Reading Time: 5 minutes Try it yourself. Check it out with women in agriculture who speak about gender issues in the industry. Find them informally via social media or look for them through an ag women’s organization, of which there are several across Canada today. Then ask them what kind of response they get when they talk about gender […] Read more
A question for women in 2022
Gender issue? What gender issues? Hasn’t the battle already been fought and won?
A Canadian woman’s experience in ag
On the farm and in her boardrooms, here’s Amy Vanderheide’s story
Reading Time: 3 minutes Amy VanderHeide had great role models growing up. She was raised on a beef farm that was run entirely by women after her grandfather passed away in 1986. With her grandmother and aunts continuing to operate the farm throughout her childhood, she wasn’t aware of the barriers that existed for women in agriculture. “I didn’t […] Read more
Different goals for women in ag
It turns out diversity, equity and inclusion in agriculture are things we can do something about, as this case study proves
Reading Time: 8 minutes Statistics show that women in agriculture face barriers and are under-represented in the industry. But if you are female AND you weren’t born in Canada AND you didn’t grow up on a farm, imagine how high the barriers are then. But that may be beginning to change. Entrepreneur Laura Lazo, who also serves as chair […] Read more
A marathon of running, and farming
To run a 26-mile marathon, Louis Baillargeon learned you have to start by taking charge of yourself, just as in farming
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s so like farming. When you’re at the starting line of a major marathon, everyone around you is there to run too. They’re all focused on the same thing that you’re focused on, just like when you’re a farmer, most of the people you know are also farmers, dealing with exactly what you’re also dealing […] Read more
Managing millennials
Six tips to help this generation thrive, and boost your farm productivity too
Reading Time: 5 minutes You’ve heard all of the bad things about the millennial workforce. These “kids” want trophies just for showing up for work. The entire generation thinks it’s somehow entitled. And if they do show up, they have zero work ethic. The science agrees, to a point. Data do show that millennials (the generation born between 1980 […] Read more
The Dream Gap
Bright Ideas: Many farms feel they treat their boys and girls equitably. Sadly, our columnist finds, the evidence doesn’t agree
Reading Time: 6 minutes By five years of age, girls have already begun to develop self-limiting beliefs. They stop believing that they can be or do anything. And they may never get that belief back. It’s a phenomenon that was identified in a 2017 report from Plan International, and it has also became well known as the Dream Gap, […] Read more
Skill share
Farmers like Cheryl and Marc Norleen are giving time where it’s needed
Reading Time: 9 minutes Farmers raising livestock and growing crops in developing countries often lack access to modern equipment and the capital needed to make improvements on their farms. They face other hurdles too. Without computers or the internet, it’s impossible to watch YouTube videos for step-by-step instructions to repair equipment or to learn new farming techniques, and there […] Read more
Finding hope in Indigenous food
Food sovereignty is emerging as a core value in today’s reconciliation efforts
Reading Time: 5 minutes Almost half of Indigenous households living on reserve and a quarter of those living off reserve struggle with food insecurity, compared with about eight per cent for all households across Canada. The discovery earlier this year of the graves of 215 children buried at a former Indian residential school (and the thousands more that followed) […] Read more
The class of COVID
These three new graduates are as passionate as ever, and even more resilient
Reading Time: 3 minutes In Canada’s colleges and universities, the last two years have seen unprecedented challenges coupled with myriad struggles to convert to virtual teaching. Few programs have been more impacted than agriculture, which relies on such an intense combination of classroom, lab, and field and barn training. But was there a silver lining from “COVID-19?” According to […] Read more
Professional farming
You see it at post-secondary schools all across the country. Agriculture has a new swagger
Reading Time: 6 minutes When parents ask Rickey Yada if their sons and daughters will find jobs after college or university graduation, his answer is always yes — as long as they’re studying agriculture. As dean of the faculty of land and food systems at the University of British Columbia, Yada is constantly amazed at how quickly undergraduate and […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
