Bibeau Highlights Women Ag Entrepreneurs

Sep 22, 2020

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau held a Virtual Roundtable recently with Women Ag Entrepreneurs from across Canada.

She says it was a great discussion that brought up a number of opportunities and challenges that exist for them:

"For example, the suggestion that childcare should be an expense, recognized as planning expense in some of our federal programs.

So that, when they hire temporary foreign workers for example, they could also include in their crew people who would be in charge of

taking care of the kids."

Bibeau notes there are over 75,000 female farm operators representing over 28 per cent of all farm operators in

Canada.

It was just over a year ago that Bibeau announced Farm Credit Canada's Women Entrepreneur Program.

She says the original three-year plan was to invest 500 million in Women's Agriculture and Agri-Food Businesses.

"We have already invested more than a $1 billion dollars to 1400 women owned businesses."

She notes women remain underrepresented in the sector and continue to face significant barriers which is why the

Government is taking steps to promote and empower women entrepreneurs in the agriculture sector.

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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.