Impossible dream? Program opens the door to young would-be farmers

by Jennifer Blair

Jason Stuka didn’t grow up with a dream of farming.

Unlike his parents, he wasn’t raised on a farm nor was he immersed in the culture of farming. When he got a bachelor of arts degree, a job in ag wasn’t even on his radar.

But that all changed in his late 20s. He delved into the local food movement and then went back to school to study soil health in the Netherlands. As part of his schooling, he spent nine months working on an organic farm in Germany — and that was it for him.

The man who never dreamed of farming wanted to become a farmer.

“When I came back to Alberta, I knew I wanted to be involved with agriculture,” said Stuka. “I was in my early 30s then, and I had big ambitions to learn as much as I could as fast as I could to build the competencies to be able to farm.