Reading Time: 2 minutes In my job, it can sometimes feel like every other story arrives on my desk with a “this is the biggest threat to agriculture ever,” or “this is biggest technology ever” kind of breathlessness. It’s easy to see how it happens. After all, any major change to the farm sector quickly rings up billions of […] Read more
Editor’s Note: A challenge we need to take on
Farmers believe in themselves. Looking at their progress in technology and management, they’ve got every reason to. It’s a great platform for tackling women’s and diversity issues
Editor’s Note: Those predictions for mid-size farms
The question is no longer, can the mid-size farm survive? Instead, on the brink of the 2020s, it might be better to ask, does any other farm size have such a chance?
Reading Time: 2 minutes You’ll find remarkably few statistics in associate editor Lorraine Stevenson’s article on Canada’s mid-size farms in our January 2020 issue of Country Guide. Nor will you find that we’ve sought out every expert or every farmer with an opinion on the future of the mid-size farm. We wanted to keep the story as clear as […] Read more
Comment: Answering the ‘Call for Action” – Holding space for each other
Reading Time: 3 minutes Thank you Angela Straathof for your great comments about the perception of agriculture only having room for women who fight. In this coming meeting season, I challenge us all to invite new people to the table, ask the quiet ones for feedback, support someone who is a ‘helper’, redirect the ‘fighters’ to use their passion […] Read more
Comment: Why does agriculture only have room for women who fight?
Reading Time: 3 minutes A recent article ‘Why aren’t farm women fighting harder?,‘ for the December 2019 issue of Country Guide has garnered a significant amount of attention online and on social media. Upon reading our article, Angela Straathof wrote the response below as a “call to action” for the agricultural industry. – Country Guide staff “Be bold. Speak […] Read more
Editor’s Note: How will farms grow in the 2020s?
On the lip of the 2020s, it’s a question that deserves more than casual thought. And it needs more than one perspective, for there will be more kinds of success than ever in history
Reading Time: 2 minutes April Stewart writes in our December 2019 issue of Country Guide to tell us the proof is in. The more technological and digital a farm gets, the more important its leadership and its soft skills become. To a degree, it’s no surprise. Technology does many things, and the technology of the 2020s will do more of […] Read more
Defining the culture for a successful female in agriculture (Part 2)
“By knowing my own value, I hold my own space.” These wise words from one interviewee can be a mantra for Canada’s farm women
Reading Time: 4 minutes In the last two columns, I have reported on my research into the lives of successful women professionals in farming and agricultural business. Their honest and engaging stories are varied, and they outline how we can create a culture of inclusion. An inclusive culture starts with parenting that offers boys and girls the same opportunities, […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Finding the next great idea
So often in any business sector, the key is to make a solid decision where to invest your willpower and your self. Decide which way to go, we feel, and we’ll get there for sure
Reading Time: 2 minutes It’s a great idea for a winter day. Make a list of at least five and as many as 10 farms that you know reasonably well and that you think have charted a good course, and ask yourself (a) what are the core ideas that they had, and (b), where did those ideas come from. […] Read more
Editor’s Note: Before we get to 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes We’re talking in our shop about 2020 and, of course, about 2030 too. Probably you’re talking about it in your shop as well. On the brink of any new decade, it’s unavoidable. But this time, the future looks different by a country mile. The reason why it looks different is amazing in its own right. […] Read more
Defining the culture for a successful female in agriculture
How women overcome challenges they've faced in business
Reading Time: 3 minutes In my first Trailblazer column last spring, I reported on my interviews with trailblazing women across Canada. I focused on creating a culture in agriculture that is inclusive of women, and I looked at the life of the girl and how gender has an impact on the road to starting a new business. In this […] Read more
Preparing the future of Canadian agriculture
Canada’s share of global agriculture tech investment was just 3.4 per cent last year
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s economic prospects have long been underpinned by trade. No industry better illustrates this than agriculture, where more than 90 percent of our producers depend on selling their goods to the world. In recent years, exports in agriculture and agri-food have grown dramatically, generating millions more in annual sales for producers and billions more to […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
