KEMPTVILLE — Carl Keast grew up in downtown Toronto. Home is the little Italy district. So, what’s he doing working on an agricultural diploma at the Kemptville campus of the University of Guelph?

He worked for a number of summers for an organic vegetable grower near Orangeville and got a taste of a lifestyle he likes. "It was an incredible experience," said Keast, 18. "Great food, fresh food, exercise and being outside. I was getting pretty tired of the city. At my school nobody was into (farming). They thought I was crazy."

Keast is one of five non-farmers who is studying agriculture at Kemptville campus. With no family farm to return to the most common goal among these students is vegetable growing and sheep farming.

"Agriculture is a business and there’s a huge potential for jobs in the ag-food industry" and a huge market for exotic products in Toronto, Keast said. He added that at first he and others faced some resistance from students because they didn’t have a farm background. They proved themselves when the marks came back for tests and reports.

"I’d like to be a full-time farmer so I need resources," said Christopher Hunt, 20, from Amherstburg, near Windsor. He plans to complete a degree in science and work and save until he can start up a partnership to buy land and raise sheep and grow vegetables

He said the recurring joke that non-farmer students hear is "You guys better make sure you marry into quota before you leave this school."

Hunt first completed a horticulture diploma program. He said his father and brother are electricians who have worked for greenhouse operations and told him there was money in it. "My dad says do what you like. My mom says you gotta make money."

He knows that agriculture requires heavy capital expenses and repeats a well-known campus dictum: "If you want to make $1 million in farming, start with $2 million."

He’s the only second year student and says the most important lesson he’s learned so far is that "the end product price is the hardest thing to control."

James Belair, 19, is from King City, a commuter community just north of Toronto and always loved the idea of cash cropping He has worked at an apple farm for seven summers and said "I just can’t see myself sitting in an office all day. When I got on a tractor it just felt right."

He knew the capital costs of farming before he cracked the books because he has farmer friends, who told him "it was insane. This was not something I should be doing. But I always thought farming was a neat idea."

Frank Cursio, 18, grew up with pigeons, sheep, rabbits and pigs on 3.5 acres at the edge of the city of Guelph. He wants to start his own sheep farm although his first experience went sour. "I had two sheep for only a weekend," he said. "Coyotes ate them. It was pretty crappy. We’ve learned at school that sheep is a good market to get into because of the ethnic demand. And sheep are easier to care for than cows."

Ashley Good, a 21-year-old from Ottawa, is following her father’s footsteps, well-known agricultural lawyer Don Good. He graduated from Kemptville College 45 years ago, she said. "That’s my connection to farming," she said, adding that she’s here for the experience. She is the only one of the five who doesn’t plan on farming. She wants to eventually study marine biology, noting that she was hooked on the Discovery Channel at age four. Her father grew up on a dairy farm, so Ashley grew up hearing the stories. "My bedtime stories were about accidents on the farm and crazy stuff like that."