A conference for young farmers will feature some unexpected guests to help participants explore some of the lesser-considered aspects of the industry, such as motivation, communication and entrepreneurship.

The Young Farmer Summit, organized by Farm Credit Canada, is aimed at people under the age of 40 who already work, or who want to work as farmers. It's coming to Moncton this Saturday.

Faith Matchett, Atlantic vice-president for Farm Credit Canada, said the conference will help inspire and educate young farmers with some guests one might not immediately connect to farming.

One such speaker is stress and resilience psychologist Dr. Georges Sabongui.

"We bring him in because we all could get help in resilience skills … especially farmers, where we've got all kinds of things going on with weather and finding pricing and things," Matchett told Information Morning Moncton.

Another guest is digital strategist Jesse Hirsh.

"We think he's important because technology is is very present in agriculture and agrifood," said Matchett.

Communication expert Stuart Knight is also invited to speak about the power of direct conversation, "which is kind of interesting in this day and age of Twitter," Matchett said.

Tonia Jahshan, owner of Steeped Tea, has been on Dragon's Den and will describe the different methods she used to help her business grow.

Rewarding work

Ben Roy, a young dairy farmer from Kentville, N.S., said he's looking forward to seeing young farmers together, and networking with them.

"Everybody is excited about what they're doing and proud of what they're doing and so those are the stories that I'm looking forward to hearing," he said.

Roy grew up farming with his uncle and developed a passion for the work.
"You had an opportunity to to get exposed to it and then then you really build a love for it over time," he said.

He said working with the land and animals is rewarding.

"It can be as rewarding as it can be challenging … but it is nice to see people grow on the farm," he said.
Matchett said there are more and more people who have no background in farming joining the industry
.
She said people have gotten more removed from where their food comes from as cities grow larger, but she's seeing that trend start to change.

"When we get back into understanding where does our food come from, we start to learn more about agriculture and agrifood production and I think we understand just how exciting an industry it is," she said.