Jeff Traeger, President and Chief Executive Officer with UFCW Local 832, said the strike vote was a first for the plant and was taken in response to Maple Leaf’s refusal to take the bargaining process seriously so far.

Maple Leaf has been pushing major concessions at the table, and the union members have shown they are united and want a fair deal, he said.

The union and Maple Leaf were back at the bargaining table Monday, Nov. 17. Negotiations are expected to continue right up to the current contract’s expiry on Dec. 31.

UFCW 832’s bargaining committee is made up of seven members from various departments at the plant, and three staff members from the union. The committee first started to collect proposals from the membership in February and brought these proposals to the bargaining table in May.

The Lagomidiere plant in Winnipeg produces and packages pork products, including bacon.

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Simon Plante and Alison Blouin, owners of Polyculture Plante from Sainte-Petronille, just east of Quebec City, and Lorin, Daniel and Barry Doerksen, fourth-generation ranchers and owners of the Gemstone Grassfed Beef retail outlet in Calgary, shared the honours of being named the national outstanding young farmers for 2024.

These two farming operations were among seven regional honourees from across Canada vying for the national title at the competition, hosted this year by the Alberta OYF committee and held in Lethbridge.

“It was certainly an honour for Alison and me to receive the recognition,” Plante says. “We really didn’t know what would be involved, but it exceeded our expectations. We met so many great people at the national event in Lethbridge.

“Our English isn’t perfect, but there were translation services, and everyone was very patient. It is interesting to note each of the honourees from across Canada all farm and produce crops, livestock or products in different ways, but at the same time we have so much in common.”

‘Quebec City’s garden’

Polyculture Plante was started as a fruit and vegetable operation by Simon’s parents Pierre and Huguette in the 1980s. Sainte-Petronille is on Île d’Orléans, a 75-square mile island in the St. Lawrence River, about 15 minutes from downtown Quebec City.

“With good farmland the island is sometimes referred to as Quebec City’s garden,” Plante says.

He joined the farm full time in 2009 while completing a technical degree in business management from Collège François-Xavier Garneau. Alison joined the farm after completing a program in agricultural business management and technology.

 Polyculture Plante’s land base today includes 327 cultivated acres, of which 172 are owned by the Plantes. The farm produces 100 acres of summer strawberries, 32 acres of fall strawberries, three acres of raspberries under tunnel, two acres of blueberries, 30 acres of apples, 32 acres of sweet corn, four acres of field tomatoes, an acre of onions and four acres of squash and pumpkins. The company also operates a maple grove with about 6,000 trees tapped annually to produce maple syrup and other processed products.

Produce is marketed through a number of outlets, including an on-farm store carrying a wide range of fruits and vegetables and other products. They also sell products through the Grande Marche of Quebec, a major farmers market in Quebec City — and, with three to four truckloads delivered daily, they supply products to more than 60 retail and wholesale outlets across Quebec. In recent years they’ve been selling berries into Ontario and northern U.S. states as well.

They have just started an ambitious program of covering the strawberry and raspberry acres with tall tunnels that will allow them to grow more plants per acre, extend the growing season and increase yield in a more controlled growing environment. The tall tunnels are metal-framed hoop-type structures, about 15 feet tall, covered in plastic. Outfitted with irrigation systems, the tunnels provide a similar growing environment as a greenhouse, although crops are not fully enclosed.

“I don’t know anything about ranching or beef production or growing grain or grapes, but it was interesting to talk to others and learn about their farming operations,” Plante says. “It was an awesome experience. You get to meet others who are also passionate about what they do and are willing to share their knowledge with others.”

Plante says he and Blouin made arrangements to stay connected with the other honourees.

A gem in Alberta

With a whole different farming enterprise in southeastern Alberta, the Doerksen brothers also agreed it was an honour to be recognized by the COYF program — and a great opportunity to meet many successful producers.

“It is humbling to meet and get to know so many progressive young farmers,” says Lorin Doerksen. “We were together for four full days and we got to know each other quite well. We had the opportunity to hear each other’s presentations and that stimulated a lot of conversation, which also expanded our knowledge and understanding about a wide range of agricultural enterprises.”

Along with their father and uncle, the Doerksens operate Gemstone Cattle Co. at Gem, about an hour north of Brooks. It’s a diversified farm and ranching operation that today includes a 600-head commercial cow-calf operation, a 300-head purebred beef operation producing both Red Angus and Hereford breeding stock, an on-farm feedyard, and cash cropping geared mostly to forages produced under irrigation for sale as hay and silage.

In 2018 they launched a program to produce grass-finished beef, and in 2022 launched Gemstone Grassfed Beef, a retail meat market that’s part of the new Calgary Farmers Market West.

Doerksen says one of the key messages heard during the four-day COYF program was the importance of farmers sharing their stories with consumers.

“With a meat retail outlet in Calgary, that is certainly something we try to do and we know we can probably do a better job of,” Doerksen says.

“At the Calgary market customers are always asking about where the products come from and how it was raised. More recently there has been a great deal of interest in the nutrient density of foods.”

(“Nutrient density” refers to foods’ content of beneficial micro- and macronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre and healthy fats such as omega-3 fatty acids.)

Consumers ask about the quality and want assurance they can get their nutrients from the food they buy, he says. “We’ve been adopting more regenerative agricultural practices on our farm in a bid to produce high quality meat products with high nutritional value.

“Research has shown that grass finished beef is more nutrient-dense than beef finished on a high grain diet,” he says. “We have people calling from all over looking for grass-finished beef, asking for assurance that it is indeed finished on grass.”

A forage-based diet produces very flavourful beef as well, he adds.

All cattle from the commercial cow-calf operation — steers, heifers and good-quality open heifers that meet specifications — are channelled into the grass finished beef program to be finished on grass, then processed as early as 21 months and up to 30 months of age. The Doerksens also source calves for the grass program from other nearby producers following a similar program with similar beef genetics.

“As farmers we can sometimes get sidetracked in our farming operations, so getting out and being part of the OYF program helps you connect with more of the world,” Doerksen says. “You begin to appreciate the value of being part of, and helping to support, industry organizations and help give the industry a voice to consumers, and to the government at various levels.

“It does take some time to collect the information about your farm a program like COYF is looking for and then prepare presentations,” Doerksen says.

“But it is also a great opportunity to make you think about your farming operation and reflect on your business accomplishments as well as objectives. It has been a very worthwhile experience.”

Along with the national winners, the other regional honourees for 2024 were:

• Geena Luckett, Luckett’s Vineyard, Wolfville, N.S.;
• Matt Bergman and DJ Wassenaar, Haybury Farms, Ont.;
• Marcus and Paige Dueck, Four Oak Farms, Man.;
• Cyle and Erika Stewart, Pine Ranch, Sask.; and
• Tristan and Aubyn Banwell, Spray Creek Ranch, B.C.

Celebrating 44 years, Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers program is an annual competition to recognize farmers who exemplify excellence in their profession and promote the tremendous contribution of agriculture.

Open to participants 18 to 39 years of age who make the majority of their income from agriculture, participants are selected from seven regions across Canada, with two national winners chosen each year. The program partner is Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The program is sponsored nationally by CIBC, John Deere, Bayer, Sollio Agriculture, CN and Meridian Manufacturing, plus media sponsors Glacier FarmMedia and WS and video sponsor Bamboo Shoots, and is supported nationally by BDO.

For more information on the program, visit the COYF website.

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The non-profit organization has opened its Member Needs Help service to all Canadian manufacturers, whether they are EMC members or not, to “foster collaboration and knowledge sharing within the manufacturing community” regarding Canada/U.S. trade relations.

“This edition addresses pressing questions inspired by industry challenges, providing a platform where you, the experts, can share insights and solutions. EMC is also committed to supporting manufacturers in finding answers to these complex issues,” the website said.

Click here for a full list of resources and to sign up for email updates.

EMC will also host a virtual information session with a customs broker on Feb. 6 at 10:30 a.m. CST to answer questions regarding the new tariffs and their impacts.

For more information or to register, click here.

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U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week that Canadian and Mexican goods would be subject to a 25 per cent tariff beginning on Feb. 4. As well, Canadian energy would be subject to a 10 per cent tariff. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Feb. 1 that US$30 billion worth of items coming from the U.S. would also be subject to 25 per cent tariffs starting on Feb. 4, while other goods worth US$125 billion would have a 25 per cent tariff imposed on them as of Feb. 25.

Earlier on Monday, Trump announced the implementation of tariffs on Mexican goods would be delayed by a month after Mexico committed more troops along the U.S./Mexico border.

The American imports to be tariffed starting on Tuesday include live poultry, meat and dairy products, eggs, honey, frozen and fresh fruits and vegetables, coffee and tea, wheat, rice, barley, canola oil, juices and alcoholic beverages, and cigars and cigarettes.

Other items include rubber tires, leather goods, lumber and paper products, clothing and footwear, home furnishings, tools, jewellery, silverware, home appliances, lighting fixtures, motorcycles, unmanned aircraft and firearms.

“These countermeasures are effective immediately and will remain in place until the U.S. eliminates its tariffs against Canada. Canada’s countermeasures do not apply to U.S. goods that are in transit to Canada on the day on which they come into force,” the Department of Finance said in a statement.

To read the full list, click here.

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Glacier FarmMedia—It’s hard to describe the feeling of wandering through the Deer Meadow Farm’s Every Child Matters and Turtle Island corn mazes south of Winnipeg. To be completely candid, it was humbling to walk along the pathways of this monument for people like my grandmother, Annie (Prince) Cook, older sister to decorated War Hero Sgt. Tommy Prince and a residential school survivor.

It was humbling to tread through the paths of this maze, because it felt sacred and meaningful. An offering of validation and reconciliation.

For so many years they were forgotten, and they didn’t matter—or at least that’s what they believed. Some children never made it home and many of the children who survived these schools grew up, lived complex lives rooted in trauma and died never knowing that they or the suffering they endured would ever matter or be recognized.

Walking through the short, drought-ridden rows of corn on a warm Sunday afternoon while listening to the sound of my kids chasing one another through the rustling corn stocks laughing and screaming in excitement felt like a moment of validation for people like my grandmother. In all her life she didn’t get a chance to witness a reckoning or a nation coming to terms with what the Canadian government did to her and the estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit and Metis children who attended residential schools.

In the middle of the “Every Child Matters” corn maze—the heart—there’s a sign that reads: This Maze is to remind us that all our children matter. It is a tribute to every child that was taken from their home and separated from their family, stripped of their culture and identity, victimized by those in authority and treated like second-class citizens in what is supposed to be one of the greatest countries in the world to live in and be a safe place to live in.

In 1914, Duncan Campbell Scott, former Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs confessed: “Insufficient care was exercised at the admission of children to the schools. The well-known predispositions of Indians to tuberculosis resulted in a very large percentage of deaths among the pupils. They were housed in buildings not designed for for school purposes, and the buildings became infected and dangerous to the inmates. It is quite within the mark to say that fifty per cent of the children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education which they had received therein.”

After the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children on the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation last June [June 2021], the nation shuddered and let out a collective gasp. Canada’s barbaric and racist legacy that is the residential school system was glaringly obvious as the remains of children were being discovered.

It was a moment that hit Vince Rattai, owner and operator of Deer Meadow Farms hard.

“I’m a 55-year-old white man, if I’m learning than other people are learning. If I’m thinking about this then I’m sure other people like me are thinking about it too,” He said. “How could this happen? It’s shocking to hear about these discoveries. These kids were taken and many of them never made it home.”

Like so many Canadians, Rattai felt a deep sense of grief and wanted to do something to honour the lost children. He got in touch with [former] Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief, Arlen Dumas, whom he’s spoken to before, and together the men worked to create the “Every Child Matters” and Turtle Island corn mazes. Dumas supplied the designs and shared knowledge with Rattai, who came up with First Nations trivia that is displayed on billboards throughout the maze.

“I learned more from Arlen in an hour than I learned from watching 10 years of news,” he said.

In years past Rattai and his team have designed corn mazes in his fields that reflect important moments and experiences for Manitobans, but this was the first time the cornfields at Deer Meadow Farms were etched for a cause.

“I’m not a cause driven person,” he said. “However, this year I knew we needed to do something on Every Child Matters. I felt pressed to do that. I felt like I’ve never done human rights before and we should.”

Corn holds significant meaning for Indigenous people. Farming and agriculture where a way of life. The plant has historically not only had a practical meaning and use to feed and nourish, it also a spiritual meaning and teaching. The Ojibway word for corn is Mandaamin. Though there are different variations of this this legend, the legend of Mandaamin is that he was a spirit man— the spirit of corn —who sacrificed himself for the Ojibway people.

Mandaamin was a gift from the creator, so that the Ojibway people did not have to depend on the hunt and the waters alone for food.

I didn’t grow up learning about my culture or of any of the teachings of our people. I didn’t practice our traditions, or even know where I came from. My grandmother, Annie, died when I was a baby. I have a handful of old photographs of her as an old woman, cradling me as a baby, but that’s it. Our lives touched briefly before hers ended, and yet I have this profound sense of love and loss for her.

But I am learning now, and I am sharing her name and her story— what I know of it— because it’s important and she mattered.

—Shelley Cook is a member of the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation and lives on Treaty 1 (Winnipeg, Manitoba.) She is Indigenous relations advisor with Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries and a former columnist with the Winnipeg Free Press.

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Glacier FarmMedia—More than a century after its creation, there is no visible sign remaining of the File Hills Farm Colony in southern Saskatchewan. But the painful memories of an experiment that epitomized the culture of assimilation permeating that era’s attitudes towards Canada’s Indigenous peoples still live in the collective memories of residential school survivors. Likewise for some of the racist attitudes and policies that still exist today.

Rather allowing that piece of history to define the story of Indigenous agriculture, a new generation – this time under Indigenous leadership – is working to create a different future for First Nations in the sector.

Thomas Benjoe, president and CEO of FHQ Developments, points to the File Hills Colony as an example of how projects touted at the time as progressive actually held Indigenous agriculture back.

He is leading efforts by First Nations in the File Hills area to carve out a new legacy for Indigenous people in agriculture. FHQ Developments is operated by the 11 First Nations (including Peepeekisis) belonging to the File Hills Qu’Appelle Tribal Council.

Painful legacy

As the the 19th century bled into the 20th, the region’s Indian agent William Morris Graham devised the colony as a way to prevent Indigenous residential school graduates from reverting to traditional lifestyles once they completed their time at these schools.

Specially chosen graduates of residential schools were given an opportunity to farm on prime agriculture land belonging to the Peepeekisis Cree Nation, even though many of them were not members of that nation.

Members of Peepeekisis were displaced to a smaller area, while select graduates were encouraged to live like colonial homesteaders – and afforded many luxuries their peers didn’t have.

The Canadian government held out the colony as an example of how Indigenous populations could be assimilated but disregarded how it was preventing other First Nations from acquiring land, machinery and capital needed for long-term success.

Indigenous farmers were at the mercy of Indian Agents who could limit what was grown, control their access to equipment and what lands they could access.

The File Hills Colony eventually became riddled with controversy due to disputes over what amounted to illegal redistribution of reserve lands and suspicion that the government agents overseeing the operation were making off with some of the profits.

Legal action was filed in the 1950s to have the colony removed.

Earlier this year, the federal government provided $150 million in total compensation to Peepeekisis First Nation, with an option to acquire 18,720 acres of land.

“In creating and implementing the Colony Scheme, Canada breached its fiduciary duty to the Nation by failing to protect the Nation’s interest in the land and not providing any compensation to the Nation,” says a government release. “The historic and ongoing harm that the Colony Scheme caused to the Peepeekisis Nation created community divisions and animosity between families and members. The legacy of the Colony Scheme continues to impact the Nation to this day.”

Now considered to be an example of colonial oppression, the File Hills Colony colony forced a Euro-centric, agrarian way of life upon Indigenous communities.

“All of these things, all of these policies, have significantly worked against Indigenous communities to be able to actively participate and create that long history of what we need in the ag industry,” says Benjoe.

Overcoming the past

He sees overcoming that rocky history and re-engaging in agriculture as an important opportunity for First Nations.

“It’s not just from a producer’s perspective, it’s from a tech, manufacturing, and supply chain, where we’re looking at it in a in a much bigger picture of how we can invest in and how we can participate,” he says. “We need to be a part of that leading edge work that is happening all around us, and if we don’t, we’re going to miss out on huge opportunities to participate and create, and be a part of an industry that is both sustainable and renewable.”

While the potential is real, so are the barriers.

Benjoe says the legacy of the File Hills colony and other government policies have led to “barriers for success” and a drop in enthusiasm for agricultural projects among First Nations.

But access to capital is the biggest hurdle holding them back.

“We just can’t compete in an agriculture industry that requires significant capital investment where we can’t get loans,” he said.

“We just don’t have the access to capital that is required to be able to participate at the level that is needed in the ag industry.”

Without access to money for projects on reserve, FHQ Developments is now looking elsewhere: off reserve lands.

“We’re shifting as an organization towards those types of opportunities. Just because, you know, access to capital on reserve is going to be very, very difficult,” he says.

Another way of continuing to look for ways to establish collateral is by finding low-risk ways of getting in the door, says Benjoe.

“Over time, we’re able to demonstrate our capacity and be able to fully participate in much larger contracts and take on more risk with our customers. And so that’s what we need to see in the ag industry,” he says.

Engagement

Through the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, Benjoe is trying to make it easier for companies – in and outside of agriculture – to engage with First Nations through the creation of an Indigenous engagement charter.

“There’s no excuse for any organization, any business in Saskatchewan, to not do something. There’s resources, there’s tools, there’s training, there’s guidance, that’s all there for you now,” he said.

“You have all the levers to be able to allow us access. And if you don’t know how, or if you’re uncomfortable about going down this path, talk to us.”

Agriculture has a blueprint to look to on how best to engage First Nations. Benjoe points to the oil, gas and mining sectors as industries that have set a pretty good foundation of active participation with Indigenous communities.

In those sectors, First Nation-specific procurement policies, engagement and community investment are much more common than what is found in agriculture.

“What I need to be able to see and be able to advocate for is to work with those major ag companies and say, ‘Well, how can we get you thinking about reconciliation? How do we get the organization developing the right policies and making the right investments in unity?” he says.

“That’s where we see the opportunity, and that is why we are pushing forward within the ag industry.”

Champions needed

As Benjoe continues to seek “champions to step up” on the industry side of agriculture, he also expects more action from government.

“The role that government needs to play is around the policy and around the investment, we need them to make capital available, or set up loan loss provisions for us,” he says.

While government programming specific to First Nations and agriculture has increased in recent years, there is still little offered.

What is, such as the five-year, $8.5 million Indigenous Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative launched by the federal government in 2018, is oversubscribed. The program was designed to “support Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs who are ready to launch agriculture and food systems projects and others who want to build their capacity to participate in the Canadian agriculture and agri-food sector.”

Funding per project was capped at $500,000 per year, and in 2021 – three years into the five-year mandate – applications were suspended because the demand was too high.

“Indigenous communities want to participate, it’s just, you’re not putting enough effort and enough dollars towards it, that we can participate at a larger level,” Benjoe says.

“When I think about things that I want to participate in, in the ag tech or manufacturing or supply chain sector, there is a significant amount of capital that we’re going to have to invest.”

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Glacier FarmMedia—The setting is a farmyard in central Saskatchewan, in a summer of record heat and drought. Judging from the line of vehicles parked along the road, it might have looked like a small auction. At lunch-time, on a day when the temperature would rise into the mid-30s, farmers and ranchers wearing the protection of long-sleeved shirts traded worries about a meagre cut of hay, dry as dust, and the hard decisions that will follow soon enough: whether to sell cattle or somehow find feed enough to keep them over winter. Farm talk.

Earlier in the morning, though, they had listened, seated on blankets on mowed grass, accepting the authority of the Cree elder who talked protocol while his assistant prepared the pipe to pass around an imperfect circle. This was a day of honest commitment. That was what the pipe is for, the elder said, on this farm where Treaty Four and Treaty Six territory meet.

After lining up for bannock, women and men, Indigenous and settler, spoke in their turn in two large circles. They spoke of many things, but mostly of treaty, land, and sharing, of hunting for food, of plants for medicine and ceremony. The province’s Treaty Commissioner, Mary Culbertson, drew a direct line between the 2016 shooting death of the young Cree man, Colten Boushie, on another Saskatchewan farm and this gathering. An Indigenous man who raised four children on wild game said it had become more dangerous and difficult to do so. A rancher recalled teepee rings and stories of a wintering camp that trouble the lie that the land was a blank slate given to his ancestors. He knew otherwise.

Those who came from every direction returned home with signs to post on their fencelines, big enough to read from the road: Treaty Land Sharing Network. Indigenous Land Users Welcome. Some of them wondered aloud how their neighbours would react not just to the signs, going public in this way, making their practices visible, but to those made welcome by them. Later, one said, he was ready with an answer: “There is no danger in sharing land; that’s what treaty people do.”

This description, I know, will draw at least three reactions. The first is deep, immediate anxiety – the kind that farm people get whenever land, treaties, and Indigenous peoples appear in the same sentence. This is easily the toughest rural subject to raise in a room, or in a column. The second is scepticism – the kind that comes to Indigenous peoples from their own long experience of colonialism. They will wait to see that the Network actually makes a difference in a province where anti-trespass laws and sale of Crown land increasingly restrict access.

The third is disbelief – the kind that comes condescendingly from good progressive people in Canada’s large cities, who know that rural prairie places are hotbeds of racism and that rare exceptions only serve to prove the rule. They support the cause of reconciliation, no question, but too often that simply means having the right opinion at a safe distance.

 Audio: Listen to this excerpt from Roger Epp’s conversation with Western Producer reporter Ed White in 2021.

On September 30, Canadians will mark a new National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We will do so in the aftermath of the fresh discoveries this spring of unmarked graves on the sites of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, and others sure to follow. People who hadn’t paid much attention to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, its Final Report, and its Calls to Action, issued in 2015, were sincerely troubled by what they learned.

The TRC was never only about a residential school system that, for several generations, took children from families and communities for purposes that it summarized as cultural genocide. It was not about closing a “sad chapter” in our history. It was not about compensation – a separate process altogether. Under skillful leadership, it became a national forum that invited Canadians into the hard work of rethinking their own country, past and present, and taking meaningful steps towards what it called “a new way of living together.”

To that end, I continue to hold two positions. The first is that the work of finding that new way is too important to be left to a national government in Ottawa. It must be local and relational. The second is that it is dangerous and wrong to assume that rural prairie communities are locked into relationships of antagonism, fear, and indifference. If anything, rural places where settler and Indigenous people live in proximity ought to generate a much more productive, practical conversation about next steps than the national one. In some cases, they already have. In choosing to live as neighbours, they enact the spirit of sharing and mutual aid that is the spirit of the treaties.

Which is why the launch of the Treaty Land Sharing Network was such an important, hopeful event, even if it starts with a small group. For those of us who were on that Saskatchewan farm on that hot summer day, who shared in ceremony, it was about people who share the countryside, together setting a different course than the one scripted for them.

—Roger Epp is a political science professor with the University of Alberta who has researched and written extensively about the rural West and settler-Indigenous relations.

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“I felt like this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, to start something from scratch. It was very attractive to do that,” says Rob O’Connor, the show’s director since 2014.

O’Connor previously worked with the Regina Exhibition Association and acted as manager for what’s now called Canada’s Farm Show. He was working at the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba in Brandon, when he received the call to work with Ag in Motion.

“I chose to come to Glacier FarmMedia. It was easy for me to make that switch, even though I did really enjoy what I was doing in Brandon,” he says.

Prior to starting Ag in Motion, Glacier FarmMedia bought Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show at Woodstock, Ont. in 2011. Glacier ran that show with the intent of learning how a large outdoor trade show ran, so it could decide if they could create one in Western Canada.

The initial team to set up Ag in Motion included O’Connor, people from Canada’s Outdoor Farm show in Woodstock, and people in Winnipeg and in Alberta.

“We kind of looked at whether the show was viable, and we felt it was,” he says.

The team scouted locations all over the Prairies, before deciding to set the show near Saskatoon. They decided the show would run the third Tuesday to Thursday during July.

The first show involved a bit of scrambling. After a few glitches to find land and good partners, the team bought a piece of land around Langham, Sask., close to both Saskatoon and a major highway. The trade show area itself is about 100 acres, while parking is around 60 acres. Seventy acres are devoted to demonstration space, and there is also a large space for crop plots.

With the help of staff from Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show, the Ag in Motion team prepared a big launch in January to announce the new show.

Early supporters of Ag in Motion included the Saskatchewan government, the University of Saskatchewan and 40 companies who committed before the show even launched. From January to June, Ag in Motion was able to attract about 120 more companies to participate in the show.

“The last six weeks before the show, we had a pretty good blitz and we ended up attracting about 50 more companies. In the end, we had about 200 companies at our very first show,” O’Connor says.

The show was marketed through Glacier FarmMedia publications, such as the Western Producer, Grainews and Canadian Cattlemen, and through a promotional radio program.

There was a lot to do at the site, O’Connor says, because it hadn’t been an active farm. The team planted 100 acres of grass, and built a bunch of grid roads, so the show site would feel like a site for an annual event.

“We wanted to show people we’re putting our roots in this property and investing in it,” he says.

The first show attracted 11,000 people, mostly from the Prairie provinces, as well as a few people from the U.S., British Columbia and Ontario. From that initial year, the show has grown, with 31,000 people attending in 2023. Last year, show attendees filled up hotels in Saskatoon and Warman. People also stayed in hotels in the Battlefords, a 45-minute drive from Saskatoon.

“To have that kind of impact on tourism for that part of the province is important to us,” O’Connor says.

‘Opportunity’

One of the reasons the show has been so successful is because it is framed as an agricultural production trade show, he says.

“It’s really business-to-business. It’s not a business-to-consumer show, because we recognize farms as a business. And I think that’s unique.”

There has been major growth in the demonstrations program since the initial show.

“That first year, we gave people a taste of what we were going to do. We tried to get some companies to do some demonstrations. One thing that’s been a big benefit to the show is, not only do we have those demonstrations where three to five companies can demonstrate something like air seeders or tillage equipment, but we also give companies the opportunity to have space at the show so they can demonstrate their own product,” he says.

In some years, about 20 companies demonstrate their own equipment, which could be anything from a rock picker to a truck.

To represent agriculture in Western Canada, the Ag in Motion show also includes livestock equipment. About 25 per cent of the exhibitor base are livestock and forage-based businesses, which has resulted in more livestock equipment demonstrations, and sessions of interest to ranchers.

Show topics change every year.

“It has a lot to do with what the industry is doing now and what we think the industry is going to do in the future. One thing that has grown in the last couple of years is our ag tech programming. That’s grown out of our original innovations program,” he said.

The ag tech programming allows companies to show new products to farmers.

“Those innovators, those ag tech companies and associations, they can test their ideas with the farmer base to find out if they’re going down the right path, and if they’re actually going to be a solution to some of the problems producers have in agriculture,” O’Connor says.

The show has faced challenges, such as how to operate during the lockdown and distancing period of COVID-19.

“We as a company had to decide what we wanted to do,” O’Connor says. “We are a show that spans more than just Saskatchewan and Saskatoon. We needed to recognize that the pandemic, being that it was across the country, would have brought a lot of people together from outside of just one local area. We couldn’t do the show, even though during both summers in Saskatchewan, technically, you could do an outdoor event. We didn’t want to become one of those super spreader events.”

The show went into the digital space for two years. In 2020, a five-day digital Ag in Motion was built. The digital show included seminars and product launches. There were over 200 exhibitors, and about 9,000 attendees. There were breakout rooms, and opportunities for people to converse with each other. Because people were starting to experience digital fatigue by 2021, Ag in Motion decided to do six half-day events throughout the season, which ended up being about one event a month. That season attracted about 1,200 attendees.

When the show returned to an in-person event, it continued to flourish as it had done before the pandemic. There are continuous plans to improve the show.

“What we’re doing is we’re trying to theme more areas of the show to help with people’s experiences at the show,” O’Connor says. “For instance, most of the livestock programming and livestock exhibitors are in one area of the show. The irrigation part of agriculture is basically in one area of the show. The companies that have drone technology and that kind of data collection, they’re in one area of the show. All the ag tech is in one area, and international is all in one area.

“As the show continues to grow, you’ll see more and more areas being themed, so farmers have a better experience. They don’t have to travel the entire show if they’re trying to compare products or want to listen to similar presentations.”

This year, about 30 companies put in crop plots. These plots are demonstration plots to show what genetics or crop inputs can really do for a farmer. Another part of the site, called the Discovery Farm, is for larger research demonstration projects.

As the show grows, events are moving into Saskatoon. The Field of Stars event, which premiered in 2023, was set up at Prairieland Park and will be held there again this year.

The innovations program is a recent addition. The Innovations in Ag reception has been held in Saskatoon on the Monday night prior to the show for the last several years.

This year, innovations will be showcased through an awards program held at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, in partnership with Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada.

Also this year, the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership will put on an international reception at the Remai Modern Art Gallery.

“We’re starting to see the impact of the show move into the city in the evenings,” O’Connor says.

This year’s show will also feature a new Indigenous program, which was created with the leadership and support of Farm Credit Canada.

The goal for the future is to attract more interest from more international companies, O’Connor says. “We have a really strong international business program committee that is going to help provide advice to us as show management to help us get to that next step for that market.”

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The Netherlands is known for its greenhouses and its seed production. A tour on the third day of the World Seed Congress concentrated on both of those leadership positions for the country.

At the Syngenta Tomato Vision seed research facility near Amsterdam, the company screens around 800 potential varieties of tomatoes each year, of which two or three will end up as options for growers.

WATCH: Tackling the labour crunch with robotics

The company is helping to test a robotic tomato picker made by Pittsburg startup Four Growers. In a row of the research tomatoes, there could be 40 different varieties. Geoffrey Hipps, a technical sales representative for Syngenta, said they are finding that there are differences in the ability of the automated system to harvest some varieties of tomatoes.

Syngenta is known for its specialty tomato varieties, namely the small, sweet, snacking tomatoes growing in popularity. The labour to harvest small tomatoes individually is greater than for large tomatoes so the automated system is finding a place there.

The first commercial system for Four Growers has been installed in a greenhouse in Canada.

The biosecurity is incredibly high at the facility, which meant visitors could not take any cameras into the facility. No video of the vacuum-based robot could be taken.

Tomato brown rugose fruit virus is the largest disease concern for tomatoes and is taking up a significant amount of Syngenta breeders’ time as they work to breed resistance.

Cut lettuce a seed development priority

At the Rijk Zwaan seed research greenhouse, south of Rotterdam, the company has 500 varieties of lettuce for sale, and it continues to screen for new varieties all the time.

There is more lettuce being grown in greenhouses, especially in Europe. Spain, which supplies European supermarkets with lettuce in the winter, struggles with a changing climate, said Bauke van Lenteren, a marketing specialist with Rijk Zwaan.

Greenhouse vegetable production is mostly moving to hydroponic production and that’s what is tested at Rijk Zwaan’s large research facility.

The company is also responding to the increased demand for cut lettuce which consumers can pick up in stores and throw directly into a salad. The company has developed a conventional trait that helps lettuce grow more uniform leaves, which the lettuce processors like as it makes the final cut product more uniform.

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There are now enough of the major crop-producing regions in the world with a pathway to market for gene-edited crops to start to drive new products.

This is expected to create a race to market for products, which will not have to go through the arduous, costly and time-consuming pathway for genetically modified crops.

The critical difference is that gene-edited crops involve turning on and off genes within the genome of the crop, without introducing genes from other species, as has been the case for genetically modified crops.

Canada is now green on global maps shown at the World Seed Congress in Rotterdam. There’s regulatory certainty for gene-edited crops after regulations were announced in April. That means Canada can play a part the rapid growth of innovation around the world.

It’s been a lot of work for Canadian seed and crop groups to continue to push the need for clear gene-editing regulations.

Krista Thomas, vice president of trade policy and seed innovation with the Canadian Grains Council said the outcome of the Canadian process yielded a good result.

“I think Canada’s regulatory approach for gene editing is the best in the world because it’s pragmatic and it’s science-based and it maintains a product-based approach,” she said at the World Seed Congress where she was a panellist in a session on the state of gene editing regulations around the world.

Watch: John Greig reports from day two of the World Seed Congress

There are already signs that a lot of the innovations will come early on from new companies, such as Pairwise in the United States. Pairwise is a six-year-old North Carolina company that now employs 120 people and is working to submit early products into the newly created regulations in countries around the world.

Pairwise was the first to have a gene-edited produce crop go to market in the United States, with its mustard greens in 2023. The company aims to make fruits and vegetables more attractive to people, such as working to create a pit-free cherry. Pairwise is also working on higher-yielding corn, with an about 10 per cent increase, after only two years of development, said Dan Jenkins, vice president of Regulatory and Government Affairs for Pairwise.

Other parts of the world are also growing their ability in gene editing. In Africa, there’s a concerted effort to develop the lab and human capacity to work on gene editing, with eight countries in the African Union with regulations that allow gene editing.

Europe targets microplastics in seed coatings

New European regulations are pushing seed companies to find ways of coating seeds without using materials that end up as microplastics in the environment.

Microplastics occur when plastics break down and are persistent in the environment, meaning that the polymers aren’t soluble in water and don’t degrade. There’s increasing concern about the volume of microplastics being found in the environment around the world.

Polymers are used to help ensure the crop protection product flows precisely onto the seed and then sticks to the seed. They also help reduce dust from the products as the seeds run through a planter, said Rob Pronk, global marketing manager with Incotec, which provides seed treatment products to seed companies.

The agriculture sector is a small contributor to microplastics, but “we feel responsibility to do something about this,” says Bert Compaan, research manager of seed pathology at Bejo Zaden, a Dutch seed company. He is on an International Seed Federation committee that created a position paper on microplastics in seed treatments that calls for the elimination of the practice.

Campaan was part of a panel at the ISF’s World Seed Congress recently in the Netherlands.

The European Union’s legislation on microplastics was passed in October 2023 and gives companies five years to find replacements for products without active ingredients and eight years for the polymers in crop protection products.

New agreement targets illegal seed use

The global seed sector getting serious about the use of illegal seed.

A memorandum of understanding was signed at the World Seed Congress involving 13 organizations from around the world focused on stopping the illegal use of seed.

The group includes the Seed Association of the Americas, where Canada is a member.

While there is some concern about farmers saving privately developed seeds in Canada, the challenges in Canada pale compared to other parts of the world. Canada is unique in that much of the wheat seed grown in Western Canada is from public breeding programs.

There’s more concern with non-farmers who are collecting and reselling seed for their profit.

Antonio Villaroel, managing director of Gestión de Licencias Vegetales (GESLIVE), an organization in Spain, said that of 750 cases his group has taken to court over the past 30 years, only about 12 were farmers.

Of greater concern are other industry sellers of illegal seed including some cooperatives, grain traders and seed dealers.

In Brazil, Diego Risso, executive director of the Seed Association of the Americas, says about 40 per cent of soybeans planted could be illegally grown.

The announcement was made at the International Seed Federation’s World Seed Congress where deal-making on seed is common, with a large room with 300 tables kept busy over three days.

Marco van Leeuwen, outgoing president of the ISF, says that the organization also has work to do to clean up what happens around the congress, and companies and individuals who are found to support the sales of illegal seed won’t be allowed at the congress.

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