A royal visit at a time of reckoning: Will Prince Charles and Camilla connect with Canadians?

May 17, 2022

Kyle Empringham doesn't follow the royals and wasn't initially aware there was a royal visit to Canada coming up this week.

Still, after he found out, the co-founder of The Starfish Canada, a group that supports young people in their environmental careers, saw potential for some "optimistic skepticism" about what might flow environmentally from the visit by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, that kicks off Tuesday in St. John's.

Environmental issues are on the agenda during the three-day trip, including when Charles meets with local experts to discuss the impact of climate change in the Northwest Territories, and Indigenous-led efforts to address it.

Empringham, who co-founded Starfish as a 20-year-old in 2010, said he was glad to hear that Charles is visiting the North, and that he would be engaging with Indigenous communities.

"Then next thing I'd want to hear is … the actionable pieces; that it's not just a visit for a photo," Empringham said in an interview.

What Prince Charles and Camilla say and do over the next three days will be under scrutiny as the couple make their first visit to Canada in five years, carrying out the first official visit by a member of the Royal Family to the country since a greater societal reckoning with our past and our institutions has taken hold.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.