New farmers or those interested in starting an agricultural business won’t want to miss a workshop coming up this weekend. It’s put on by Young Agrarians (YA) with helpful information on business planning. Brittny Anderson is the Columbia Basin coordinator with YA and invites those interested to learn more from Paul Kelly of Community Futures.
“He does run the self employment program at Community Futures and he’s going to use the workshop that they do but really to distill it down and focus it for farmers. So he’ll have templates and things that people will be able to use to sort of advance what they need to do.”
Some of the topics covered include a business model, bringing in share holders, registration of GST, labour laws, and leases and contracts.
The event is on February 2 from 1:00-5:00PM with a celebration of local food afterwards that includes a farmer slide show and pot luck.
“It’s open to anyone that just wants to celebrate local food systems,” Anderson explains. “We will have farmers that are doing a slide show so the idea is it’s going to be 10 slides in 10 minutes and they will be showcasing their farms.”
Both are happening at the Vallican Whole Community Centre. A $10 donation is suggested for the workshop, but Anderson says if that is a barrier, to contact her and something can be worked out. For more information and to register, click here. 
