AFSC Women in Ag Spotlight: Leona Staples, The 2025 Notable Lifetime Achiever

Nov 11, 2025

Leona Staples, the winner of the 2025 AFSC Women in Ag Notable Lifetime Achiever Award, is a legacy-builder who has dedicated her life to shaping the future of agriculture through innovation, mentorship and education.

Her work turns the farm into a living classroom, builds food literacy across generations and demonstrates how women drive innovation, resilience and community in Alberta agriculture. Recently, Staples spoke with AFSC about her role in agriculture and how mentorship and recognition can encourage women to pursue a career in the industry.

“My role and career in agriculture began through the love and influence of my longtime farming family,” explained Staples, whose agriculture journey is deeply rooted in the Jungle Farm – a fifth-generation family farm homesteaded by her great-grandparents in 1897.

Since taking over the family farm in 1996, Staples and her husband, Blaine, have successfully expanded their traditional grain farm into a market garden business where they welcome 30,000 visitors annually and hosts field trips for 5,000 students each year.

Connecting people to their food

Focused on land stewardship, the Jungle Farm gives visitors a hands‑on farm experience leaving them with a clear, tangible connection to where their food comes from. They recently expanded their programming to include a Forest Walk which explores Indigenous history and teachings on an untouched portion of their land.

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Video: Why Invest in Canada’s Seed Future? | On The Brink: Episode 3

Darcy Unger just invested millions to build a brand-new seed plant on his farm in Stonewall, Manitoba so when it’s time for his sons to take over, they have the tools they need to succeed.

Right now, 95% of the genetics they’ll be growing come from Canadian plant breeders.

That number matters.

When fusarium hit Western Canada in the late 90s, it was Canadian breeders who responded, because they understood Canadian conditions. That ability to react quickly to what’s happening on Canadian farms is exactly what’s at risk when breeding programs lose funding.

For farmers like Darcy, who have made generational investments based on the assumption that better genetics will keep coming, the stakes are direct and personal.

We’re on the brink of decisions that will shape our agricultural future for not only our generation, but also the ones to come.

What direction will we choose?

On The Brink is a year-long video series traveling across Canada to meet the researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, and policymakers shaping the future of Canadian plant breeding. Each week, a new story. Each story, a piece of the bigger picture.

Episode 3 is above. Follow Seed World Canada to catch every episode, and tell us: Do you think the next generation will have the tools they need to success when they takeover? How is the future going to look?