now?

industry, it's, I've kind of just, every time I get

into a new room, it's like, oh, hey, you have this going for you.

Let's kind of go with that.

So I feel like every

Every now and every time I try to.

points me out being like, Hey, you can go further with this.

On.

And you know, I, I, I wanna take a tangent there only 'cause I think you

highlighted a really interesting method.

'cause what I heard you describe in my world is kind of mapping,

kind

like, when I play a video game, I'm gonna map out the territory, or

to your metaphor, when I go to an event,

to an

I'm gonna map out who's exhibiting, I'm gonna.

Both the associations, and I'm gonna figure out kind of how I tap into that.

into

How has that worked for you?

Because O obviously it's worked really well,

well.

but it, it's something maybe a lot of people take for granted

in terms of trying to find out where you fit or where to connect, or where you'll

be valued or where you'll be useful.

I'd love for you just to elaborate on that, just for a moment.

for a moment.

I think, like you said, it is mapping.

So specifically if you're at an event, an agricultural event, there's gonna

There's gonna be people there

mindsets of you.

That's why you're all in the room.

So knowing the best way to learn about anything is to talk to

somebody who deals with it every day.

So if there's.

A career you want.

If there's

if there's a barrier of research.

if there's anything you want,

Want

someone who knows about that is gonna be the best way

for you to learn more about that.

So for

for myself,

I went to a networking event or a

vendor.

show, it's, well, who is doing something I want

to know more about, or I'd like to potentially see myself doing.

I'm gonna go talk to them and see where that leads.

No, everyone who is invested in something will gladly tell

you about what they're doing.

We all love our research, or we all love our jobs to some

degree, so we're gonna tell you.

We're gonna talk to you about it.

So it's nice to have someone who is as is interested in it.

And as soon as you have someone who has that kind of, oh, hey, I am

interested in what you do, I wanna talk more about it, the floodgate's

open and they're gonna tell you everything they have to know about it.

Well, and, and again, I think you've, uh, identified a brilliant tactic

and, and I say certainly in my own case

case.

don't realise this, but I am quite socially awkward

and the way I've always managed that is to just ask questions.

Right?

That when I go to an event, if you just get people talking

about what they're excited about,

about,

get what you want in terms of their knowledge.

their

And they get what they want in terms of the

being to express themselves.

Now you, you said something I also wanna peel off, and while obviously

today I do want to talk about the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario

and kind of the role that it plays in sectoral leadership and yada, yada, yada.

yada.

But you kind of alluded that part of your methodology was

just finding the clubs, joining the clubs, finding the different

organisations that, you know, you could be part of, you could contribute to.

So what were some of the groups, what were some of the clubs that, as you were

growing up, as you were kinda, you know, uh, uh, uh, developing your skills as a

leader, that that really benefited you or that you found a lot of value from?

Growing up I always enjoy, like

But like I enjoyed the

grew up on a farm.

farm

outside all the

all the time.

enjoyed

enjoyed that, which kind of

my beginning

getting interest in

the

like the environment,

environmental sciences at school and that's

kind of, so I always, there's an

there's an environmental, so I

so I kind of

kind of

with that at the high school and the university level.

And then from there, it's.

Environment and

and agricul.

that you can't talk about one without talking about the other.

So no matter how hard I tried to get away from agriculture in my schooling

years, I always found myself back into it and it's like, well, I'm never escaping

it, so I might as well just go with it.

And I really love that.

So it was, yeah, getting into these special interests clubs you have

getting from there, and then it guides you into a further more in

depth interest that you might have.

And then

And then from there.

I, Ontario Federation of Agriculture is where I started my

journey in the General Ag organisations.

Um, and from being in there and people wanting to hear the, I was the youngest

person in the room, so they wanted to hear what I had to say and why I was there.

And then luckily that connection led me down the path that I am now and

to, and it was their recommendation to look into the Junior Farmers

Association of Ontario, and we've kind of just kept rolling from there.

On.

And, and I think again, another important tip for any young

person listening, uh, to us today

us

is find the room where you are the youngest because it grants

you a kind of instant authority,

authority,

Like, you just have to stand up and go, Hey, hey, I'm the future.

Listen to me.

to me,

And people will,

people

it's remarkable how that, that trick is really quite effective.

effective.

Now,

It's.

another, sorry.

Go ahead.

Nope.

Oh, I was say it's fun that one thing that sets you apart from everybody.

'cause that makes you stand out.

So whether you're the youngest, whether you're the only like female or male in

the room, anything like that, it, it helps to kind of propel and give you

that platform to speak on at starts.

And then you just make sure you're talking about something you

care about and that makes sense.

And to your point, uh, no matter what room you're in,

there's something about you that is different from everyone else.

You just have to know what that is and be able to present it as a value proposition.

You said something else that I want to digress on, uh, only because I love these.

Sprawling random style conversations,

conversations.

to evoke a academic term or a technical term

technical

intersectionality.

And, and this refers to when, you know, different domains are kind of combined

combined

the, the sum greater than the whole.

than

And you evoked that when you talked about how you were

pursuing environmental studies, almost trying to get away from your

a

kind of agricultural roots, but then you kind of realised that the

benefit was bringing the two together.

the two

I'd love for you to unpack that, and I'd love for

you to talk more about the way in which, you know, combining these

worlds and connecting these worlds creates opportunities unto itself.

unto itself.

I safe to say

It's safe to say no one

about the

more about environment.

because they're heavily reliant

Clients,

that's how they

that's how they make their money.

They care about

in

what on,

in their ecosystems.

so

are

farmers are environmentally

if you wanna say it like that.

that.

no, it

Um, but no, it was very interesting that farmers

are

are trying to keep their land

like better

better,

and better

better concern, farming, that being

Easier for them to do their

their,

And when you get

and we get the environmental,

they're

they

a bit more of

grade.

scope.

But everything about ecology or like hydrology or anything like that can

be brought back into agriculture and be like, Hey, well we're learning

this in just environments in general.

do you bring that

to bring that back.

growing our crops or farming better in general?

'cause we're all using the land and we all wanna keep the land productive.

And, and you evoked a, a really interesting

authority mechanism that

that

you were able to straddle both of those worlds, that

gives you the confidence to assert quite rightly, that farmers are, are

are by

that they're kind of the original environmentalists in terms of

thinking about the long term sort of stewardship of the land and, and the

climate and the environment as a whole.

whole.

And I think there's a lot of farmers who

are insecure to say that, right?

Like they sort of in the back of their mind know that they do a

really good job of taking care of the environment, you know, uh, through their

operations, but they're intimidated by people who they don't understand

who might be critical of them.

of them.

Yet you have that leadership ability to be able to connect those

dots and say, actually no, we can assert our leadership in this area.

We can assert our authority in this area.

this area.

Have you encountered pushback or have you,

or

you know, how did you come, because you, you use

that framing quite confidently.

How did you arrive there?

And again, I think you may take it for granted, but there may be other people are

going, wow, Jordyn, that's pretty cool.

How did you get to that point?

No, and I definitely think there is the stigmatism of, well,

farmers are just taking everything from the environment, so how can you be

benefiting the environment or how can cash cropping be good for the environment

when you're tilling the land and all that?

And it's, well.

Yes, there's

There's definitely things that.

help the environment, but farmers are gonna be the first

to be like, well, how do I make the soil work better for me so I don't

have to put as much money into it?

Especially in today's climate where inputs are so expensive and they're only

gonna keep getting more expensive, how do we make the land do better for us?

And.

Brings it back to ecology and like if you have a good ecosystem,

everything's gonna do better.

You're gonna have better organic matter in your soil.

You're gonna have better biodiversity of the bugs in your environment

that are helping pollinate.

And the more bugs you have, the less pressures there actually are.

'cause they're competing each other.

And there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into that.

So yes, farmers might not be seen as the true stewards that we wanna

think environmentalists are, but.

You'll ask any farmer and if you give them away like, Hey, I can decrease

your fertiliser costs by increasing how your ecosystem works, they're

gonna be the first to jump on that.

'cause who doesn't wanna save money when you can

And, and this speaks really to the mission of the future herd and

what I want to accomplish in that.

My hypothesis is that not only do we have a range of

phenomenal leaders like yourself,

yourself,

are carrying the kind of knowledge that we need

to be elevating into the public consciousness, into the, the policy.

Environment into the way in which we imagine this stuff.

'cause to your point, I've for a long time heard about how farmers

were like destroying soul soil and, you know, uh, doing these

practises that would devastate it.

devastated.

as I got into TikTok and started looking and listening

to farmers in their practises, I realised that's really outdated.

outdated.

That

they've already adapted a lot of their practises in really

remarkable and innovative ways.

It's just the stereotypes remain

remain

of the practises having changed in many cases, quite radically.

Mm-hmm.

to transition to the role of organisations like the

ones that you've been involved in.

involved

How does that knowledge spread?

Like how does.

Like

say, you know, if one farmer or if one researcher comes up with a

better way to manage their practises,

their

how do other farmers learn?

Like how does that knowledge kind of spread throughout the industry?

the

Because I'm seeing the results.

I know that it is spreading,

is

but I'm still starting to understand exactly how that knowledge

mobilisation kind of manifests.

kind of manifests.

Well, it goes back to the, you have to find that room to be in.

There's, someone's gonna wanna talk about it.

If a farmer's doing

Farmer

and cool and they're proud of it, they

proud this they,

it.

They wanna show you, Hey, look, look what I've been able to do with my soil.

I am lucky

I'm lucky that.

I've, I am with, and especially my current, my my day job

at the moment is with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

We're giving farmers that platform to, Hey, have you done something interesting?

Why don't you tell more people about it?

We'll host an event at your farm, or, we'll, like, like we'll host

a webinar about what you're doing.

We'll connect it to the research where we've been doing, or other

institutes have been doing, and we'll share that with people.

And there is a

There is

it's

lot of, whether it's

or your conservation authority or other

organisations, there's a lot of

organisation,

for people to A, for farmers to access this

money to try these new things.

So if you look hard enough,

most part of it,

you, or

gonna tell them

about

information.

there'll be someone there to help you or give you

To help.

on it.

And, and I think that's a really important point to emphasise that

the, the infrastructure and the support for this kind of knowledge mobilisation

mobilisation

place because I think the sector as a whole is not just

recognising that we need to be telling better stories, which is the

cliche you keep be hearing repeated,

be

but that we need to be empowering these.

empowering these

We need to be elevating these people by running events,

by bringing people together.

I, I'm, I'm with you a hundred percent there.

be a

So let's for a moment bring it back to the, the Junior Farmers

Associations and, and here obviously we're talking about Ontario, but we are

an

trying to appeal to a kind of national audience.

So we're assuming that this is happening across the country.

Talk about the value and role of getting young farmers together and,

and, and, and cre do replicating part of what you're describing.

Getting everyone into the same room, but also going back to where we started,

giving them the social licence to realise they're leaders and they're entitled

to have a perspective and an opinion.

to have a perspective and an opinion.

Well, that's the

That's the beauty of

farmers

farmer.

are a group of.

people who have an interest in agriculture, whether you grew up on

the farm, work in the industry, or just like agriculture in general.

It brings all of those people together and then gives you that outlet to talk

about what are you doing on their farm.

Ask people about what they're doing on their farm, or we'll host or we'll

host events where we'll bring in people through junior farmers to talk to our.

Um, our membership on new innovations in research new like fertilisers or anything

or anything that

platform to talk to these young people.

We'll bring our young people on farm tours to see different things or

see different parts of our industry.

We'll kind of give them

some

to explore all that as well as talk to their peers about,

and kind of get a better idea.

Junior Farmers is really great.

For that.

for that

we're giving you, we're bringing

we're bringing you into the back room and.

all have the same interest.

Let's explore that.

Let's see different things throughout the province.

Let's see what other people are doing.

We're lucky that the Junior Farmers Association, we are working with other

provinces, so we are kind of going national with it of what is BC doing?

What is PEI doing?

I was just recently in Quebec, uh, with their.

Young farmer organisation over there, hearing how they do things

and then bringing them over and showing them how we do things.

So it's nice to have that organisation level to do that

across the country as well.

Right on.

And certainly it would be easy for us to kind of pause there and go, great.

Yeah.

Isn't it awesome the, the way that young people are kind of getting organised,

people are

I often find amongst adults that that will be the cliche that.

For example, when I was a young leader,

example,

know, adults would always tap me on the head and

be like, way to go, buddy.

Great job.

But they wouldn't actually give me the resources I wanted.

They, they wouldn't give me the power, uh, that I wanted.

power,

throw you a curve ball question, especially given that you

know, you, you half perspective, you, you've been involved in this,

uh, enough that I think you've seen what works and see what doesn't work.

and

Where are the gaps?

What?

What are the things when it comes to either specifically the Junior Farmers

Association or young farmers in general?

Where could we be doing better?

Where are the areas that, if you did have infinite resources, if these

organisations had better support from

had better

elements of the sector,

other

you know, what would you love to see?

What, what do you think's missing?

What are the challenges or pain points that.

Are worthy of addressing when it comes to empowering the that

next generation of leaders.

the that next generation of leaders?

I think it is giving younger people the resources, whether it's giving

them the organisation to join where they can do this, whether it's putting

the networking events or the crop tours or anything in front of them.

There's so many

many sausages that.

overwhelming, especially in the ag industry

because you have all of these different organisations that are all.

Have some sort of young person component to them.

There's almost too many options for some people to choose,

but it's great that there is

It.

There is video.

it lets you either decide on like a more niche interest you have,

or you can go to the more general side of things like junior farmers where

we'll give you access to everything.

So that's been

That's really nice.

I'll say

biggest

biggest

young

for young.

seeing is just the time to do it.

We are

We are now.

where everyone has an off-farm job.

If you are on farm or if you're not on farm and have infinite

vacation days, we don't have infinite resources to do all that.

That's the biggest hurdle is just finding the time to do it because a lot of

these organisations are geared to people who are on the farm who can have that

flexibility to leave, or people who.

Aren't in school, aren't working full time.

They kind of seem to miss that.

We all have lives off the farm now for the most part.

So finding that time is the biggest issue A lot of us are having.

Junior farmers has been.

Mm-hmm.

I was gonna say, I kind of call it the James Brown Effect in that

James Brown at, at his peak called himself the hardest working man in showbiz.

CHOP

And I kind of find that's how you can describe young

farmers, that they're the hardest working people in the agribusiness.

Not to say that the adults aren't working really hard too,

too,

it is phenomenal, the work ethic you see, only because there

is only a certain amount of time in the day and there's so much that can

be done and that people want to do.

do.

How, how, how do you guys support that,

that?

given that, on the one hand you're young, so you got your

health on your side, but on the other hand, I'm sure burnout is another

factor that complicates things.

It is, and we're always trying to be cognizant of that.

So we do offer a lot of like the mental health or the support side on

that being like, yes, we all love it.

We all wanna be a part of it, but we do need to appreciate that.

We're just, we're only human.

We only have so many hours in the day.

We need to be careful of, yes, we want to be involved in all these

things, but we need to make sure we're doing it in a healthy way.

Junior farmers has been great because we've, most of our meetings or anything

like that, we've, we've moved it to an online, so we'll have a Zoom

meeting or we'll have a webinar.

We've done, we've incorporated that a lot or all of the events we do, we try

to have them on a weekend so that you can not have to take time away from

your day job if you have one and you can still come to all these events.

So purposely scheduling things around that or making sure if we have to,

We have,

for the executive side of junior farmers in the

actual like running of the organisation, we always try to pair.

meetings or the conversations we need to have with a fun social

event we're, we're doing as well.

So you kind of get the, the working

I'm working

then the fun part of it, so it's, yes, you're coming out and you're

spending your weekend doing junior farmer things, but we're having fun and we're

still accomplishing and being productive.

Right on.

Now what about the kind of industry relations and industry support and,

and I say this 'cause certainly I can imagine from the industry side

how valuable you guys would appear,

appear,

because there's so much talent that can be identified

early and potentially wooed over to various enterprises and operations.

operations.

But

the education opportunities, right?

The opportunities for young people to learn,

to

but also the opportunity for the industry to learn from

the fresh ideas and new takes that young people often have.

have.

how has that relationship been and to, how has it evolved over the

time that you've kind of been involved?

been involved?

It's really good actually.

So we have a

We have a lot of good partnerships like other organisations

um, commodity groups within the

in the industry.

So

we're

if we're an

event,

event, we

the platform to come talk or network with our young

people in exchange for either sponsorship or, um, just their time to

trying.

to us about something.

So we have a lot of good connections with that, that we've been able to leverage.

And then it

And

we are.

A group

a group of young

interested and wanna take on leadership roles

or wanna do more in the industry.

So it's kind of like, hey.

We'll give them all

give them all

training, we'll give them all the leadership training, and then

and the

they age out or when they're done with the junior

side of things and they move

for

more adult

adult lives

then you can go

go.

join the other more general organisations or

the commodity organisations.

So we're kind of that stone training ground where,

Training.

Okay.

We're gonna identify

leaders, we're gonna give them the tools they need to succeed.

And then once.

They've been able to learn all that.

all that.

Then we can

into the broader

broader.

world and they can carry on doing with

everything they've learned here.

Right on.

And, and let's take a moment to kind of digress on that, because I've

always found the ageing out dynamic of a young youth organisations is

on the one hand a constant, right?

People age, they're, they go from young to old.

But it is different organisations manage that in different ways,

ways.

it speaks to, on the one hand, how when people ageing

out, they may not want to leave.

Like I see in sports organisations, that's how people become coaches.

That's how people become kind of mentors.

and.

But at the same time, you are kinda losing talent and

knowledge that yes, you gotta replace.

Do you guys think about that?

Do you have a process around how people age out and think about whether it's like

alumni or just people you know as you age?

'cause hey, they were part of young farmers too.

No, and we, we do think about that all the time, and we do

luckily have a very strong alumni group who yes, they like, they know everything.

So not, they don't know ev

don't have to.

They've been through this.

We don't need, they've

Same

experienced a lot of the things we're still going through now.

So it's nice to have that kind of sounding board of the background knowledge of.

we're

Hey, we're going through this right now.

Well, they

Well, they

the same thing in the nineties, so what

did they do in the nineties?

Can we change that and do that now?

We, with our organisation has been going on for 83 years now, so we do have

a lot of great people that have come

have,

us, and I like to say

I like

Junior farmers

farmers.

Being something to be

Something to be proud.

of it.

So a lot of our alumni still like, oh yeah, I was a junior

farmer back in the day.

And they still hold onto that and enjoy that.

Yes, they've moved on and most of them move on to do something in other.

In the ag sector, whether it's commodity groups, other farm

organisations or something, they all, most of our members move on

because you have learned that skills.

We don't wanna lose that talent.

So they, we find like they find places that they can use that talent elsewhere,

and then we still have them as.

resource to use when we need them.

And we have a lot, we have alumni events that we host every once in a while.

We do a lot of networking with our alumni where we'll bring them in

and they can meet the new people.

And our new people can meet the people who have done this and see, oh, what

has, how has junior farmers helped you in your life and in your career?

What have you done since that?

And with all the tools you learned here.

So it's nice to still have that connection to them.

And just because you've aged out doesn't mean you stop.

Being a junior farmer, you're always a junior farmer, but you just get

to use your talents elsewhere.

Right on.

Now let me indulge a, a kind of personal interest, which you know, seems relevant

given that we're talking about young people and it, you kind of reminded it

to me when you brought up the nineties.

'cause,

because

know, as someone who was a young person in the

nineties, it was a different world.

There were parts of that world that I'd love to have back.

Most importantly, the idea that we were all disconnected, that we didn't

have smart phones, that no one knew what we were doing when we did it.

it.

let me ask you the question that a lot of adults and old people

think about, which is young people in technology, young people in media, I, I

think there's often this false assumption.

That young people are automatically great at technology and

automatically great at media.

I'd love for you to address that, but more importantly, I'm curious as

to the role that social media, that technology plays in the kind of culture

of young farmers, whether that's different from the adult farmers or

you know, whether there's the same diversity that exists regardless of age.

of age.

I'll be the

Probably the first to say, I am not tuned.

so please

Please don't ask me to do anything.

Luckily there's other members of,

who are, so I always outsource any

computer or IT issues to them.

So no, we're

no, we're not all amazing

at technology to begin with.

There's definitely people who are.

Have a knack for it and are better at it, or

especially

I am

not.

I'm not a social media person.

I'm on it.

And I always say that I'm only on it because of work.

'cause all of the different organisations I'm with, you

need that social media presence.

'cause that is how you reach more people.

That's how you widen the scope of what you're working with.

So it's an important part, but.

But

I'm

I'm not,

I'm not gonna say I'm good at it.

I, I don't have TikTok.

I don't know how to do all of that stuff, but I love watching other

people's and I love seeing what people are doing with it because it's

amazing and it's an important part.

I do

I do think that

something that the

the younger generation,

to kind of latch onto and be like, oh,

oh.

we can reach so many

So many

because of this.

We can have.

We can be more efficient with our time because of this.

So yes, all of our

cards.

meetings, we have a monthly exec meeting or we have

monthly meetings for our local clubs.

Half of them have moved online 'cause it makes it more accessible for

people to join in on those when you don't have to drive several hours.

Ontario is a very

a very big.

It takes multiple hours to get anywhere.

Normally, especially when you're in the rural communities, you're

not just going down the street.

Everything's at least a two hour drive away.

So again, we

But again, we don't,

so many hours in the day.

So I will say we've really been able to go forward with technology and making it

easier for getting to people and bringing people in, which I've loved and it's.

I

bad

bad for.

did this pre-internet where we didn't have Zoom or

messaging and all of that because it's so easy for us to do it now.

Now,

I can't

I can't imagine

it would've been for the people who did it in the seventies

that.

to all of this.

I know at one point.

They used to do radio um, meetings where they would just have a radio

station where you could tune in and that's how they did our meetings

back in the seventies, which is

While

imagine

could imagine

I don't even know how to set that up these days.

So that's pretty cool that they had that technology and were

able to go with it back then.

But now it's,

now.

our online meetings.

We have our online webinars.

We can communicate with the people in the east and the people

in the Southwest, no issues.

So I enjoy that.

And then, yes, the young people have really taken to, to social

media and across all platforms.

It's a great way to share what we're doing.

It's a great way to reach out to people who aren't in our immediate circles and

be like, Hey, this is what we're doing.

If you're interested, here's.

Of the platform in which to find us on here's how you can be a part of this.

And also seeing what other people are doing.

I have friends who just will sit there and scroll tractor videos

and 'cause that's what they enjoy.

And honestly, who doesn't enjoy watching a tractor go?

And it's really fun to see that

I, I, there, the only way that I can be a farmer is

because there are people on YouTube teaching me how to fix my tractor.

tractor,

Otherwise I would be, uh, totally adrift.

Um, and, and to your larger point, I think that there is, uh.

uh,

of culture around the way in which we learn that social media does

allow, and it's the intergenerational part that that interests me.

me.

And I, I will of course selfishly say that podcasts

have both changed the long.

the

A time I spend in a truck, uh, doing something as basic

as going to the feed store, but it also makes chores, uh, that much

more enjoyable 'cause I'm able to listen to conversations and content.

Now I, I want to use that as a, a transition to talk about policy

and talk about policy, both in an abstract sense and a specific sense.

I, I will say, as a kind of intro, what blows me away about the agricultural

sector is how many people care about policy, get engaged in policy, especially

compared to the general population where most people don't care about

policy at all until it's something sensational that affects them directly.

But people in ag tend to be really informed and really engaged.

Is that true at the, the young person level?

Like is, you know, does junior farmers talk about policy?

Do, are there young people who start thinking about whether it's environmental

policy, whether it's about farm policy, whether it's about trade policy?

I mean, give me a sense as to what the literacy and engagement levels are like.

certain.

I will you, you get the people who are really into policy at from a young

age and they take it and run with it.

But I will say it goes back to people just might not have experienced

policy or policy development yet.

So luckily as junior farmers, we can give them that kind of insight into, oh, you

haven't, like, this hasn't come up in your daily life yet 'cause you're young.

But now that you're starting to get into the industry, this.

Nothing happens without policy.

Policy is the framework to make everything

Everything.

So it's an important thing that you learn and we, we have a

policies and procedures committee where we not only discuss the policies of our

own organisation, but the policies going on at government or other things that

affect us in agriculture, and we have opinions on it, and we talk about it

and we make it more digestible to our members as well being like, Hey, this is

what's going on in the world right now.

This is why you should be listening to it, or This is what you

should be taking away from this.

So, no, it's Junior Farmers is really heavily involved in policy.

We're lucky that we have a bunch of great people who are either in the ag industry

or outside of the ag industry in policy development that are also part of us.

So it makes it easier to translate policy to people who haven't heard much about it

yet, or haven't had to experience it yet.

But it's that great tool that being a part of Junior Farmers you can get from is.

If we can teach you what you need to know, and then you can go out into

the world and you can develop policy or you can understand the policies

that are coming through, either through government or regulation.

Right on.

And uh, again, I just have to give you positive reinforcement, Jordyn, the extent

to which you just described the importance of policy and the fact that you're

telling other young people that, uh, a bravo only because policy gets a bad rap.

Like, a lot of people just think it's boring or it's things they don't want to

know about, but you framed it perfectly.

It's how we do things.

It, it enables us to do things.

It's, it's where things begin.

Uh,

How did, how did you

how did

get infected by such an optimistic or positive perspective?

'cause I wish more people kind of had that sense of agency,

that, that sense of, uh, freedom.

If I were to evoke the word.

To engage in an area that mo more people should be engaged in

in.

I'm the kind of person where

where I love.

manual.

I love, I don't want to have to figure out how to do everything the first time.

It's if there's a framework I can follow or if there's a step-by-step

process or instructions, it makes doing anything easier.

Yes, you have to go outside of that and do some exploration

and trial and error on your own.

But if you have a solid framework, everything gets easier 'cause

you're not wasting time thinking about different ways of doing.

It's, this is a way that works.

This is what's helping.

from there.

So I, I grew up with a mother in government and a father in engineering.

So we were a very policy driven household and it just, I was lucky

to be in, grow up in that environment and I kind of just had a knack for it.

And even now my partner's a lawyer, so he develops policy and so it's, we're a very

policy driven household to begin with, but going forward, it's nice to kind of have.

A starting off point or a jumping off point to know that this is how it works.

We can go from there.

And then that's

That

development gets even more exciting is we already know

you already know how.

can we find a way to make it better?

Can we find a way to make it more accessible or work

better with a changing time?

Policy development is so exciting 'cause you get to write the rules

essentially of how it's gonna work and how to benefit other people from it.

And, and allow me to repeat my positive reinforcement of your

attitude towards leadership, because most people who, uh, uh, are immersed in the

policy world the way you are in terms of citing your parents and your partner,

your brother,

they tend to have an elitist attitude, right?

That policy is our domain and we should keep everyone else out of it.

Versus you're the opposite.

You're like, how do we infect people with the joy of policy?

So

So

here's the billion dollar question.

question.

entire episode has led up to this point.

this

Here's the scenario.

the scenario.

on a plane, you're coming back, let's say from

an Ag conference out west

out

and sitting beside you is someone from the Prime Minister's office.

office,

they kind of notice that you've got some conference material.

They realise that you're in the ag world and they say, Hey Jordyn, you know what?

We're working on this big ag policy framework, you know, and

you

we're mobilising the government to try to think

of what's important when it comes to Canadian ag policy.

policy.

you think?

do you

What?

What would be your answer if you had that moment informally

to speak directly to power?

to

Well, what are the kind of crazy ideas that you'd put in their ear?

in their ears?

Well.

It goes back to what I said

I said earlier,

are doing doing something

make something every day or the,

learn from that 'cause.

They're the ones who see it, the ins and out of it.

They see it through, they know a lot about the topic that they're invested in.

So when it

so when it comes to

it's nobody knows.

Agriculture better than the farmers.

So hearing their opinions or hearing what's gonna work for them, or how this

regulation's gonna affect them, that's the crucial part of developing ag policies.

We need actual farmers and producers involved in writing it because

Because

anyone can develop policy, but you need that

agricultural background to know.

What this regulation is actually gonna mean, or how it's actually

gonna pan out to the farmer and how it's going to affect them.

And we need to know that, like right now

right now the big thing is.

speed rail and like where are they gonna put that?

And everyone's concerned like, well, if you put it through my farm, I can

no longer reach half my field because we can't cross a high speed rail.

So that's a big issue that we've been talking about right

now because they're thinking,

thinking, oh, she just.

land and we need to make it as straight as possible.

Great.

That open land is being used for food production and farming.

are the farmers gonna access their land if you put this high speed rail through it?

And that's kind of an issue.

So maybe talk to them about what works for them or like how to

best put in this rail system.

Like do we do o underpasses, overpasses?

How do we do this?

Right?

You need their

They're

their voices on it.

So if every

every, I'm a

front of a. Politician or anybody,

or anybody.

have you asked the farmers what they want?

Have you asked their opinion on what you're doing?

Because they're gonna

They were gonna have

They might agree with you,

pray with you.

they might disagree with you, but they're gonna

have an insight into this.

Okay, so I'm gonna double down and to use the baseball metaphor

that I keep evoking, uh, uh, throughout this podcast, I, I'm, I'm gonna throw the

fastest pitch, the hardest pitch I can,

pitch

although, to give you a moment to take a breath, I will,

as an aside say I think Altos did, I think the way which they approached

the, uh, lack of a consultation or the public relations side was so atrocious.

so

That if they really want high-speed rail, they're gonna

have to rebrand and try again.

I digress.

Here's the big hard question.

hard

I agree with you a hundred percent, Jordyn.

I think the problem right now with the federal government is they

don't understand consultation.

They don't understand

don't

to do participatory policy development.

development.

okay.

The PMO says Jordyn, the PMO official sitting beside you

on the plane says, Jordyn.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

What's your pitch?

What's your

What would the policy, the participatory policy

process that you describe?

you described,

It's kind of against our culture of the federal government.

We're used to doing everything secretly and load, and then just

telling everyone how to do it.

everyone how to

If we were to give you the resources, Jordyn,

what would you have us do?

would you have us do?

You need to have advi, you need to have advisory groups.

You need to say, Hey, this is

This is what we're planning.

front of a group of farmers and producers and say,

Hey, this is what we're planning.

What are your

What are your,

this.

Impact.

You go from there.

Luckily, we have

have organisations already in place, whether.

farmers or something else, where we have the people here

ready to give their opinion, if you ask.

So it's the federal or even the provincial government needs to reach out and be

like, Hey, this is what we're doing.

How does it affect agriculture?

And.

The ag industry will be the person in the room telling you, that's not gonna

work for us, or it would work for us

For us,

this.

Having that

having that advice

the advisory panels is crucial because is such a big

industry that it touches everything.

no

matter

happens in policy or regulation or government,

we should have some, we should.

There should be a voice in the back room saying, Hey, but what about agriculture?

What's it gonna do?

We need to have.

That voice and they need to be asking us, Hey, how is this going to affect you?

Again, I agree a hundred percent.

But to carry out the role play, 'cause I'm, I'm kind of thinking

about what the response would be.

the response would

I kind of think that they would react with fear.

would react with

I kind of think that they would say, you know, Jordyn, you're right.

That would help us get a more, a legitimate.

Policy that would help us get a more effective policy that would actually

reflect kind of on the ground practises.

practises scared.

Well, we, we like to control the process.

We like to control what people are saying.

what

kind of involves us giving up control

control as a

ah, we don't wanna do that.

Uh, how do you address the fear that we have in opening up such a process?

such a problem?

Farmers are extremely reasonable people.

If you give them the outlet to tell you, they'll fight back on

you for less things because they'll have less reasons to oppose the

government you give them that out.

If you give them that outlet, gets easier because they will be willing

to work with you a hundred percent.

They're gonna do whatever's

Whatever,

farm and their industry.

So they'll come and they'll play ball.

They will work with you if you give them that opportunity to do so.

All that

and all that will be down the line.

Is they

to pass

out?

it easier to integrate things better because you already have

them here willing to work with you.

So

Absolutely.

but it would make so much, it would make everything easier.

Absolutely brilliant answer and, and I think that that

is exactly the value proposition, that they're afraid because they've

been doing things the wrong way, and that's why there's hostility.

why

But as soon as they start the conversation, things get easier.

things

Right things get more friendly, things, get more respectful

because, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, that has been the model of engagement

within the sector all along, that people don't always get along.

That there are often differences, but when you get people in the same

room kind of look eye to eye, it's easier to find commonality rather than

to find commonality rather

on differences.

Very much agree, and I'll even say it that

translates into just being a

Being

farmer

farmer,

is, yes, we're in the rooms and people like having us and

having

us off, but there's often that time where they don't

take the opinion of the young person because it's like, oh,

well we've been doing this longer.

We know better.

So it's like, well, maybe young people would be more interested in

joining your organisations or being a part of the industry if you gave

them that outlet and you worked with them instead of having that

that zero

We know

oh.

we're gonna do what we want.

Well, you want the

You want the young people in the industry, you don't

take their opinion seriously.

working with them and taking their opinions seriously, it'll be so much

So much easier down the road,

things or to have new ideas.

So embracing the young people in our industry.

Is gonna be the best way to move it forward because there's more

people thinking of solutions.

There's more people working to a common goal,

basically

people are a

hard,

everyone should be

everybody's having.

it helps with just the continuity of your organisation or of

your industry when you're constantly bringing in the people, giving them the

support and putting them in the leadership roles that they deserve to be in, or

that they've worked and shown that they believe that they're gonna be good in.

Well, and, and let's take a moment as we wrap

to try to operationalize that.

What, what would be the, the, the tips or the one or two things that you would

advise an agricultural organisation, an association, whether a broad one

or a specific one that wants to have better youth engagement, that wants

to have a, a more youth participation.

What are the tangible things they can do to, to make that happen?

to make that happen?

Reaching out

Reaching out

people is the best way to do that.

Like having.

A seat at the table for them through junior farmers.

We've been lucky to work with the

Ontario,

of Agriculture or the Christian Farmers, um, of Ontario,

that we can have one of our people in their local rooms, or we've done a lot

of things where they're having an A GM where we'll send people to be there.

We'll go to Lobby Day with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

We'll send our young people with them so that

That they're integrative with what they're doing,

seeing what we're doing,

doing

those connections is the best way to bring us in.

And if they give us the option to be in their circles, we'll, like we have

people lined up, ready to go, we'll happily send someone to be a part

of their organisation so we can take

feedback,

information and bring it to us.

But then as

but as well as, hey.

we have a slew of young people ready to go and

ready to act on these things.

Just give them the opportunity and they'll be there.

Right on.

Uh, is there anything we didn't talk about today, uh, that

you think we should address?

Anything that you think is pressing, uh, in the ag sector

or ignored and underemphasized that, that we should talk about

we should talk about.

I think just the utilisation of young people is we are here, we

are eager, we have our youth, we have our health, we're ready to

Ready to go?

Using that, using us as a resource is the best way to help.

All organisations 'cause we're ready to

Ready to go

is always an issue.

'cause yes, you have all of these people with all of great resources,

but you either you age out, you move on, you go to something different

and then you lose that knowledge set.

Well the younger you start

you

the longer

the longer you.

more you can use that and get their knowledge and cont use

them continuously through that, the better we can be invested in an industry

that we've spent our entire lives in.

So utilising the young people, reaching out.

Infinite.

Like we don't have infinite resources.

Everything costs money.

Everything takes time.

Taking that into consideration, if you want to support young people, you need

to support young people in agriculture.

If you wanna use them, we need, we need to work together to be able to do that.

Right on.

Right on.

Absolutely.

And, and I think a key point you made was to actually do the outreach

do

and invite them

and

and not just expect them to show up but actually entice them to come.

them

Uh, 'cause they do have limited time.

limited

do have competing, uh, priorities.

So you do want to make.

Them valued.

make

So the last question that I like to end the podcast on is

the shout outs part of the, uh, show.

Uh, who are the leaders who inspire you, whether past or present tense?

Who are the folks that you kind of pay attention to who you think the rest

of us should be paying attention to?

should be paying attention to?

No, I

I definitely think

To plug

the plus junior farmers.

we have a bunch of great people who are doing things.

We are a group of 15 to

15 to 30-year-old

Ontario.

We have local clubs in almost every region.

So if someone wants to be involved, they can be.

We have a lot of great people who are doing great.

Things and then

and

on.

I was

I lucky.

OFA really helped me and really gave me the tools to kind

of move throughout the ag industry.

As I, as I have.

I had some really great professors at school, um, that saw my talent and saw

my interest in it and was like, Hey.

You should do more with the Ontario Federation of Agriculture 'cause

they're gonna give you that platform.

And then I, luckily I went to my local OFA meeting

Meeting

I was the

and youngest

female in the

female in the room, they're like, Hey, what's

And the first meeting

first meeting?

I showed up.

getting elected as a local director with our

Niagara Federation of Agriculture.

And I've been on that for years now.

And then.

Through my work with them, they

They were like.

we used to have this thing called junior farmers back in the day.

You're young enough.

It was a very good thing.

And I'm like, cool, I'll look into that.

And then I did that and I've managed to work my way to the point where I'm

now the president of that organisation and it's just amazing that we're all

interconnected and there's always someone willing to champion you.

As long as you're dedicated and willing to put in the work,

someone will be there to help you.

Right on.

Right on.

Thank you very much.

Well, uh, this has been a, a fantastic tour to force.

Uh, uh, if anything, you offer a, a model of leadership that is

both generous but also ambitious.

And quite frankly, that is exactly the kind of leadership.

In our sector that we need to the point of making policy fun and imaginative.

imagine,

that in and of itself is a kind of revolutionary act.

And here's the ask Jordyn.

I mean, the whole point of the future herd is we don't want to just do one-offs

and find incredible people like yourself and be like, Hey, how's it going?

Okay, goodbye.

it

Uh, we wanna bring it back.

We want to have panels and group discussions and get you

helping us to find other leaders.

Is that something you'd be down for?

You'd be down for, of course, it's.

The best

So that's part of being in the dentistry is.

talent that's there and being in a position where I get to help

foster and find those people is amazing.

Whether it's through Junior farmers or OFA or I do a lot of speaking at high

schools to people about agriculture being like, Hey, look how fun agriculture is.

Look how fun ag policy development is when you get to be the ones setting

the rules and like coming up with the new ways to make things better.

It's so exciting.

A puzzle that never ends and it's amazing.

So yes, no, this is my favourite part of my job is the outreach

and the finding of new people.

I'm happy to do, give me the platform, I will do it.

I love it.

Right on that.

Fantastic.

Well, thanks again, Jordyn.

This has been a fantastic episode and we will definitely have to do this again.

definitely have to do this.

Thank you very much.

This was amazing and yeah, I've enjoying to, I've enjoyed hearing all of them

so far, so looking forward to more.

There's a tendency to talk about the next generation as if

it's waiting somewhere fully formed.

Just needing a Domior to open this conversation makes that idea feel flimsy.

What Jordyn points to instead, without ever quite spelling it

out, is that there isn't a next generation sitting in reserve.

Instead, there are only partial trajectories, people who got a

glimpse early and people who didn't, people who were pulled in, and

people who learn to look elsewhere.

The difference isn't ambition, it's proximity opportunity.

And proximity is designed, not formally, not through policy, but through habits,

through culture, through who gets brought along to a meeting, who gets trusted

with something small, who gets spoken to as if their perspective already counts.

If there's something unresolved at the end of this episode, it's this.

The sector keeps asking how to bring people in while continuing to reproduce

the conditions that keep most people out.

Jordyn doesn't offer a fix, but she does leave us with a sense of discomfort,

a sense that the future isn't blocked, but it is quietly being filtered and

that filter is close enough to touch.

But this is why I think we have ample room for hope and dare I say it, even optimism.

More and more people are interested in their food and where their

food comes from, and the people who help make that food possible.

Fundamentally, this isn't about sharing stories with them or even

necessarily being transparent.

Instead, this is about engaging people.

On their terms, in their spaces using their language.

And that's why I think leaders like Jordyn represent an incredible opportunity

to not just strengthen the existing assets of the sector, but to invite new

people to the table, to invite a whole lot more young people to the table so

that maybe we have new ideas, new ways of doing things that benefit everyone.

Now one last note before we end.

Uh, I have, as I mentioned last time, been playing with the

intro music and the outro music.

It looks like so far we're a go.

So, uh, if anyone wants to, uh, tweet or hit me up on social media

and I identify the songs that we're currently using and why.

Uh, there'll be a toy inside a prize for you.

So we'll see if anyone has the leadership, uh, to take me up on this challenge.

Until next time, uh, we'll see you here on the future Herd.

Uh.