Mother in the middle

Mother in the middle

Farm Family Coach: This Mother’s Day, work to communicate with each other, not through Mom as an intermediary

When two family members are unable to have effective communication, they often turn to someone else to hear them out. Many times, alas, this is Mom.

Adapt to change with the power of grief

Adapt to change with the power of grief

Farm Family Coach: Major changes — even the ones we know are for the better — will come with a surge of negative emotions

When a person goes through a major change in life, they experience a downward trend of negative emotions — often expressed as anger or sadness — before they can fully accept that change.


Like machinery, farming family teams require alignment and organization.

Focus on your family strengths to move forward

Seeds of Encouragement: The Appreciative Inquiry exercise can shed new light on the potential of your people

Elaine writes: What if you could break free from being stuck, by emphasizing the positive aspects of your farm family business? One of my core strengths, according to the Clifton StrengthsFinder quiz, is positivity. As a coach I often see the positive choices ahead and I hope this article by my coaching teammate Crisol Gonzalez […] Read more

For each long harvest day ahead, your language and behaviour set the tone.

How to clean up your conflict filter

Seeds of Encouragement: Shift out of an avoidance mindset and face conflicts for what they are

When the dust of harvest rolls and clogs up the efficiency of your combine filters, you don’t keep going — you stop and clean or replace the filter. If you spread your fingers open across your face, you are creating body language for the conflict filter clogging up the communication for your farm team. It’s […] Read more


The emotional cost of being a “nasty Nancy or cruel Charlie” is immeasurable if you lose the relationship of your son or daughter and their children.

Froese: The emotional and financial cost of nastiness

The cost is immeasurable so challenge the nastiness rather than just accepting it

First of all, my apologies to any readers named “Nancy.” This is not really about you. I have coined the phrase “nasty Nancy” to describe anger-filled farm coaching clients. These are the folks who are extremely negative; they threaten to leave the room and the conversation often. They are really closed off to any awareness […] Read more

Workers prepare foodstuffs at a food distribution centre supported by the World Food Program at Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, on June 3, 2020. File photo: Reuters/Khaled Abdullah

U.N. counts cost of ‘man-made’ famines

US$400 for a plate of rice and beans?

New York | Reuters — Nearly 30 years ago a malnourished two-year-old girl died in front of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a refugee camp in northern Uganda. Two days ago U.N. food chief David Beasley met a starving five-month-old girl at a hospital in Yemen — she died on Thursday. […] Read more



The United Nations’ General Assembly Hall in Manhattan. (BWZenith/iStock/Getty Images)

World Food Program seeking billions within six months to avert famine

Pandemic may double hunger worldwide, agency says

London | Reuters — The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) will need to raise US$6.8 billion over the next six months to avert famine amid the COVID-19 crisis, the agency said on Tuesday. The WFP, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week for its efforts to prevent the use of hunger as […] Read more



Dump your grain, not your pain

Dump your grain, not your pain

Stop dumping anger and 
start creating a healthy legacy

The email subject line read “UNBELIEVABLE” in all caps, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy farm transition story. Fourteen bullet points ensued with anger, poor decision-making, people not taking responsibility for their inaction. After ingesting a dump load of angst my reply simply was, “And what do you want me to […] Read more