One

Jan 2025

It took me two years to go from the thought to writing. It took me this long because I had many valid excuses, like English is not my first language, others know more than me about all this, and a blog is the best way to share my ideas? I had to overcome my own insecurities before trying. But last week, I had many signals, and a good friend talked to me about this (more like a speech, haha), and here I am.

While working as a journalist in my home country, Colombia, one of the most pressing stories I covered was the aging population in rural areas. National data showed that the average farmer was over 50 years old, raising an urgent question: who will grow our food in the future? Years later, while working on international cooperation projects, I visited rural areas in Colombia's Pacific and Amazon regions. I met countless young men and women living in precarious conditions, many gripped by fear of armed groups that could recruit them at any moment. Most young people felt they had no choice but to leave their villages if they wanted a better future.

To me, it felt as if the very fabric of the territory—the environment, the people, and their interconnected relationships—was pushing rural youth away. This realization prompted deep reflection on my career. I began delving into research on rural youth in developing countries and discovered a global narrative: governments, development agencies, private organizations, and NGOs were all striving to find ways to help rural youth remain in their communities and build meaningful livelihoods within agri-food systems. Interestingly, this narrative isn’t confined to the Global South; it also resonates in the Global North. Exploring the challenges and opportunities for rural youth is, therefore, a universal issue that transcends borders.

One UN agency report captured this sentiment: "Rural youth are the future of food security. Yet, around the world, few young people see a future for themselves in agriculture or rural areas (…). Hence, we need to re-engage youth in agriculture. Can this be done?"

As a society, we urgently need people who want to contribute to agri-food systems—not just as farmers, but through a wide range of professions. The sector has evolved significantly. Yet, the core question remains: how do we make agriculture and rural life appealing to the present and next generation?

This question stayed with me throughout my work on development projects, where we focused on creating sustainable livelihoods that addressed intergenerational challenges. But I wanted to do more. This desire, combined with the experiences shaping my life, led me to pursue a PhD. Today, I am proud to be a Vanier Scholar and a PhD candidate in the Rural Studies program at the University of Guelph.

During one of my field research a young man said something that completely shifted my perspective: “I want to be a farmer, but I don’t want to be poor.” That sentence hit me like a lightning bolt. For nearly seven years, I had focused on what young people needed to stay in rural areas. But for the first time, I began to consider the other side of the equation: what does the system need to change to create an environment where rural youth want to stay? This shift in perspective might seem obvious, but it’s far from common.

Every year, more voices advocate for transforming rural systems so that young people feel they have opportunities in their communities. Instead of blaming youth for leaving, we need to ask ourselves: what are we doing to make them want to stay?

This relationship between youth aspirations and the environment they grow up in is crucial to answering the question: who will grow our food in the future? Yes, technology is advancing, especially in countries like Canada. But behind every innovation, we still need young minds to sustain, improve, and reimagine our global and local agri-food systems.

This blog is an invitation to spark conversations about agri-food systems, rural youth, sustainability, and—if you’re feeling ambitious—to tackle the age-old question: what is rural, and what exactly is rurality? (Yes, that’s an inside and academic joke—hahaha.)

Oh, and full disclosure: I did use AI to polish my grammar and refine some sentences in this post.