10 ‘MY MOMMY IS a Farmer!', exclaims the title of a children's book by Sandi Brock, who, together with her husband, Mark, operates Shepherd Creek Farms near Staffa, Ontario. The storybook — told from a child's perspective — challenges the notion in popular culture that farmers are, almost exclusively, men. In fact, if you google 'images of Canadian farmers', you'll get several pages of results of photos of mostly men standing out in their grain fields or in front of big tractors. CANADIAN WOMEN FARM TOO! Despite what a Google search might imply, women are actively involved in farm businesses, and their numbers are growing. According to the 2021 Census of Agriculture, women now account for 30.4 per cent of farm operators, increasing from 28.7 per cent in 2016 — which means almost one in three Canadian farmers is a woman. In the grains and oilseed industry, 25.6 per cent of operators are women. And Ontario leads the charge — one in four Canadian women running a farm business is Leadership matters MENTORSHIP AND OPPORTUNITY KEY TO WOMEN’S SUCCESS Ontario Grain Farmer Member Relations located in the province, with 20,895 women taking the lead. The census also reports that women are high adopters of technology, leading to increased efficiencies and environmental sustainability. Women reported increased adaption of technology like geographic information systems (GIS) mapping — a 72.3 per cent increase from 2016. And the number of women reporting adoption of automated steering guidance systems (autosteer) increased by 45 per cent. And farms led by women are successful: the largest net increase in women farm operators from 2016 to 2021 were from farms with revenues over $2 million — from 1,385 in 2016 to 2,580 in 2021. That's an increase of 85 per cent. INDUSTRY REPRESENTATION While women's participation in primary agriculture production is significant — and increasing — that does not always translate to the board table in agricultural organizations. According to a 2015 study by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), only eight of the 65 agricultural organizations surveyed had a woman as chair; and only 28 per cent had a least one woman on their board. Since 2015, there has been a notable change, with women taking on more leadership roles across the sector; for the first time, both the federal and provincial ministers of agriculture — Marie-Claude Bibeau and Ontario's Lisa Thompson — are women, and women are taking the lead of provincial and national organizations like Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Peggy Brekveld, Ontario Pork vice-chair Tara Terpstra, and Farm Products Marketing Commission chair Amy Cronin. Former Canadian Federation of Agriculture president, Mary BARB KEITH (RIGHT) WITH SONS LOGAN (LEFT) AND LUCAS AND HUSBAND DON BADOUR.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQzODE4